Around the world, we have all experienced disruptions during the coronavirus pandemic. Huguenot Fellowship Trustee Ruth Ann Leduc talks with Dr. Yannick Imbert, William Edgar Chair of Apologetics Professor and Dean of Faculté Jean Calvin, about the impact of the pandemic on the seminary, and how the faculty and staff have navigated these challenges.
Click here to view this 10-minute inverview.
Approach The Tragic Without Fear
Pierre Berthoud
On the occasion of the crisis caused by Covid-19, André Comte-Sponville shared with his listeners and readers some interesting thoughts on the panic, no doubt legitimate, caused by the pandemic. This anxiety has been largely exploited by health and political authorities (with a few exceptions) and amplified by the media. Beyond the issue of health, the philosopher argues that this fear crystallizes around death. It's as if our contemporaries suddenly discovered that they were mortal! The coronavirus forced them to face a reality that they sought to hide at all costs because they saw death as a failure. To reassure them, here is what Comte-Sponville says: “I have two pieces of news to share with you, one good and one bad: the bad one, we are all going to die; the good, the vast majority of us will die of something other than covid 19! He added, "Finitude, failure and obstacles are part of the human condition. Until we accept death, we will be distraught with every epidemic. To admit the reality of death is therefore to give oneself the means to appreciate life. This is how "we will love life because we will become more aware of its brevity, its fragility, its value. In other words, we have to make the most of human existence because there is nothing after death! Such awareness allows us, he says, to live more intensely while recognizing that health is only a "means to achieve happiness" and not an end in itself. Indeed, health is only a good, and can in no way take the place of "great values" such "justice, love, generosity, courage, freedom ...".
There is wisdom in the words of Comte-Sponville, his insistence on the preciousness of earthly life, on the limits and fragility of the human condition, on the values and ethical principles which give meaning and quality to existence. However, his approach gives the impression that he is indebted to the Judeo-Christian heritage while obscuring his philosophical and biblical roots. He bluntly rejects the existence of a sovereign and personal God to whom we are accountable and with whom we can have an intimate relationship. We are the only actors on the stage of this world and beyond its horizon there is nothing but nothingness. As for his acceptance of limits and obstacles, it is more akin to acknowledgment or resignation.
In contrast, the biblical perspective emphasizes the scandalous nature of death in a broken world. It is the ultimate enemy whose power is sin, understood as the rebellion against our ultimate face-to-face and his wisdom. It is precisely because the Bible distinguishes between the origin of being and of evil that sin, suffering and death are tragic. We can approach this tragedy without fear and with confidence because the Lord has turned the tide of history in Jesus Christ, his life, his death and his resurrection attest it! In it, we pass from death to the life which is embodied at the heart of our existence and which transcends the horizon of our world.
May the Holy Spirit give us wisdom in this restless, tottering, and crying world to be ambassadors of comfort, peace, and hope before which fear and anguish. faint. As "the Lord's steadfast love is better than life" it awakens in us confidence, peace, and praise (Ps 63.3).
Pierre Berthoud
President
Professor Emeritus
Faculté Jean Calvin
(translated)
Get Up, He's Calling You!
Calling: a strong inner impulse toward a particular course of action especially when accompanied by conviction of divine influence; the vocation or profession in which one customarily engages. (Merriam-Webster)
“Calling” is a word laden with significance, both collectively as we are united within the Body of Christ, and individually, as we bear witness to the grace showered on us through God’s redeeming work.
In the Huguenot Fellowship, we are passionate about the work of the Faculté Jean Calvin (FJC) seminary in Aix-en-Provence, France; and the vital role it plays in training and shepherding those individuals who sense God’s calling on their lives in service for Him.
The Protestant Reformed Evangelical Church of France (Union Nationale des Églises Protestantes Réformées Évangéliques de France , UNEPREF), the denomination in which many FJC graduates are currently serving, recently published a booklet called, Leve-toi, Il t’appelle! (Get up, He’s calling you!). Spearheaded by three women connected to the seminary – a former member of the staff and two alumna who are currently serving in churches - the book outlines the nature of calling as taught in the Bible, allowing the reader to witness the work of God in the lives of His children, from Biblical times to the present.
