On Friday, October 20, 2023, Olivet Nazarene University installed a new statue in the Decker Quadrangle, the official center of campus. The statue, titled “Credential and Calling,” serves as a visual reminder of the Olivet focus: Education with a Christian Purpose.
Nearly a year and a half ago, alumnus Ed Nash ’66 approached University President Dr. Gregg Chenoweth with the hope of commissioning a piece of art to impact current and future generations on campus. From that moment, sculptor Scott Stearman, art professor Jon Seals, and architect Dale Jerome ’12 Ph.D, along with other members from the Olivet community, came together to make this vision a reality.
The installation features four figures – Jesus, a male student, a female student, and a professor – all dressed in graduation regalia. This emphasizes that Olivet’s relationship with students is to extend to graduation and beyond, seeing them through all of their achievements. In this piece, Jesus talks with the students while the professor listens to Jesus, partnering with him for the benefit the student while the students listen to Jesus while under the care of the professor.
The figures also stand symbolically in the exact sightline between the front steps of Benner Library and the front steps of the Betty and Kenneth Hawkins Centennial Chapel. They connect a place of learning together with a space of faith, symbolizing the integration of faith and learning described in Olivet’s 1915 Catalog, “We seek the strongest scholarship and deepest piety, knowing they are thoroughly compatible.”
During Friday’s Installation Ceremony, Dr. Gregg Chenoweth commissioned this new piece as part of a new sacred space:
“I stand here and remember Old Testament Jacob who possessed a vision from God, at Bethel, of angels ascending and descending from Heaven. In that moment Jacob exclaimed, ‘The Lord is here but I didn’t even know it! How awesome is this place?’ Dr. Chenoweth continued, “What if God made use of this space like that? What if you weren’t just gazing at art, but joined us in dedicating this physical space for metaphysical encounters for generations to come? What if legions of passersby could say, like Jacob, ‘I thought this was just the Quad. I thought this was just a statue. But the Lord is in this place, and I didn’t even know it!’”
For more information about spiritual development at Olivet, visit olivet.edu/spiritual-development.
