Dr. Ralph Winter wrote a memorandum to his colleague Fred Holland at Fuller Theological Seminary on September 13, 1976. He begins by saying he is sure Holland remembers George Patterson along with his constantly active efforts in Theological Education by Extension (TEE). He writes, “[His] booklet should be entitled “Rethinking Theological Education” and I have communicated the same to the people who publish it in Portland.”

Meanwhile, Winter believes the booklet would be of great value in the TEE courses at Fuller as one of the texts professors have the students read. He asks Holland what he thinks. Winter assumes this will be of value to them and so he has ordered 100 copies. If by any chance this is not of interest to Holland, Winter and others will simply sell the booklets through the Book Club. Otherwise, they are or will be available in the fall. Winter asks Holland to tell him what he thinks. Holland’s handwritten reply on the same memo mentions that they MUST get Winter’s TEE original textbook reprinted and because Holland’s own book, Teaching Through TEE, is practical rather than theory based, Holland welcomes the Patterson booklet that Winter is proposing be used.

 

The Faculty Fellowship Committee of Fuller Theological Seminary met on November 9, 1972 and Dr. Ralph Winter was present at this meeting, according to the minutes. They say that the committee talked about the Monday morning faculty prayer meeting and decided to keep the regular prayer meeting as it is being conducted currently. “However, on the basis of faculty expressions at the retreat in September, it has been suggested that the faculty be surveyed regarding interest in small groups whose purpose would be to allow for the expression of intimate concerns and related prayer.” No one took action on the matter of the survey.

Another discussion was about the quarterly faculty dinners. The committee decided that the faculty dinner coming up that includes a special guest should not substitute for one of the three regularly scheduled faculty dinners. Committee members considered various faculty presentations, and decided that one of them will approach three faculty members to ask about their willingness to present ideas for discussion at the Faculty Fellowship dinners. The first is President Hubbard, and the options for topics are the Wisdom Literature, his philosophy as seminary president, and Genesis chapters 1 and 2. The second is a gentleman who may speak generally if willing about his interest and concerns regarding Women’s Liberation. Thirdly, a gentleman will be invited to present his interest in the Male-Female writings which he recently completed. The committee agreed to hold the three faculty dinners of the year on Monday night of finals week for each of the three quarters. The first dinner, hence, will be on December 4, 1972. The minutes were submitted by a substitute committee member serving as the substitute secretary.

Dr. Ralph Winter submitted and presented a paper at the annual meeting of the American Scientific Affiliation in early August of 2002. The theme of the meeting is “Christian Pioneers in Science.” The plenary speakers are a professor of nuclear engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a professor of physics at the University of California in Berkeley. In the Call for Papers that the program chairs send out, they write, “We welcome contributed papers and poster presentations on all topics related to Science and Christianity, though special consideration will be given to historical papers dealing substantively with important Christian scientists from the past.” Emphasis will be given as well to symposia and panels that the commissioners organize and to papers and posters which young scientists, graduate students, and advance undergraduate students submit, with the hope of encouraging future Christian pioneers in science. They go on to say that papers ought to be based on work in one’s area of expertise, and where this is not obvious, presenters may be asked to show suitable documentation. This Call for Papers is designed to be copied and widely posted; presenters in addition to planning their own participation are urged to personally invite non-members and students to submit proposals and to attend.

Under the “Requirements and Guidelines for Abstracts,” one bullet point states that abstracts should emphasize the new and important parts of a presentation and include as much detail of the work as possible within the limit of 250 words. The abstract and presentation must be intelligible and clear to non-specialists. Authors are permitted to present only one paper, though they may be one of multiple authors on a paper. “Limitations on program space may require some individuals submitting requests for an oral paper to present posters; the chairs will notify such persons as soon as possible.” Oral papers that are contributed will be allotted a time of 20 minutes with 5 more minutes for discussion. A separate time and space is for poster presentations. Authors of poster exhibits will have detailed instructions given to them upon their abstracts being accepted.

 

These posts will be shorter while we are in search for a way to scan and upload the archives documents themselves to a website to which readers will have access. The documents will be in searchable PDF files. Please pray for us to be in this position soon! I will keep you informed.

On Friday, December 7^th in 1984 at 6:50 in the morning, Dr. Ralph Winter typed a write-up which he begins by stating that some years before, it seemed as though God gradually and insistently loaded down him and Roberta (his wife) with an awareness of a need that was great and urgent. For them at the time, the “obedience of faith” meant attempting to do what they could humanly see to be possible only remotely. But the risk is outweighed by the potential value. “The faith God gave us, which was sufficient to obey was in effect the conviction that what ought to be could be attempted without fear of the consequences.” Generally, what Winter is saying is that often, faith is simply the conviction that what ought to be must be pursued whatever the risks are. Therefore, faith is the conviction that what ought to be should be worked for without any human certainty of success. This is close to what their daughter Becky once said, which is that “faith is not the conviction that God will do what you want Him to do but the confidence that you can do what [He] wants done and leave the consequences with Him.”