The authors of the 19 testimonies describe not only how they heard God’s call to salvation, but more specifically, how they came to the conviction that He was calling them to set their lives apart in service for Him. This book is a challenge to discern the ongoing story of God’s work, and be encouraged by testimonies of how God is building His Kingdom through the service of His children.
France needs pastors, youth workers, Christian musicians, Christian counselors and more to bring the Hope of the Gospel to the land of John Calvin.
Would you pray with us for the Lord’s work in calling His children to lives of service for Him?
Would you pray for Faculté Jean Calvin and its strategic role in training these future workers for this task.
Lord, raise up laborers for the Harvest. To God alone be the Glory.
Ruth Ann Leduc
Trustee of The Huguenot Fellowship
P.S. If you have further interest in Leve-toi, Il t’appelle! (French only), please email hello@huguenotfellowship.org to receive the publisher’s contact info.
In the Day of Adversity, Consider!
Pierre Berthoud
President of the Board
Professor Emeritus
Faculté Jean Calvin
In the day of adversity, consider!
“In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider/look (heb.). God has made the one as well as the other in such a way that no one can find out what is to happen next.” Ecclesiastes 7:14.
The temptation to underestimate evil
Admittedly, we have all underestimated the frightening efficiency and the extremely rapid spread of the coronavirus within the populations of the world, in particular in the West, in Europe and in France. Our scientific experts as well as our health and political authorities have been to a large degree complacent in taking belated action against the epidemic and by not taking sufficiently into account the experience of some of the Asian democracies where authorities and populations were well prepared and equipped to face such a plague.
However, in a world where evil is a dynamic force, government must recognize its devastating thrust. Without that acknowledgement of the virus-like ability of evil to creep maliciously into the heart of the city, government will never be prepared to confront it. By taking adequate measures to identify and to face up to it, leaders demonstrate that they really take to their heart the protection and the well-being of the people for whom they are responsible.
The work of the Creator is undoubtedly good, but since the emergence of sin in the world at the dawn of history, human beings and the whole of creation as well as civilizations, however accomplished they may become, live under the shadow of death. To ignore this fact is to call down upon us times of disenchantment, even tragic and bitter times! In the passage mentioned above the teacher of wisdom clearly urges us to be happy in the day of prosperity, but he also invites us to carefully consider the days of adversity that disrupts our lives.
Shaken foundations
Undoubtedly, immersed as we are in a society that extols the well-being of the body, material prosperity and peace at all cost, we have been shaken to the very depth of our beings by the extent and the magnitude of the evil that, like a tsunami, has spread so devastatingly and overwhelmed more than half of the world population! The whole of our professional, economic, political, cultural, and sports activities have been placed on standby mode and even come to a halt. In one word, the foundations of our world and life view and of our civilization with its values, certainties and lifestyle are faltering. Our bearings and successes seem suddenly very fragile. What has happened, for instance, during this time of confinement, to our freedom of movement and travel, not to mention our freedom of enterprise? Has man, the measure of all things, the ultimate reference point, after all built the mansion of our civilization on sand?
The point is not to underestimate our achievements, the feats and the conquests of modern times, but to give them their proper place, where they help us to better fulfill our human mandate and our calling to community. For our enterprises, however remarkable or ingenious they may be, bear the marks of our brokenness and can only fail when we seek to build a promethean utopia! Since the Tower of Babel, human history is littered with the corpses of such chimeras.
What stance should we then adopt with regards to this sudden and major crisis that has taken such a magnitude? Ecclesiastes gives us a few leads to enlighten our path.
God reigns
First of all he reminds us that God is sovereign and that nothing escapes his ultimate will. This of course doesn’t mean that we are not responsible for the way in which we manage creation and govern the city, especially when we go through a devastating storm and are threatened by a severe upheaval, but that the Lord presides over the destiny of our world and of our lives. We do not surrender to fate nor yield to the whims of chance, for God reigns and that makes all the difference! Even when we are under the impression that the Lord is silent, he is present and he speaks to us but, as Elihu, the young wise man of the Book of Job, says, we are not aware of it and do not take heed! God meets us in the intimacy of our beings and reveals himself to us and instructs us by dreams, visions and even in the midst of acute sufferings (Job 33.14-19). Such is the work of the Spirit who moves mysteriously in the depth of our hearts in unison with the written and Incarnate wisdom of our heavenly Father.
