Spark

Thank you for the meaningful tribute to Ed Ericson (fall 2017). It is fitting that this tribute appears in the issue featuring Alvin Plantinga’s reception of the Templeton Prize. Ed was also a courageous Christian intellectual, a principled conservative swimming against the growing stream of progressiv - ism in the post-1960s North American academy. He regularly hosted small gatherings of like-minded Calvin faculty in his home for discussions about specific texts or conversations about current events. Thanks to his long-standing friendship with Russell and Annette Kirk, he drew some of us to events they hosted at Piety Hill, Mecosta. Ed’s interest in Russian dissident literature, including his personal friendship with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, flowed from his own passion for the permanent things, especially ordered liberty. We remember him and his life with gratitude and joy.

— Sarah Lawrence ’03
Tegucigalpa, Honduras