The life of the spirit and the life of the mind are seldom expected to co-exist on college campuses, but an active group at the University of Iowa is starting its fall series of “Finding God” luncheon forums. Ed Laarman, director of the Geneva Campus Ministry, says spontaneous talks about faith and spirituality grew into the popular lunch gatherings. He says the participants like to demonstrate that “just as you don’t have to ‘check your brains at the door’ when you go into church, you don’t have to check your faith at the door when you go into a university setting.” They hope to show the relevance of a spiritual life, and particularly the Christian faith, not only to one’s personal life but to study, research, scholarship of all kinds and professions — and demonstrate it through the speakers from the university that they feature. So far the speakers have all been local, faculty and staff from the University of Iowa. They speak about their personal spiritual journeys, but also how their “faith perspective” influences how they go about their research and study, how it motivates them in their line of work and gives them a worldview from which to operate. He says the speakers grapple with issues related to the university and the world at large. Forty to fifty people usually attend, Laarman says, at the University of Iowa Memorial Union. Some are professors, some grad students, some members of the large professional staff that includes University Hospitals. They have a moderator, “to keep things under control,” but he says it’s always been pretty civil. This past Friday was the beginning of the ninth year for “Finding God at Iowa,” modeled on a popular book of essays a few years ago titled “Finding God at Harvard.”