Discernment
Secondly, and as a consequence of what has just been said, Qohelet[1] invites us to consider, to pay attention and to ponder rather than to flee from reality or to minimize it, to offer ready-made solutions or to hide behind the knowledge of experts. To understand or discern what is happening, in the light of the divine word, is vital when we are confronted with such dramatic and uncertain circumstances. Indeed, within the Christian worldview, discernment enlightens and nourishes the integrity, the compassion and the hope of the believer. When he prayed for the Philippians, Paul asked God that their “love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that they may approve all that is excellent.” (Ph. 1: 9, 10). In a world of communication, discernment is the antidote par excellence to untruth, misinformation and dissimulation. It is “the power to tell the good from the bad, the genuine from the counterfeit, and to prefer the good and the genuine to the bad and the counterfeit”.[2] In other words, discernment combines wisdom with significant practical choices; a wisdom inviting us and enabling us to evaluate and to appreciate the allegations of truth while prompting us to understand that we are part of a real and broken world where the power of evil is at work. As we understand the reality of our world, we can all the more live and act accordingly in the light of God’s wisdom. Discernment urges us to search for truth regardless of its source because it alone enables us to resist evils and scourges and to slow down their progression. But, beware! Our apprehension of truth, however real it may be, is never exhaustive. Only our ultimate Vis-à-vis, the fountain of all wisdom in whom we trust, holds this prerogative!
Some paths of reflection
Finally, Ecclesiastes invites us to cast a lucid and kindly gaze on the major crisis of civilization we are experiencing, as we witness the rapid and disconcerting collapse of our system of values and achievements that seemed so well established, permanent and meaningful. With this in mind I would like to share with you some thoughts as we, in France, anticipate with some anxiety the end of two months of confinement:
The time has come for us to redefine the foundations of our faith and our priorities. In addition to our personal relationship with the Lord, however important it may be, are we ready to take part in the life and affairs of the city in response to the cultural mandate the Lord gave us in creation? Admittedly, we are not of the world, but we are in the world. Our faith is not limited to the private sphere of our lives because the Word of God also sheds light on its public sphere. It is our duty to face the challenges of our time and to understand how divine wisdom enlightens them, taking as examples Joseph in Egypt, Daniel in Babylon, Esther in Persia and the early Church within the Roman Empire. It is easy to get caught up in the comfort of our well-being to the detriment of a thoughtful examination of our culture, of a lifestyle and of an action that might even trigger opposition. Recently I saw again the movie “Les Misérables” by Tom Hooper, based on the novel of Victor Hugo, where God is clearly present in the life of the city. As I reflected on the movie and the present epidemic, I was struck, some 200 years later (at least in France), by the quasi absence of a Christian voice on the television programs and radio stations dealing with this major crisis! God, our Churches, the Christian critical appraisal of the situation and testimony have become largely insignificant in our ultramodern society. Secularization having restricted Christians to the private sphere, will it now confine them to clandestinity?[3]
The widespread public upsurge of creative imagination and generosity as demonstrated towards the population, particularly towards the victims of the epidemic, to the elderly people, to the weakest and to the underprivileged, represent one of the most significant features of this national trial. A similar gesture of solidarity was expressed in the spring of 2019 when fire seriously damaged Notre-Dame de Paris. Such expressions of creative liberality are traces of common grace and the lingering footprints the waning Christian faith has left on our civil societies. As Luc Ferry, a contemporary agnostic French philosopher maintains, one of the major contributions of the Christian faith has been to enhance the love of one’s neighbor, a mirror image of the Creator’s love for his creatures. Consciously or unconsciously, our contemporaries are still inspired by this long-standing cultural heritage. It is a possible and promising meeting point in our desire to share the Gospel with our peers. Such a generosity and creativity offer a striking contrast with the lack of preparation and the wavering of the political and public health authorities of our country, as well the petty-squabbling within the advisory scientific council and among the infectious disease specialists. Apart from a few exceptions their rhetoric and actions reveal grey areas that generate many unanswered questions…! However, this should not prevent us from praying for our authorities as they seek to manage this major humanitarian and economic crisis, where everything seems to slip between their fingers. As they face such tough issues, they also need wisdom and discernment!
