Serious Joy Quarterly - Bethlehem College and Seminary

Special Year-end Edition

December 2025

Love Our City:
An Energetic Enclave of Reformed Theology

Nearly all major American cities have weathered social, political, and economic turmoil in the past decade. Minneapolis and Saint Paul, to be sure, have endured more than their fair share. Still, the Twin Cities were recently judged to be among the “Top 10 Most Livable Cities in the World” . . .

The Good of Cities for Intellectual Communities

What do 6th century benedictine monks in Italy, the 18th century Republic of Letters across Europe, and this 21st century Ciceronian Society here in Virginia all have in common? They were all intellectual communities oriented toward a common goal and organized by a common rule or . . .

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IN LIGHT OF THE GREATEST BOOK

World-building Transformed Tolkien from Good to Great

Imagine hearing half the alphabet every time someone said your name. For J.R.R. Tolkien, or his given name John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, his name was quite a mouthful, so he went by John or Ronald with his family, and Tollers or JRRT with his friends. But for all of you and for myself, his name is not just a mouthful of letters. Like his initials, his name itself points to something much longer and more complex than was . . .

Barbara Winters: The Prayerful, Faithful Librarian

“We will pray for you.” These are the words that flow forth in Barbara Winters’ Virginian intonation to every student who visits Bethlehem College and Seminary and steps within the comforting structure of its library. Surrounded by a “wall” of commentaries, the ever-growing personal collection of John Piper, and myriad other resources . . .

A Testimony by Pastor Edison DSouza

M.Div. ’25, Mysore, India

Before I came to Bethlehem College and Seminary, I served for thirteen years as the preaching pastor of a church I planted in India. During these years, I wished I had gone to seminary. Well-meaning pastors comforted me by calling seminaries “cemeteries,” impractical and unhelpful for . . .