Man’s Chief End: A Reflection on Dr. William C. Placher ’70
In the 17th century, when the Westminster Divines were writing the Westminster Shorter Catechism, one of the foundational documents of the Reformed/Presbyterian tradition, the first question they concerned themselves with was the purpose of mankind. “What is the chief end of man?” they asked. The response was short and simple: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” As could be expected, the next question inquired into how one could accomplish that: “What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?” The Divines answered: “The Word of God which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.” In many ways, Dr. William C. Placher’s life and career were devoted to these first two questions of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. His writings, his teachings, and his manners were devoted to God and to better making God real to the laity.
Dr. Placher was a son of the Illinois prairies, born in Peoria, Illinois. He was raised Christian, growing up in the Presbyterian Church – a connection he maintained throughout his life. He decided to attend Wabash College, where he immersed himself in theology and philosophy and quickly gained recognition by faculty and students for his brilliance. He proceeded to attended Yale Divinity School, where he came under the influence of the Hans Frei and the theological school of postliberalism, which deemphasized the spiritual authority of the individual and placed a greater emphasis on tradition and the authority of the community. Postliberalism greatly impacted how Dr. Placher formulated and articulated his theology.
Some theologians are distinctively liberal or conservative. Dr. Placher was neither. He rejected the liberal predilection of rejecting traditional doctrines and theologies. Instead, according to Dr. David Blix, “He rejoiced in traditional, orthodox Christianity.” His approach to theology was “Let’s not chuck it, let’s meditate on it.” A prime example of this were his thoughts on predestination. Though many Calvinists try to modify one of their signature doctrines to be more easily consumable, Dr. Placher held a fairly conservative view of the doctrine, believing that “our destinies are utterly in the hands of God.” Oftentimes, Drs. Placher and Blix would get into theological conversations about this issue, and Dr. Placher would say: “If you really take the idea of God seriously, that’s where you end up.” However, he was not afraid of criticizing his tradition’s Calvinist roots, when he found it necessary. Several years ago, Dr. Placher purchased a newly published set of Calvin’s works. He worked his way through them and, according to Dr. Blix, was not unwilling to criticize the Reformer. Indeed, in his 2001 book Jesus the Savior: The Meaning of Jesus Christ for the Christian Faith, he took a direct shot at Calvin. Regarding Calvin’s statement that “nothing relevant to salvation” occurred between Christ’s birth and His death, Dr. Placher retorted: “It’s one of the stupidest things Calvin ever said.” Though certainly a man of his tradition, he was willing to criticize it when necessary.
Dr. Placher desired very much to make theology understandable to the laity of the Church. According to Dr. Blix, he was “always looking for the best way to express faith.” In the preface to Jesus the Savior, Dr. Placher wrote: “‘Theology’ is a word that scares off many people, but ‘theology’ really just means reflecting on faith, and I’m convinced many people want to do that…It’s customary to distinguish among books written for laypeople, for pastors, for college students, or for seminarians. As a layperson myself, I’m skeptical of the distinctions. If the issues and the technical terms get explained along the way, any intelligent person can follow even complicated arguments, and I’m not persuaded that clergy or academic institutions have cornered the market on intelligence. Theology that engages laypeople may well be the right theology for a seminary classroom.” When God revealed Himself, He did not simply reveal himself to the academics or the clergy. Indeed, He revealed Himself to the lowly. Therefore, there is no reason why modern theology should be sequestered within the ivory tower, starving the laity of intellectual and spiritual nutrition. Dr. Placher wrote his books with the express purpose of feeding the sheep of God and aiding them in their spiritual journeys.