The sudden appearance of calamities and hardships is often a salutary wake-up call and triggers a vital soul-searching process. In the very midst of such trials and sufferings, that have no apparent or obvious value in and of themselves, the Lord is at work as he speaks to us to bring us closer to himself. He presses us, we who are living in the shadow of death, to a radical change of mind, to become conscious of and acknowledge our fragility, our misery, to find again the path to humility, of life and of hope. Indeed, as St Augustine says so well, “… you (God) have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you”.[4] This particular work of the Lord brings to mind the tragedy of the exile the people of Judah experienced. After having recalled, through the prophetic word of Jeremiah the disaster that the unfaithful and idolatrous people had brought upon themselves, the Lord declares his firm intention to restore his covenant, to gather his people and to have them remain securely in their homeland: “I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and all my soul” (Jeremiah 32:41, NIV).
The end of the tunnel
Such deeply moving love and grace, flowing out of the very heart of God, have been fully revealed in Jesus-Christ, in his life, death on the cross and glorious resurrection. The Son of God is henceforth our mediator and our intercessor with the Father. The Spirit of wisdom while speaking to our hearts convinces us of the loving kindness of our Lord. Yes, as Ecclesiastes has said so well, the Lord has wrapped up our future in mystery, but we are not troubled nor without hope, for it is hidden in God, in his love, stronger than any plague, than even death itself. Let us never forget, the goodness and the faithfulness of the Lord move faster and better than the coronavirus. The little and bright light at the end of the tunnel that kindles our hope is not a mirage!
Pierre Berthoud
President of the Board
Professor Emeritus
Faculté Jean Calvin
Aix-en-Provence, FR
_________________________________
[1] The Hebrew name of Ecclesiastes
[2] Often attributed to Samuel Johnson, the famous 18th Century English writer, essayist and moralist, this quotation was in fact written by C. G. Osgood as a part of a 1917 preface to James Boswells “Life of Samuel Johnson” (Samuel Johnson’s autobiography).
[3] Since the writing of these thoughts the French Constitutional court ruled that the government must lift a blanket ban on meetings at places of worship imposed as part of the measures to combat the coronavirus.
[4] Confessions, Book I, i (I). Translation by Henry Chadwick
The Empty Streets of Aix
Here is a five minute YouTube video tour of Aix-en-Provence taken by drone during the present confinement. The streets and squares are so empty. And, even the fountains are bone-dry in this “city of a thousand fountains”. You may catch a glimpse of Mont Sainte-Victoire on the horizon, a favorite subject of painter and native son Paul Cézanne. (Turn up the audio, the accompanying music is quite wonderful. Also, once in YouTube, click on the broken-square icon in the lower right to enter full screen.)
Please remember to pray for the teachers, students, and staff at the Faculté Jean Calvin during this challenging time for us all.
He Is Risen!
Should We Even Speak?
In these times of health crisis, all pastors, church leaders, all churches and theological training institutes are under pressure. Pressure to find a technological solution to the need for support, discipleship, educational presence. Pressure also to speak a word that is relevant or wise. The number of "special podcasts" and biblical articles on this time of anxiety and hope have literally exploded! Most are excellent. But what word to have? CNEF has already spoken, with strength and wisdom. But this pressure to "have to speak" can quickly turn into an unhealthy contest to have the most memorable word of wisdom. So let us ask the question: "When should we speak?" Even more radical: "Should we even speak?" (Here we should take a long pause, a time of meditative silence.) Of course, Christians cannot remain completely silent.
In these times of health crisis, we are the bearers of the only hope that has sprouted in the world, that of death vanquished by death, that of resurrection in the heart of darkness. Easter is before us, time of waiting and faith, time of joy and life. In these times of health crisis, let us simply return to the great foundations of our faith. Christ reigns. By his death he defeated all the forces that are trying to destroy his work of creation and restoration. Let us simply be witnesses to the God who came into the world and who, through his life, opened the doors of hope and eternity. Shall we speak? Yes! But in a measured way, and by making choices. Let's make the choice of hope!
