Rev. Jones was fresh out of Drew University Seminary and four years in the Navy. He was filled with the teachings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Reinhold Niebuhr. Bonhoeffer stressed that the role of a Christian was a moral one of total engagement in the world with the promotion of human development. Niebuhr struck a persuasive balance between a clear-eyed realism about human nature and an unrelenting passion for justice and social reform. Rev. Jones stressed that a Christian life was 「faith in action.」I had never met anyone like him. Don called his Sunday and Thursday night Methodist Youth Fellowship sessions 「the University of Life. 」 He was eager to work with us because he hoped we would become more aware of life outside of Park Ridge. He sure met his goals with me.Because of Don's 「University, 」I first read e. e. cummings and T S. Eliot;experiencedPicasso's paintings, especially Guernica,and debated the meaning of the 「Grand Inquisitor" in Dostoyevsky's Brothers Karamazov. I came home bursting with excitement and shared what I had learned with my mother,who quickly came to find in Don a kindred spirit. But the University of Life was not just about art and literature. We visitedblack and Hispanic churches in Chicago's inner city for exchanges with their youthgroups. In the discussions we had sitting around church basements,I learned that,despite the obvious differences in our environments,these kids were more like me than I ever could have imagined. They also knew more about what was happening in the civil rightsmovement in the South. I had only vaguely heard of Rosa Parks and Dr.Martin Luther
King,but these discussions sparked my interest.
瓊斯牧師剛從德魯大學神學院畢業，在海軍服役四年。他充滿了迪特里希·朋霍費爾和賴因霍爾德·尼布爾的教誨。朋霍費爾強調，基督徒的角色是一種道德角色，即全世界都參與促進人類發展。尼布爾在對人性的清醒的現實主義和對正義和社會改革的不懈熱情之間取得了令人信服的平衡。瓊斯牧師強調，基督徒的生活是「對行動的信心」。我從未見過像他這樣的人。唐把周日和周四晚上的衛理公會青年聯誼會稱為「生命大學」。他渴望與我們合作，因為他希望我們能更加了解公園嶺以外的生活。因為唐的《大學》，我第一次讀到了e.e.cummings和T.s.艾略特；體驗畢卡索的繪畫，尤其是格爾尼卡，並討論了「大檢察官」的含義「在陀思妥耶夫斯基的《卡拉馬佐夫兄弟》中。我回到家中，興奮不已，與母親分享了我學到的東西，母親很快發現了唐的精神。但生命大學不僅僅是藝術和文學。我們參觀了芝加哥市中心的黑人和西班牙裔教堂，與他們的年輕人交流。在我們坐在教堂地下室的討論中明白了，儘管我們的環境有明顯的差異，但這些孩子比我想像的更像我。他們也更加了解南方民權運動的情況。我只隱約聽說過羅莎·帕克斯和馬丁·路德博士金，但這些討論激發了我的興趣。