“nothing less than to be informed in the deepest sense of the word…”

In his 2011 documentary “Walker Percy”, Win Riley paints a vivid picture of Walker Percy’s teen and young adult years, lived in the home of his cousin, the poet, planter and public intellectual, William Alexander Percy.  In recorded conversations Shelby Foote, Walker’s lifelong friend gives context to the Percy boys’ life under Uncle Will’s roof, as does Walker’s biographer Jay Tolson, and finally Walker himself:  

“William Alexander Percy had a sizable library, and he could do this thing all great teachers do, and if they do that they've done everything:  he could communicate his enthusiasm for what he was teaching, or talking about.  When he got to talking about Keats, what you wanted to do was get the hell out of there and go home and read some Keats!” - Shelby Foote

“There were always people coming through.  Musicians.  Writers.  People who were studying the South; a number of early leaders in the proto civil rights movement.  And everyone would come to Will's house, because this was the place to go.  And Walker was there on the edge of all that.” - Jay Tolson

“To have lived in Will Percy's house with Uncle Will, as we called him, as a raw youth from age fourteen to twenty six, a youth whose only talent was a knack for looking and listening, for tuning in and soaking up -- was nothing less than to be informed in the deepest sense of the word.” - Walker Percy

Walker Percy has become for me a patron saint, a subtle yet driving force behind my own desires and plans.  I have found myself - on occasion - in a place like Will Percy’s mansion, a house or dedicated space frequented by thoughtful people, surrounded by books and artwork, fragrance of bittersweet coffee and cinnamon bread in the air, dappled light shining through rustling, leafy branches, sound of rushing waters on the wind, an environment that opens the mind and encourages knowing and being known.  

Alice and Dick O’Ferrall’s home at Alpine Camp for Boys, Laity Lodge on the Frio River near Leakey, TX, The Gymnasium at Camp Desoto on Lookout Mountain, Casa Balthasar in Rome, Italy, Jan and Eugene Peterson’s home on Flathead Lake, western Montana, Beatrix Potter’s home in the Lake District of England.  Special places, founded and maintained by patron Saints do exist.  My desire is to replicate the hospitality of places like this, and to do so in places convenient to students, meaning adjacent to and in positive relationship with the local university. The need is for quiet space for studying, common space for connecting and collaborating, a kitchen with the basic fuels for collegiate life - coffee and snacks - an environment that invites thoughtful and interesting visitors, in short an atmosphere that promotes a “sense of wonder” about the creation and the Creator.

Making the most of a dedicated student space requires a small coterie of staff committed to assisting collegians onto and along a trajectory from adolescence to adulthood.  The primary foci of these staff members are the students who come to call the Student Space “home”, which is exactly what students do with spaces to which they become attached.  Hospitality skills like meeting and greeting, planning and cooking meals, name recognition, and small talk are critical.  A staff member, depending on their interests and expertise might also offer a Bible study, book study, film night or just the chance to take a walk and talk regularly.  As time goes on staff have the opportunity to help students navigate campus life as well as life far beyond the university.

This kind of “boutique” pastoral work is a form of “redress”, a term the 1995 Nobel Prize laureate Seamus Heaney developed during his time as Lecturer in Poetry at Cambridge University. For Heaney, “redress” is the process of perceiving - in one’s self and in society - missing or mis-placed pieces, the cracks and buckles caused by an imbalance that calls for a “counter-reality”, that which will move a situation or person toward “wholeness” (not unlike what the Old Testament refers to as “shalom”).  This deft poetic touch flows from what Heaney calls “glimpsed alternatives” to accepted norms. The poet’s work is to give voice to these glimpses, these “revelations of potential” through the written and spoken word..  

Poetic work and pastoral work have long been considered complementary. “Redress” is a deeply pastoral term. The work of redress is the work of shalom, and shalom is anchored by faith, hope and love.  Any Christian approach to ministry flows from a clear vision of a “counter-reality”, a reality in keeping with another scriptural triad, truth, goodness and beauty.  Therefore, Christian hospitality involves seeing in others - as well as in ourselves - “glimpses” of the work of God’s Spirit. This is the work of “redress”, or if you prefer, “sanctification”.

Seamus Heaney drives the point home: 

“Poetry is the revelation of the self to the self as restoration of the culture to itself”. 

If God is the great Poet - and he is - then we can see how poignant this description is: the gospel is nothing short of God revealing his “Self” to our “self” as “restoration”.  And the work of campus ministry involves helping students come to terms with who they are (their “self”), in whose image (Self) they are made and renewed, and how and where they fit into the wider cultural enterprise which for the Christian is a participation in God’s work of restoration. 

21st century American youth need spaces, actual places dedicated to practices long associated with the restorative work described above - rest, Scriptural meditation and prayer, conversation, collaboration - hospitality. Neither the modern university, nor the modern church have developed in directions conducive to the in-depth practices of restoration via hospitality. Students feel pressure applied by the forces at work in the academy, as well as the church, forces that threaten, surprise and condemn those who wander from the prescribed paths. Neither of these settings provides protection to those who feel most vulnerable within their sphere of oversight. Historic truths are mocked in both realms, and formulas and platitudes gloss over the complexities of human being. This is not to say that the academy and the church are bereft of truth. It is to say that each has become the kind of political and cultural battleground that one finds in the most harrowing of households, the kind of settings that press people toward the supposed peace of addictive outlets.

Places do exist that provide the kind of hospitality that encourages and nourishes human formation.  Summer camps stand at or near the top of the list.  There are institutes, programs and ministries adroitly dedicated to the same.  And students do find places and people within the academy as well as the church where they are able to pursue physical, mental and spiritual formation with good guidance.  But these “success stories” certainly are not the norm, and there is a palpable need for good places.

Some of the best language I have found to describe what we are after in establishing dedicated Student Spaces comes from Casa Balthasar in Rome, Italy.  I have only interacted briefly with the Staff at the Casa, but I have poured through their website, and am continually shaped by the works of its namesake, Hans Urs von Balthasar. 

The Villa that became the Casa was set apart in 1990 by then Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict) to honor and promote the work of the Catholic theologian whom Henri de Lubac described as "the most learned man in Europe in the twentieth century”.  The language used to described the commitments behind Casa Balthasar is some of the most approachable and fulsome that I have found regarding spiritually formative pedagogy: 

"...the house does not look to recruit candidates for a specific destination or to introduce an exclusive spirituality, but it wants to be open to everything which is healthy and alive today in the Church." 

"Shared meals are an important part of the community life..." 

"By the study of great authors of yesterday and today, the students develop their capacity to “judge everything” (1 Cor 2:15), and to integrate faith and life, cultural and spiritual formation, professional competence and sanctity." 

Here we are, back at Will Percy’s, back at summer camp, back at Laity Lodge, peeking into a place that “embodies” the practices that history associates humanity at its best.

The establishment of a Student Center or Hospitality House at Ole Miss seems like a timely move in the wake of so much emphasis on the “wellness” of students.  I envision a network of these houses at various SEC campuses, building on the gleanings of one another, but first things first…

As always, this endeavor needs a group of committed financial supporters in order to realize this vision.  Hopefully we will have the support of foundations, those committed to hospitality oriented ministry, those committed to Ole Miss, and those committed to their own children and grandchildren.  If you have read thus far, thanks for your willingness to learn about this opportunity.  I hope to see you soon on the steps of someplace special!

Bill Boyd,

Founder and Curator
Oxford Lodge,
The Institutes for Human Being