Messages from the President and Chancellor
Greetings from Eastern University, a place and people committed to faith, reason and justice.
The last ten years have seen Eastern add a seminary, an honors college, a Latino junior college, an urban graduate center for social change, and an international school with centers for teaching and praxis across the third world. Talented faculty have authored scores of books while teaching a student body that has nearly doubled in size. A good college long dedicated to student formation has become a good university committed to the formation and transformation of students, society, and the church. It is a sacred privilege to serve as president of such an uncommon place.
Eastern’s own transformation from college to university has required substantial new investments in scholarships, academic centers, and residence halls. Evidence of those investments is all around us, but we have not yet completed the task. We must still build new centers for the performing arts, science, and campus events at St. Davids; an urban center in Philadelphia; centers for excellence in economic development in India and Africa; and a larger endowment for student scholarships.
Those same trustees and colleagues then endorsed enthusiastically the appointment of beloved Professor and Provost, Dr. Christopher Hall, to the new Office of Chancellor. Chancellor Hall has now assumed executive leadership responsibilities for all colleges of the University except Palmer Seminary, where Dr. Wallace Charles Smith serves as President. Dr. Hall’s scholarship and teaching will continue to enhance the University’s academic standing and student formation while his leadership maintains Eastern’s traditional fidelity to faith, reason and justice. Dr. Smith continues to lead the nation’s most diverse seminary, one committed to personal and social transformation. It is good to be in partnership with them.
Please come and visit this remarkable university. I believe you will find the mission compelling, the people winsome, and the Spirit present.
David Black
President
Greetings from Eastern University!
The mission of Eastern University is to proclaim and model “the whole Gospel for the whole world.” As Dr. Black has mentioned in his welcome, we capture our commitment to the “whole Gospel” through our university’s emphasis on faith, reason, and justice.
The Gospel calls us to personal faith in Jesus Christ. Nothing is more important than a personal relationship with Christ and Eastern is committed to calling its students, faculty, and administration to an ever deepening faith in Christ as Savior and Lord.
Our faith is also grounded in our willingness to think well and deeply. We believe there should be no disjunction, either among us individually or corporately, between our faith – sometimes expressed as a commitment of the heart – and our minds, that aspect of our humanity that enables us to embrace God’s truth wherever it appears. I can imagine Christ studying mathematics, psychology, physics, biology, history, literature – right across the disciplines – and enjoying them all. The Creator, after all, declared that all of his creation was “good.”
The “whole gospel,” though, also includes our commitment to justice, a commitment that takes us beyond our community out into the broader world. We are committed to justice in Philadelphia, Camden, and other locales close to us. But we are also committed to “the whole Gospel for the whole world,” a pledge and obligation that motivates us as a community to ever broaden our perspective and actions to encompass the entire world.
Eastern is already known around the world for its programs in economic development, spiritual formation, and leadership training. We are actively present in Asia, Africa, India, and other key locales. Why? Because all human beings are made in the image of God, all human beings should have the opportunity to hear of the possibility of a personal relationship with God through Christ, all human beings should have the chance to learn ever more fully about the world God has created and delights in, and all human beings have the right to live in peace and freedom from poverty, injustice, oppression and fear.
If Eastern’s core values ignite your interest, we invite you to be part of our community and the future God has for us.
Christopher A. Hall
Chancellor
