DECRUZ PULIKOTTIL | staff writer
On West Campus behind the Cornerstone Bell Tower is a statue of a man with a Bible in his hand and a hat by his feet. He’s facing the wall and appears to be preaching to no one in particular.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, you are not alone. Many of my friends and classmates at APU wouldn’t recognize the man if they saw him walking down the street, yet he is largely responsible for what and how we are taught here.
His name was John Wesley, a preacher of great repute who, as Ravi Zacharias, the Christian apologist put it, changed “the face of England.’
Wesleyan infl uence is in many of our classrooms today. If you have already been through a Christian Life and Ministry class, you might recall the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. Dr. Robert Duke took his Hebrew class out to the statue to read them a quote from John Wesley.
“I felt that standing in front of Wesley’s statue would make the point clear to my Hebrew students that they were part of a heritage of Hebrew study,” Duke said.
The statue is hardly seen anymore behind the Bell Tower and isn’t exactly in the best conditions. On a recent visit, I saw cobwebs on the poor man’s body. Even though you study Wesley in the classrooms and his infl uence is seen in various places on campus, I get the feeling Wesley is slowing being forgotten.
Dr. Steve Wilkens, professor of theology and philosophy, sees a move away from Wesleyan foundations at APU but doesn’t see it as representative of just our school. “I think, in general, evangelical schools are moving away from the founding traditions of their schools,” Wilkens said. “So, APU isn’t really an isolated case.”
Wilkens believes that the “infl uence of the Wesleyan holiness tradition” has waned and is “much less now than it was 40 years ago.” “That’s a trend that’s seen throughout a lot of Christian schools,” Wilkens said.
Many would disagree with me when I say that this is a bad thing. “I see it as problematic because the way you educate isn’t a neutral thing,” Wilkens said. “It is informed by some sort of religious tradition.”
James Burtchaell, author of The Dying of the Light, which explores the disengagement of colleges and universities from their Christian churches, believes that APU has left its Wesleyan roots and moved toward a more mainstream mentality. Wilkens believes that students are aware of Wesleyan ideas on campus but are not familiar with its origin.
“Wesleyan tradition is a socially active tradition based on the idea of sanctifi cation,” Wilkens said. “There is a certain optimism that God works through us to make the world a better place.”
Wilkens said that Wesley was an advocate of prison reform, medical reform and educational reform. We see the results of that on campus with events like Social Justice Week. So what has caused him to say that we’ve moved away from a Wesleyan perspective?
Wilkens sees it as someone who inherits money and then watches as it dwindles away without anyone to protect or sustain it.
“Where is the accountability?” Wilkens said. Wesley had small groups that asked each other fi ve questions, one of them about which sin they had committed since the last time they had met. Can you imagine if your D-group leader asked you that? The theological department seems to be very intentional about putting Wesley’s ideas back into practice. Yet, as Wesley’s statue illustrates, there have been signs of wear and tear.