In these times of health crisis, let us be intercessors, in Christ, for a suffering world. Let us implore God to remove from this world this source of death, pain, and anxiety. God hears the prayers of his people. Let us go to him as representatives of humanity. Let us go to him, who prays with us, who brings our prayers to the Father. Pray for the nursing staff. Pray for those who continue to serve the human community and go unnoticed: housekeepers, letter carriers and delivery agents, supermarket workers, and everyone else. Pray for all those who are hospitalized or in pain. Finally, let us pray for each other, without ceasing, and ask God, our Father, our brother and our counselor, to make us his faithful witnesses in a world that is suffering.
Dr. Yannick IMBERT
Dean
Professor of Apologetics
Faculté Jean Calvin
President, éditions Kerygma
(translated)
Letter from Pierre Berthoud
Yannick Imbert, Dean; Pierre Berthoud, President of Faculté Jean Calvin
Dear friends,
Dear partners, engaged alongside us in this spiritual combat which represents prayer, I would like to thank you for your loyalty and your perseverance for so many years. Indeed, the deployment, vitality and influence of our ministry are the consequence of your support in intercession. Together the Lord calls us to be a living community and to enter into dialogue with our Heavenly Father whatever the circumstances of the moment. As it exists, he hears our gratitude and our joys, our complaints and our cries of pain, our requests and our calls for help! Yes, thanks to the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and by means of the Holy Spirit, the communion that we have with our Father is inhabited by personal and intimate communication with him. What a privilege and even more what a grace! That is why we do not doubt His answers! We also do not fear them even when they do not meet our expectations!
In this period so uncertain, so dramatic and so painful for some, it is precisely the moment to approach our ultimate one-on-one, the one who presides over our destinies, the one who is our refuge and who gives us strength and the courage to live, no doubt otherwise, our vocation fully, a vocation which consists in listening to divine wisdom in order to be witnesses to the Word. That which challenges, reassures, comforts and renews life, and allows us to better serve our loved ones and our neighbors, especially the most fragile!
Yet it is precisely in prayer that the Spirit arouses the creative imagination that allows us to be present and engaged in the turmoil that accompanies this scourge! Let us pray for God to give wisdom and discernment to the authorities of this world and of our nation, let us pray for all those in hospitals or at home caring for the sick, let us pray for the Churches and Christians dispersed in civil society so that they take up the challenges before them, speak a prophetic word, pray for Christian works and institutions so that they find the resources to pursue each their specific ministry within the city and this to the glory of our God and for the advancement of his reign! Finally let us pray for the Jean Calvin Faculty which is currently pursuing its ministry differently so that the Lord continues to accompany all the team members and students according to the needs of each one, but above all according to his generous grace.
The wisdom and strength of divine benevolence circulate faster and better than the coronavirus!
We remain united in prayer and in Jesus Christ, our peace, our consolation and our hope,
Pierre Berthoud
President
Professor Emeritus
(translated)
Letter from Yannick Imbert
With the temporary closure of the Faculté Jean Calvin, it became even more vital to pray for one another. Even if all of our students can now follow all of their courses from a distance, everyday life has been transformed. Some students were unable to return home, others get used to working remotely. For everyone else, studies add to this exceptional situation. Pray that God will keep and protect those who work in the hospital world. Pray for trust and peace: may our way of life be a witness to our faith!
During this period of confinement, the professors continue to work on the reform of the academic and pedagogical vision of the Faculté. Fundamental reflection is necessary if we are to remain faithful to our will to serve the Church. Following this same impetus, the Faculté announced the creation of two ThM (Master) programs in English. The first, devoted to biblical interpretation, will start in September 2021 and the second, focused on "public theology", will start in September 2022.
Pray that these new projects will nourish the vision of the Faculté and serve the Church of Jesus Christ!
Yannick Imbert
Dean
Professor of Apologetics
President, Kerygma Editions
(translated)