Dr. Chris Franks has worked at HPU for 19 years and is the Owen D. and Mattie Holt McPherson associate professor of religion and philosophy, the chair of the department and the pre-ministry advisor.
What do you do in your role?
My first focus is teaching classes that invite students into a wider world of conversations about God, faith and morality. I primarily teach Christian ethics and history of Christian thought. I also do research and writing in these fields. As department chair, I oversee the administration of my department. As a pre-ministry advisor, I mentor students and help them discern their vocations and prepare for graduate theological education if that’s their goal.
How do you contribute to HPU’s mission to ensure every student receives an extraordinary education in an inspiring environment with caring people?
The most important thing a teacher can do is to love their students and walk alongside them — helping them see the relevance of the subject matter to their own lives. I try to do that in every class I teach. A positive relationship between teacher and student can give a student confidence to take subject matter seriously that they might have wanted to learn only at a distance. Trying to bring our whole selves into engagement with intellectual inquiry about profound topics can transform us; not only by what we study, but by the relationships we develop as we pursue it together.
How do you help students develop life skills that they will use to achieve lives of success and significance after they graduate from HPU?
I can’t think of any life skills more important to achieving lives of success and significance than the ability to connect our knowledge, creativity and productivity to our deepest questions about God, the goodness of the world and the dignity of human life. This is hard work that disciplines the mind, broadens horizons and has the potential to reconcile divisions within ourselves and connect us with our neighbors in love. As students of any faith, or none, learn to engage in these questions in an academic setting, they become prepared for work and for life, for reading carefully, thinking critically, taking religious convictions seriously and embarking on their own lifelong pursuit of wisdom.
What is a way that you provide students with experiential learning opportunities?
My favorite way is by teaching service-learning classes such as Environmental Ethics. Nothing is better at helping students understand how environmental degradation is intimately connected to social issues than having them engage directly with people who lack access to clean water or healthy food. This makes problems become personal in a new way.
What are you most looking forward to this next academic year?
I’m always excited about my classes, but this year I’m especially excited about the passion many students have for further exploring theological education. We have six HPU alums working toward seminary or divinity school for fall 2022; a high mark since I’ve been at HPU. I love walking with these young people and witnessing how God works in their lives to draw their gifts out of them.
What is one thing you want parents and students to know about HPU?
I want to brag on my colleagues, particularly the ones I’m most familiar with in the liberal arts and sciences. HPU has such an amazing collection of scholar-mentors in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and the arts. Students truly get a holistic education steeped in the liberal arts.
What’s one way you generate creativity or productivity?
The fourth-century monk Evagrius said, “A theologian is one who prays, and one who prays is a theologian.” When you are immersed in the intellectual work of theology, it is easy to forget to pray. But when I need to be creative and productive and the well seems dry, I have found that prayer is often just the thing to help me gain perspective on my work and remember what it is for and whence it comes.
What is your favorite quote?
“The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us?” — Dorothy Day
What is your favorite place on campus?
Finding a quiet spot in the Woodland Hillside Garden behind Blessing residence hall.
What do you love most about working at HPU?
Getting to live a life that intersects with those of so many wonderful students. Although four years come and go quickly, those relationships are tremendously rewarding, and sometimes they continue long after graduation!