There are over thirty Christian Study Centers in the USA, all of which serve to bridge the gap between the local church and the university at places like Cornell, Dartmouth, MIT, University of Minnesota, and UNC-Chapel Hill. As a tested and reliable model of ministry, Christian Study Centers complement the local church, traditional campus ministries, and secular universities, mediating the formative powers of the church and the university toward Jesus. Christian Study Centers are theologically orthodox and intellectually hospitable: we hold to the truth of the gospel while serving the broader university community through public lectures, reading groups, and other activities. You can learn more about the Christian Study Center movement here.

Like other Christian Study Centers, we aim to secure a house adjacent to both Brown and RISD as soon as possible to develop and host our programming, thereby serving as a hub for all Christians at Brown and RISD. As a “third place” for Christian life, Providence Hall will include office and meeting space for campus ministers, students, and our ongoing hospitality ministry. Providence Hall will, therefore, serve Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox students and all other people of good will interested in our programming. Of course, this means we need your involvement and support to grow! If you are a student, faculty member, or community member in the surrounding area, consider signing up here for updates about events, reading groups, and the like.

The Study Center movement isn’t new, but Providence Hall is. Birthed from countless meetings, prayers, whiteboard sessions, and the careful study and reflection of Christians in Providence and the broader movement, we are starting a study center in College Hill. Although we are brand new, we have already hosted reading groups on several texts including CS Lewis’s The Abolition of Man, Athanasius’s On The Incarnation, Greene’s The Power and The Glory, O’Connor’s Wise Blood, Baldwin’s Go Tell It On The Mountain, and Robinson’s Gilead. We have much more in the works including a screening and conversation with an award-winning filmmaker and reading groups on Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, Berry’s Hannah Coulter, Miller’s Canticle for Leibowitz, Fujimura’s Art and Faith, Weil’s The Need for Roots, and Augustine’s City of God.

Providence Hall aims to complement the work of existing campus fellowships, local churches, and the secular universities. Like other Christian Study Centers, Providence Hall is distinct from the campus ministries, churches, and universities it serves.

• Compared to Brown and RISD, Providence Hall is Christian, not secular.

• Compared to the traditional campus ministries, Providence Hall will be both more academic and more persistently hospitable due to our physical place; Providence Hall is also less evangelistic in the colloquial sense than traditional campus ministries.

• Compared to the local church, Providence Hall will be more academic and more physically present to the campuses.

To be clear: Providence Hall—nor any Christian Study Center—can exist properly without coordinating with local churches, universities, and traditional campus ministries. It is exactly because Study Centers like Providence Hall engage in their distinct work that they can support and be supported by universities, churches, and traditional campus ministries. We do not compete, but complement. That is our aim. As such, however you may choose to support, we urge you not to divert any existing energy or resources away from campus ministries, local churches, or Brown and RISD to support Providence Hall.

You may be wondering what our vision for the future is. What does a semester (or year) at Providence Hall look like down the line?

Picture a library with a hearth, a kitchen, a coffee counter, a front porch, a gallery, and a lawn. A home near campus with these features will be the setting for conversing, studying, feasting, mingling, and ruminating amidst dear friends and near strangers alike. Students do their homework, deepen friendships, meet with mentors, and spend time in prayer and reflection on scripture and works of Christian art and literature. Different gatherings and activities would fill the semester, each of which serve one or more of our priorities.

Short Great Books: Short reading groups on Great Books which can reasonably be completed in 3-6 meetings. Examples include Mere Christianity, Leisure the Basis of Culture, The Abolition of Man, On the Incarnation, The Consolation of Philosophy, Life Together, Breaking of the Outer Man and Release of the Spirit, King Lear, The Prince, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, The Face of God, Gilead, Hannah Coulter, Gorgias, and the Oresteia. Open to an intergenerational audience of undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and community members, with preference for those officially affiliated with Brown or RISD. Meetings include a shared meal and may be partnered with faculty.

The Great Read: Biannual reading groups on a longer text. Examples include Augustine’s City of God, Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, Taylor’s A Secular Age, Barth’s Epistle to the Romans, Calvin’s The Institutes of Christian Religion, and Bunyan’s Pilgram’s Progress. Texts will be decided based on quality and interest. Open to an intergenerational audience of undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and community members, with preference for those officially affiliated with Brown or RISD. Meetings include a shared meal.

Book Match: The Director, staff, and volunteers curate a list of books which they have read and consider works of Christian genius or deep perspective by authors interacting with the Christian moral, intellectual, and historical tradition. Most authors will be Christian, but not all. Each book will have a determined lead-time, meaning that the student can set a meeting outside the lead time (usually 3-14 days). The student schedules a 1- to 2-hour block with the Director, staff, or volunteer. These meetings are one-on-one and responsive to student interest. If multiple students request the same book, it may be desirable to create a short course reading group. The easiest selections books will be things like Mere Christianity and Every Good Endeavor. These are good, in Lewis’s case, great books. However, students can handle more challenging reads; hence, a curated list. The list will be generated over time in consultation with the Director. Once a “Short Great Book”  or “Great Read” is completed, it can be added to the list for Book Match.

Internship- and Employment-Based Mentorship and Curriculum: Many students engage in desirable summer employment or internship opportunities (e.g. technology, medicine, education, politics, law). Providence Hall will provide a short curriculum for students to reflect on the role of Christians in Public Life. The curriculum will involve an orientation weekend, regular check-ins, and a debrief after the opportunity concludes. Providence Hall will pair students with suitable Christian mentors in their sector or organization.

Ebenezer Gatherings: Admitted Students’ Day, Parents’ Weekend, Convocation, Welcome Weekend, and Commencement are excellent times to connect students with appropriate resources and relationships with local churches, ministries, and opportunities on campus and/or convene a celebratory space. Dedicate time and space to celebrate the great things God has done.

Table: Invitation-only dinners hosted by a junior or senior. Conversation is convened around the topic of the student’s choice and developed in consultation with Director or staff. Invites must include at least one faculty member, one pastor, one other student, and one non-Christian—and all must sensibly relate to the convened topic. The student will serve as intellectual host of the discussion and help plan the meal.

Salon: A Christian filmmaker, artist, musician, or thinker will convene the informal exhibition of masterworks of film, music, artwork, or architecture which have explicit or implicit Christian themes. Examples include Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, Laughton’s Night of the Hunter, Bentley’s Train Dreams, Lee’s Do the Right Thing, Gerwig’s Little Women, Peele’s Nope, Coen & Coen’s True Grit, Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion, Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony (No. 2), Mitchell’s Blue, Buckley’s Grace, Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, Cohen’s You Want It Darker, Hill’s Miseducation, Walker & Gillette’ Industrial National Bank (Superman Building), Rembrandt’s Return of the Prodigal Son, Caravaggio’s Incredulity of St. Thomas, Sistine Chapel, Sister Morgan’s Fan, Dali’s Last Supper, Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie Woogie, Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia, and Thomas’s Starry Night and the Astronauts. These Salons are excellent for both deep believers, new believers, and non-Christians. Open to all students, faculty, staff, volunteers, and associated community members. Discussions should go on late into the night with food provided.

The Great Conversation: These are open-door conversations between some combination of the Director, staff, faculty, graduate students, and invited guests from beyond Providence. The conversation should put the guest’s expertise in conversation with the Christian theological, moral, and intellectual tradition. The guest does not have to be Christian, but one of the interlocutors must be Christian. When possible, the conversation will involve a Great Read from the current or prior year.