Davenant House is growing into a home for a renewal of Christian wisdom.
For all the good that has come of “Christian worldview” discipleship in recent decades, too often it has relied on polemic generalizations, caricatures, and easy answers. Wisdom, on the other hand, is possession of the principles of reality in the mind, illuminated by the Spirit-filled heart, and for the sake of the knowledge of God and glorifying Him.
Wisdom, unlike worldview, cannot be downloaded from a server or acquired from a video course. It requires a retrieval of the lost art of conversation and the cultivation of intellectually rich friendship. This is the vision for Davenant House. (Learn more about Davenant House.)
“The Church, now as always, needs open discussion of important, intellectual issues, as well as active collaboration and fellowship among Christians in advancing the mission of the Church,” says 2016 Davenant House guest Angie Tang, “and the Davenant House is a good effort towards that direction.”
Davenant House is not just a place to learn the right answers or the right ideas. It’s a place for reflection, for questioning, for conversation, for prayer—a place to connect with God, neighbor, and nature and be renewed for a life of faithful witness and service. Angie explains: “While the program engaged my mind in important and worthy study material, it did so in an atmosphere that was heavily influenced by fellowship with one another and interaction with nature. It allowed me to grow intellectually, but (perhaps more importantly) personally and relationally as well.”
Jonathan Kuo, another 2016 guest, says: “The Davenant House has all the ingredients for a stimulating period of intellectual and spiritual growth: excellent books, stirring conversations, homemade meals, stunning nature vistas, and a commitment to pursue wisdom together through communal work, reasoning, and recreation.”
Wisdom isn’t a set of talking points whose representatives have to be constantly reprogrammed. Rather, it makes free men and women capable of prudence and virtuous practice who can lead as servant heroes. Christian wisdom is a gathering of truth in love of God, so as to embody and radiate it to the world. “I’ve never experienced such a unified curricula,” observes Jonathan, “where each week—drawing on Aristotle, Aquinas, Calvin, and post-Reformation theologians—built upon the last and the selected texts incrementally brought us closer to the real, enduring, and solid principles of life in God’s world.”
We offer summer programs for evangelical Protestant undergraduates, graduate students, and young adults who are aspiring to positions of leadership and seeking to deepen the intellectual foundations of their faith in order to equip them for leadership in church, academy, and society. Several weeks of the year will be reserved for the use of individual or small groups of scholars or pastors to come and have a quiet space for study and writing, making use of our theological library on-site. Outside of the summer months, Davenant House is available for churches to use for officers’ retreats, pastors’ sabbaticals, prayer retreats or study days, etc.
Learn more about upcoming events, or apply to book your own visit, at davenanttrust.org/davenant-house.