“Culture is not a territory to be won or lost, but a resource we are to steward with care. Culture is a garden to be cultivated," Makoto Fujimura writes.

This summer, one of the professors from the English department at Sterling College, emailed me to ask if I wanted to submit an abstract to the Conference on Christianity and Literature. The theme this year for the Southwest regional conference was "Stewards of Culture," and the call for submissions intrigued me:

"How can the good, the true, and the beautiful emerge out of a clear authentic Christian vision, one that is true to the artist’s creed and craft?"

The faculty at Oral Roberts University (ORU) went on to explain that they were inviting discussion on how Christians can relate to contemporary culture.

I emailed my friend, Kaitlynn Little. Or maybe she emailed me. I don't remember, but the gist of the first email was:

"Are you going to write a paper? I think I'm going to, but I don't want to be the only student going to the conference."

We both submitted an abstract, about 400 words on what we wanted to discuss. I decided to try researching one of my favorite artists, Makoto Fujimura. I had heard him speak earlier this year at the Festival of Faith and Writing, and found myself drawn to his work as an artist and a cultural influence.

He talked about one of my favorite books, and authors: Silence, by Shusaku Endo.

So I wrote about how Endo influenced Fujimura, and how, in turn, their work has influenced their respective cultures.

"Fujimura highlights how Endo, through his artistic, faithful writing, offers healing to his culture. Endo is a steward of his culture, for he gives a voice to those who choose a different path from the majority culture, to those who struggle and doubt. Implicitly, his writing calls his culture to consider another way to treat them—and he does that through showing the compassion of Christ to the broken and weak."

"Fujimura visually depicts the beauty he says can be found even through suffering, and how his abstract art requires silent, sustained attention to fully absorb this redemption. His works offer space for reflection, just as Endo’s work does. His work does not ignore brokenness; it answers it with beauty.

"And in that, Fujimura too is a steward of culture. His work touches a raw hope, that even after traumatic national disasters like 9/11, or personal losses and failures, there is still hope and meaning that transforms our grief."

Last weekend I wondered why, exactly, I had agreed to write a paper for an academic conference, when I wasn't even sure what that paper ought to look like. I also was pretty sure that most of the people listening to me would have lots of letters behind their names, with a lot more experience of this sort of thing than I had.

But I discovered that, really, these people just like to nerd out the same way I do--reading brilliant writers and critiquing them. And we had a blast doing it.

Two of the professors, Aaron Brown and Rachel Griffis, from the English Department took Kaitlynn and I to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the ORU campus is located. We arrived in time for the Thursday evening session, and then tried to go to bed early so that we would be ready to present in the morning.

Standing up in front of that group could have been far more intimidating if I hadn't sensed their genuine interest and kindness. The president of the Conference on Christianity and Literature leaned forward, after my presentation, and said excitedly,

"I loved this, and I just wanted to say that we've actually invited Makoto Fujimura to be our keynote speaker at the next conference in the eastern region, next March!"

After other people made insightful remarks, giving constructive feedback, I sat down, relieved and immensely surprised to find that I had enjoyed the whole experience.

The rest of the day was packed with more presentations, and ended with a formal banquet on the 60th floor, overlooking the sunset to the west, and the darkening sky to the east, lit by the city lights.

I was particularly excited to hear the keynote speaker--Gregory Wolfe, founder and former editor of the Image journal--speak that night. He was one of the first to suggest an alternative to the "culture war" conservative Christians found themselves fighting, in trying to use political methods to legislate cultural change.

In his book, Beauty Will Save the World, Wolfe wrote,

“The very metaphor of war ought to make us pause. The phrase ‘culture war’ is an oxymoron: culture is about nourishment and cultivation, where war inevitably involves destruction and the abandonment of the creative impulse.”

This book was part of the inspiration for the conference's theme, and Wolfe himself has spent the last two and a half decades encouraging artists, writers, and poets of faith in that cultivation of culture.

I came away from the conference encouraged to find a community of people who are working to relate our ancient faith to present-day hungers in our culture. More than that, they are actively working to grow their community. I felt that as they went out of their way to affirm two rather intimidated undergraduates.