Center for Faith and Culture
The Center's mission: To foster spiritual exploration, authentic dialogue and contemplation of the known and unknown in pursuit of wisdom, reconciliation and human flourishing.
Modeled after the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, Jewell's Center discerns, articulates, and commends visions of the flourishing life in light of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ and fosters truth seeking conversations among contending visions in our world today.
The Center for Faith and Culture is the realization of the vision of Philip and Patricia Love. In 2012, after retiring from his role as CEO at Pryor Resources, Phil joined the advisory board of the Center for Faith and Culture at Yale Divinity School and was later appointed managing director of the Center in 2016. As a 1971 graduate of William Jewell College and a member of Jewell’s President’s Advisory Council, Phil believed our community was an excellent place to establish a similar center. Responding to this conviction, he and Patty provided a generous gift and wise guidance for this to occur.
One of the primary objectives of Jewell’s Center for Faith and Culture is to promote and encourage spiritual exploration, a core value at William Jewell College. While it is impossible to define spirituality and spiritual exploration with precision, at Jewell, it involves the process of seeking a life of flourishing through the pursuit of personal authenticity and agency, interpersonal encounters and wisdom. This demands an openness to exploring a connection with a higher power and purpose, to fostering healthy relationships with one’s self and with others, and constructively defining one’s vocation in the world [adapted from Attending to Students’ Inner Lives: A Call to Higher Education (2011); based on Alexander Astin, et al., Cultivating the Spirit: How College Can Enhance Students’ Inner Lives]. We recognize that spirituality is embodied but cannot be reduced to embodiment. Conceptually, spiritual exploration interacts with and moves within a nexus of complementary pairs. These include, but are not limited to, the self & the other, the material & the immaterial, and knowledge & practice.
We affirm that there are many religious traditions that address these issues in faithful ways. Consequently, the Center provides opportunities to learn about these traditions and dialogue with their practitioners. One of the intended fruits of this endeavor is to acknowledge the points of continuity that unite us even as we acknowledge and wrestle with our differences. At the same time, drawing on our heritage as a Christian institution of higher learning, the Center for Faith and Culture at Jewell addresses flourishing from a specifically Christian perspective that takes seriously the biblical claim that humanity was created in God’s image, the mystery of the incarnation, and life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
Connecting with the Center
Our Pillars of the Center for Faith and Culture:
Rev. Melissa Bryson Dowling, ’06, joined Jewell in 2022. She is continuing a rich family tradition as she is the 4th generation of ordained Baptist ministers. She has spent the majority of her ministry serving as a hospital and hospice chaplain in the Austin, Texas, area.
Dr. Brendon Benz is an associate professor of history and religion and theologian-in-residence with the Center for Faith and Culture. Benz is from Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he was raised in the Lutheran Church and attended Lutheran school from kindergarten through 12th grade. After receiving his B.A. in Sociology from Taylor University, Benz traveled to Queens, New York, to teach history at Martin Luther High School. After several years in the classroom, he went on to receive an M.Div. at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he received the Goethe Institute Fellowship and the Henry Snyder Gehman Award in Old Testament. In 2013, he was awarded his Ph.D. in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies from the Department of Hebrew & Judaic Studies at New York University. While serving as an instructor there, he was granted the NYU College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award. Benz has published several pieces, including his first book, "The Land Before the Kingdom of Israel." He is currently working on a second book of the Greek philosophical tradition on the interpretation of the imago Dei in Genesis 1. Above all of these things, Benz is most passionate about teaching the message, history and context of the Bible in ways that contribute to the growth and flourishing of individuals and communities of faith.