While all Wabash men and many in the Crawfordsville community knew that Dr. Placher was a prominent theologian, they probably did not realize how important a theologian he truly was – particularly within the Presbyterian Church (USA). After the merger of the two mainline Presbyterian churches in 1983, it was decided that a new confession of faith would be needed to articulate the Reformed faith in the 20th century. This came to fruition in the Brief Statement of 1993. Dr. Placher was one of those on the committee and was quite influential in crafting one of the phrases, particularly the one that states: “In gratitude to God, empowered by the Spirit, we strive to serve Christ in our daily tasks and to live holy and joyful lives, even as we watch for God’s new heaven and new earth, praying, Come, Lord Jesus! With believers in every time and place, we rejoice that nothing in life or in death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Though life on earth may seem dismal and depressing, all the saints of God’s Church must realize that nothing can separate one from God’s eternal, abiding love.
The idea of God’s love was one of the hallmarks of Dr. Placher’s faith and theology. Indeed, Jesus the Savior and The Triune God (2007) were strong testimonies of God’s devotion to His people. Though we are weak and fallen, God is strong. He wrote in Jesus the Savior: “God is, oddly, most powerful in stooping to our weakness.” God’s love is perhaps best expressed through the actions of His disciples. A regular attendant at Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church, Dr. Placher gave of himself greatly to his church. According to his pastor, the Rev. John Van Nuys ’83, worship was an incredibly important aspect of the Christian life for him. One of the Rev. Van Nuys’ most enduring memories of Dr. Placher is how he reacted to the readings of Scripture during the service. The professor would close his eyes, attempting to absorb as much out of the readings as feasibly possible. He served as an elder at Wabash Avenue, participating in the church governance. Even in death Dr. Placher continues to serve the Church, donating his extensive theological library to a seminary in the Third World. “For him,” according to the Rev. Van Nuys, “faith wasn’t a laundry list, but a way of taking belief into one’s core and living it out.”
In the best sense of the word, Dr. Placher was truly a “catholic” theologian. In the words of the Rev. Van Nuys, “He knew the full breadth of the theology of the Church,” and “he could make them [the theologians] converse with each other.” Naturally, being a Presbyterian, Dr. Placher had a firm grasp of the theology of John Calvin. However, he did not restrict his mind and interests strictly to the Reformed tradition. Indeed, among his favorite theologians were Augustine, Hans Urs Van Balthasar (a Catholic), Hans Wilhelm Frei (a Baptist), and Wolfhart Pannenberg (a Lutheran). In his writings, he brought all views to bear. While he certainly disagreed with some of the theologians that he referenced, he always treated them respectfully and then proceeded to demonstrate where he disagreed with their points.
As important as tradition was, Scripture was central in the formation of Dr. Placher’s theology. Indeed, he was using his sabbatical at St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, to write a commentary on the Gospel of Mark and was also an editorial consultant to the Theological Commentary on the Bible, a multivolume Biblical commentary to be published by Westminster John Knox Press, the publishing arm of the Presbyterian Church (USA). In a speech that was later published in Struggling with Scripture, Dr. Placher discussed his views on Scripture: “We insist, indeed, that in believing what the Bible means and teaches, rather than in misunderstandings of it, we are most faithful to it. We vow to manifest ourselves as the people who take the Bible most seriously, who struggle hardest to be faithful to it, recognizing that faithfulness always does involve struggle and the recognition of complexity, even as we find this book shaping our lives and our faith and guiding us to the knowledge and love of God.” Dr. Placher utilized the historical-critical method of Bible study. However, he did not allow this method to rip the divine from the sacred text. Instead, he used it to probe further into Scripture and attempt to further decipher the meaning and implications of its words.
Dr. Placher certainly lived a life that strived “to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” He fell in love with Christ and never let hardship or circumstances separate him from his God. As Dr. Placher wrote in Jesus the Savior: “This Jesus can capture your heart and not let go, and he calls us to a dangerous discipleship. Yet our hearts are restless till they find their rest in God; we seek to make sense of a world that doesn’t seem to make sense on its own; we want a way of living that does not keep turning ourselves in on ourselves. When we truly encounter Jesus – incarnate and ministering among us, crucified and resurrected – our fireproof hearts catch fire, and in following him we come to that obedience to God which is perfect freedom, and we begin to find our way home.” Dr. Placher’s heart surely did catch fire with that love, and so he has found his way home.
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