In his early days teaching at Cornell University, Karl Johnson worked in the physical education department. The program’s director discouraged staff from using the term “phys ed,” because, in the professor’s mind, “phys ed” put you on the road to “gym class.” And to reduce all the knowledge about the human body, health, and fitness down to “gym class” cut off students from an appreciation of how their bodies worked.
Johnson remembers how this anecdote impressed upon him the reality that words matter. He has spent the past two decades helping students expand their narrow, “gym class” mentality regarding the Christian faith and the life of the mind, helping believers and nonbelievers both see that the Christian faith interacts with the deep questions of life — and offers answers.
This fall Chesterton House marked 20 years of serving the Cornell community, and it dedicated its newly remodeled women’s residence hall and fellowship area. The dedication events Oct. 3-5 also marked a change in leadership, as Johnson stepped down from serving as executive director and welcomed Vivek Mathew to the helm.
The dedication festivities coincided with Chesterton House’s annual Beimfohr-Neuss Lecture, the Dorothy Sayers Conference with a keynote address by Cornell alumnus Andy Crouch, a concert with singer Joy Ike, and Chesterton House’s annual homecoming barbecue.
New Season, New Leadership
In spring 2019, Johnson announced that he was ready to step aside from full-time involvement with the ministry he founded.
“For a variety of reasons, some personal and some related to ministry, I have concluded this would be an almost ideal time to transition out of [the executive director] role,” he told byFaith. The board assembled a search team and selected Mathew as the best choice to continue the work of Chesterton House.
Mathew sees study centers as uniquely suited to help young believers see that Christianity is both intellectually and emotionally satisfying.
Johnson will remain with Chesterton House in a part-time role in which he’ll maintain alumni relations and work on strategy for Chesterton House, but by summer’s end he had already handed over day-to-day operations to Mathew.
Though he no longer leads Chesterton House, Johnson continues helping believers cultivate the life of the mind by working with his wife, Julie, to manage First Century Voyages, a travel company providing Christian heritage tours for Christian colleges, seminaries, and other ministries.
Mathew earned his undergraduate degree from Princeton in computer science and spent nearly a decade with a Wall Street investment banking firm. While attending Redeemer Presbyterian Church (PCA) in New York, he discovered the wonders of theology and apologetics ministry, and met his now-wife, Jeanie.
After considering seminary and the pastorate, Mathew said he decided he could better serve the church by studying the deep philosophical questions that many pastors might have to wrestle with but don’t have time to study in depth. Then he could be a resource for pastors, bridging the gap between the academy and the church.
Mathew’s studies led him first to Oxford for a master’s in philosophy, followed by Cornell, where he defended his dissertation in fall 2019 to earn his Ph.D. in philosophy. His research spanned the fields of metaphysics, philosophy of science, and philosophy of language.
His first involvement with Chesterton House came when he co-taught an interdisciplinary class about desire. “There’s no class at Cornell that would cover this type of material,” he said. “And I was very impressed with the students.”
In March 2019 Mathew joined the Chesterton House staff as assistant director and began absorbing much of the organization’s work.
A Christian College at Cornell
Although research shows that most churchgoing teens stop attending church for at least a year during college, Mathew sees study centers as uniquely suited to help young believers discover that Christianity is both intellectually and emotionally satisfying.
“Students get knocked about by difficult challenges and have never really examined how their faith impacts their life,” he said. “College is the best time to do it, and if they don’t do it here, they might never do it.”
In 2018, Chesterton House purchased 111 The Knoll Road, known in the Cornell community as the historic Treman family home. With the purchase, Chesterton House now had a residence for women to accompany the residence for men at 115 The Knoll Road.
Chesterton House has launched its Building for the Future Capital Campaign to raise the funds to add on to the female residence. Once the additions are complete, the two homes will accommodate 35 students who can live in intentional Christian community.
The residences present new opportunities and challenges for a ministry that formed to affirm the life of the mind. When the mind is tucked inside a broken body, life together can get messy. Student residents sign a code of conduct and regularly revisit the agreements to assess their faithfulness. When necessary, students confess their shortcomings and ask for forgiveness and accountability.
“When students have the courage to name their sin and ask for forgiveness, that’s a thing of beauty, and we give thanks to God for that,” Johnson said.
But the residences also opened up opportunities for hospitality previously unavailable to Chesterton House. Since each house has a large living area, students can invite in others and host social gatherings. The spacious homes can accommodate more than 100 guests without feeling crowded.
The renovations completed in the fall include a courtyard between the houses, with a fire pit and additional seating.
As in its early days, public lectures and events draw the most diverse crowds for Chesterton House. When it partners with academic departments or other campus groups, the House can bring in top-notch scholars who attract students from all walks of life.
And while Johnson has never aspired for Chesterton House to resemble a traditional campus ministry, Chesterton House actively supports and partners with existing campus ministries at Cornell. Chesterton House even hosts weekly prayer for campus ministers and local pastors.
But Mathew sees the classes — where students receive credit through Gordon College, a Christian college located just north of Boston, Massachusetts — as a key to helping shape students’ thinking, and thus their hearts, for the long haul.
And the net effect of the events, classes, and residences is to create a Christian college on campus. “We’re giving students a chance to dig into Scripture and great literature in the tradition of a liberal arts education,” Johnson said. “We’re trying to embed the genius of a Christian liberal arts college into a research university.”
But rather than insulating students from the wider campus, Chesterton House exists to serve it. Chesterton House’s programs offer nonbelieving students a chance to see that the Christian faith connects vibrantly to intellectual pursuits. And for Christian students, Chesterton House programs push them to abandon a mindset that compartmentalizes faith and the rest of life.
As students break down the barriers between their faith and life, they can approach their campus community with love and hospitality.
“We want to increasingly integrate faith, the mind, and life together and get away from this default of compartmentalization,” Mathew said.
Seeking the Peace and Prosperity of the University
As students break down the barriers between their faith and life, they can approach their campus community with love and hospitality.
Mathew credits Johnson with pioneering a ministry approach that prioritizes partnering with academic departments at Cornell rather than operating in isolation. In Mathew’s view, the Chesterton House approach mirrors the approach Redeemer Church, his former church home, has taken to cities. The love and enthusiasm that became Redeemer’s default posture toward urban centers, Chesterton House has taken to the academy.
“We embrace the feel of the campus while also having a distinctly Christian approach,” Mathew said.
Johnson hopes that Chesterton House’s impact at Cornell will grow during the next 20 years. While its events can attract large crowds, Chesterton House reaches only a fraction of the 23,000 students attending Cornell. And despite the word “House” in the name, Chesterton House still lacks a day-use building with offices, meeting spaces, and a library.
But even without all the physical resources it might want, Chesterton House leaves a lasting impact.
David Mery graduated from Cornell in 2014 and recently returned to live in Chesterton House a second time. In an interview with Andrea Midgett for the Chesterton House website, Mery admitted that he struggled with Cornell’s academic demands and Chesterton House’s rules.
“I skipped a lot of House dinners that first semester. I wasn’t really a part of the community. I was taking a lot without giving back. I was also quite angry about some of the House rules. But God changed me. He changed my diligence, my academics, what I thought about Scripture. But first He changed my heart.”
Mery’s RA noticed that he was having a hard time and took him out for a meal. Being seen and cared for in a small gesture such as a meal meant the world to Mery, who dreamed of researching leukemia and working toward a cure.
“Living at Chesterton House, I was able to marry my intense passion for cancer treatment research with my faith. I eventually realized cancer research is, for me, a kind of worship.”
MEGAN FOWLER is a writer and editor based in Grove City, Pennsylvania.
Photographs by Colin Lenton