Tonight, I decided to take an extra few hours out of my weekend to venture up to the Princeton campus, again. I have to say, it’s probably my favorite campus (or at least in the top 3). I came up here to visit with Andrew Matthews and his ISI Group that publishes the “Journal of Christian perspective,” Revisions. It’s a fantastic journal and I’m proud to have it associated with ISI. There are a lot of positive things happening for conservatives and Christians here on the Princeton campus and this is certainly an example.
My evening began with a 2 hour-plus dinner with Andrew and four others (2 students, 2 faculty). They are all involved with Revisions and with Manna, a Christian organization at Princeton. Great people, good company… it’s exciting. We talked about a lot of things, from Christian thought to Christianity and the culture, and of course all things ISI. I’m excited to read their next issue.
After that was over, Andrew and I peeked into ISI’s Liberty Fund colloquia, where about 15 students and a couple professors were partaking in the hospitality of an ISI reception. Many great conversations were had, as usual and I was able to acquaint with several students I already know well, and meet plenty of others that I had not yet had the chance to meet. The Liberty Fund colloquias bring together students from a variety of places in this country. They are 3-day weekends where the students truly engage in intellectual thought on a particular theme of the weekend. This colloquia’s theme is “Religious Liberty, Toleration and the Reformation.” I’m not really allowed into any of it, but I was able to meet up with these students for the reception and then about 6 of us went out for a couple hours afterwards.
It was a fun time had where conservative intellectuals such as ourselves (if I may include myself into that “intellectual” crowd) could partake in good conversation and go out and have a fun time. Tonight, some of these students reminded me how grateful I should be to ISI to provide me with so many of these great experiences to meet these incredible, gifted people and spend a Friday night on the town with them and not consider it “work.” ISI has the networking capability to do this and I think the way ISI brings people together is one of the best assets of our organization for them and for me. As Andrew told me at the end of the night, it was a great night of “good fellowship.” I couldn’t agree more.