the spiritual climate on campus
H A RVA RD | On Campus
Harvard’s Ichthus
JOURNAL GIVE S VOICE TO A CHRIS TIAN WITNE SS ON C AMPUS
By Ethan Purdue, Harvard ’19
T
46
he Ichthus, a journal of Christian
thought and expression, is pro-
viding a platform for discussion and
debate on Harvard’s secular campus.
“Universities are places where you
expose yourself to different perspec-
tives and think seriously about your
deepest held beliefs,” said Greg Scal-
ise, editor-in-chief of The Ichthus.
“Secular colleges are places where
ideas should be in conflict and
people should be able to see both
sides of a question.”
The Ichthus seeks to defy mis-
conceptions about Christianity
and its compatibility with a rigor-
ous intellectual life. Founded in
2004 by Jordan Hylden ’06, the
journal was the first of its kind,
helping to inspire similar publica-
tions at other top-tier institutions.
These journals are now united
under the Augustine Collective, an
umbrella organization that sup-
ports and connects editors, writers,
and alumni.
At its inception, The Ichthus was
primarily focused on Protestant the-
ology, but evolved over time, and is
now one of the more ecumenical or-
ganizations at Harvard.
“It’s hard to think theologically
about different problems if you don’t
have people with different perspec-
tives,” said Scalise, a philosophy and
classics double major who is pursuing
a secondary in English. “We have a
large number of Catholic and Prot-
estant writers from different tradi-
tions, and we have both liberal and
conservative Christians working to-
gether in the same space… We have
people writing personal reflections,
writing about the arts, writing cre-
atively, and writing about the news.
It has moved from primarily theolo-
gy to more general Christian writing.”
Scalise and the editors affirm their
writers’ ambitions to question every-
thing from the purpose of humanity
to niche concerns about Harvard’s
campus and culture. They want Har-
vard students on the team to “think
seriously about their faith and work
towards being better Christian writers
and artists.”
The Ichthus publishes a print edi-
tion once each semester, delivering a
copy to every dormitory door. The
print version primarily focuses on
issues and news relevant to Harvard.
The staff also maintains a blog, up-
dated roughly once a week, that fea-
tures short series on particular topics,
from pop culture to mental health.
During Lent, the blog is updated ev-
ery day for 40 days with the goal of
progressing through an entire Gospel
book. “This is a great way for people
to start writing about Christianity,”
Scalise revealed. “They can analyze the
scriptures or write personal reflections
on them.”
In addition to its publications, the
journal holds an event known as
“Texts-for-Toasties” three times a
year – once in the fall semester
for freshmen and during the finals
period of both the fall and spring
semesters.
“People text in questions
about Christianity, being a Chris-
tian on campus, religion, and
God. We bring them a sandwich
and an answer to their question,”
Scalise said. “Then, we can have
a conversation with them.”
The Texts-for-Toasties initia-
tive is beneficial to the spiritual
climate on campus in many ways.
It makes a name for The Ichthus,
gets students to recognize that Chris-
tians can be intellectual and prepared
to answer their questions, and encour-
ages Christians participating to think
seriously about the questions others
have about their faith.
Whether engaging seekers in their
dorms with sandwiches or print cop-
ies, or blogging about timely topics,
The Ichthus is accomplishing its mis-
sion “to show that Christianity is
something that applies to all of life
and culture.”
For information on The Ichthus,
visit www.harvardichthus.org. | cu