To Our University Community,
鈥淟ight鈥� is, as Dorothy L. Sayers suggests, 鈥渢he most familiar of all metaphors.鈥� The image of 鈥渢he light鈥� can be used in so many ways, to illustrate multiple concepts and ideas. Recall the classic cartoon image of a character having a brilliant thought 鈥� *bing* 鈥� and the lightbulb appears over its head. Of course, light is also associated with life and growth. The cold, dark winter is followed by the lengthening of days, the warming rays of the sun, and plants, dormant during the cold, starting to put forth buds and shoots.
Implicit is always the counterpart of light, darkness. The very first verses of the Bible recount that, before God did anything, there was darkness over everything. 鈥淟et there be light鈥� was the first command, driving out the darkness and creating the conditions needed for life. Throughout history and literature darkness is used to represent fear and anxiety because when all is dark and obscure, we cannot see what may be lurking to harm us. A tree root, sticking up in our path that we trip over, a thief hiding in the corner. Light dispels the darkness and reveals the way before us.
鈥淗aving light we pass it on to others.鈥�
Wittenberg鈥檚 founders never recorded the reason for choosing this quote from Plato鈥檚 Republic as our school鈥檚 motto. Being Lutheran ministers well familiar with the opening of John鈥檚 Gospel, 鈥渋n [Christ] was life, and the life was the light of all people; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it,鈥� (John 1:4-5), it seems clear that our founders interpreted Plato鈥檚 imagery as an apt metaphor for sharing the Light of Christ to all the world.
Today, not all members of our Wittenberg community are Christians, and neither was Plato, who lived nearly 2,500 years ago (400 years before Jesus was born). Wittenberg President Emeritus William Kinnison writes in his history of the University that while the quote 鈥渨as not a central idea from The Republic鈥he image, that of Socrates thinking, conversing, asking questions, and sharing thoughts with others, is not an inappropriate picture of the function of a college,鈥� (Kinnison, Modern Wittenberg, p. 355).
In other words, the light to be passed on to others is knowledge, wisdom, and truth. As a lamp illuminates a room and reveals its contents, so knowledge and truth dispel the darkness of ignorance and uncertainty. Understanding and applying that knowledge and truth is wisdom.
鈥淗aving light we pass it on to others鈥� 鈥� our motto, our responsibility, and our calling for a lifetime.
Yours,
Christian M. M. Brady, DPhil (Oxon.)
President