Oxford and Three Goals
Many years ago, a dear friend sent me a quote attributed to William Gladstone, Britain’s late 19th century Prime Minister. I was trying to decide whether to stay with my current employer or chart a new path. As I recall, my friend sent me the quote via text: “He is a wise man who wastes no energy on pursuits for which he is not fitted; and he is wiser still who, from among the things he can do well, chooses and resolutely follows the best.” When I found out our doctoral cohort would be staying at Christ Church College, I thought of that quote, because thanks to Paul Sullivan’s The Secret History of Oxford, I learned that Gladstone was one of the college’s famous graduates. Gladstone certainly added to Christ Church College’s “all-round eccentricity,”[1] as did John Locke, John Wesley, more than a dozen Prime Ministers, and even Einstein![2]
This leads to my first hope for our Advance: That Oxford would provide a context for clarity in “choosing and resolutely follow(ing) the best” pursuit, as the late prime minister suggests.
Of course, I do hope the Gladstone quote is true. Oxford is full of stories and legends. Consider Oxford’s beginnings. Sullivan writes, “Mythology names Mempric…, great-grandson of King Brutus, as actual founder of the city.”[3] Another story names the founder as “a local chieftain who attended the coronation of King Arthur at Caerleon in AD 516.”[4] Sullivan states, “We’re still in the realms of mythology when King Alfred the Great (AD 849-899) walks dejectedly through the ruins of Oxenford,” later determining to build/rebuild “a university in Oxford.”[5]
Oxford’s lore continued well into the 20th century. According to Alice Loxton’s “The Secrets of Oxford’s Streets,” legend has it that C.S. Lewis stumbled out of a doorway at Brasenose College one snowy evening. Lewis then came upon a lamppost while walking along St. Mary’s Passage, only to find a doorway with a “lion-like face in the center…flanked by two fawns…these two creatures that are half man and half goat.”[6] Is this really the inspiration for the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe? Another story includes the signature of a stonecutter, found on the street near the Sheldonian Theater. That signature is said to be the inspiration for the scar on Harry Potter’s forehead. “On a trip to Oxford, Rowling is said to have seen the mark just outside the Sheldonian, and the rest they say is history,” explains the narrator in the “OXFORD | 4K Narrated Walking Tour.”[7]
My second goal is to continue linking the past with present research. The more I learn about Oxford, the more curious I am in the quest to make these connections. For example, I had no idea of the late Sir John Templeton’s connection to Oxford as a modern benefactor.
In 2015, one year before I participated in a summer program with the Santa Fe Institute (SFI), the John Templeton Foundation granted SFI a $2.5 million grant to develop “a general theory of complexity.”[8] Who was John Templeton, and what did he do? Sullivan writes, “Templeton gave the Oxford Centre for Management Studies one of the largest cash-inputs ever made to a British educational establishment.”[9] Today that center is known as Green Templeton College.[10] Making the linkages of Templeton’s connection to Oxford, and his foundation’s support of think tanks like SFI, will make for interesting conversations in a local pub. I looked up the John Templeton Foundation’s mission statement, which reads: “The John Templeton Foundation funds research and catalyzes conversations that inspire people with awe and wonder.”[11]
This leads to a third goal: To have conversations that open new vistas for our NPO projects. After all, we will converse in the shadows of Tolkien and Lewis, perhaps the most prominent figures known to frequent Oxford’s Eagle and Child, “known locally as The Bird and Baby.”[12] I can imagine the conversations that took place within the walls of that “favoured watering hole,”[13] a place some of us will undoubtedly visit.
How will our NPOs play out during current and future shifts in culture? What new subjects will grow in their importance, and what will fade into the background? Oxford has certainly provided a context for change over the years. It was only last century (1920) that the university dropped “the requirement to have a working knowledge of Ancient Greek,” and it was as recent as 1960 that Oxford “decided that Latin…was no longer a prerequisite.”[14]
It wasn’t too long ago that people from outside the Church of England were not allowed to earn a degree at Mansfield College, now one of Oxford’s 44 colleges and private halls.[15] Of course, that brings us back to William Gladstone. In 1886, it was none other than Gladstone who instigated the founding of Mansfield.[16]
Who knows where our Bird and Baby conversations might take us? Perhaps they will continue to help chisel away what we no longer need to pursue — endeavors for which we aren’t “fitted” — so that we move toward the better pursuits God has for us.[17] These are the Oxford-esque conversations I hope to have.
[1] Paul Sullivan, The Secret History of Oxford, (Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press, 2013), Kindle Version, 52.
[2] Sullivan, 53.
[3] Sullivan, 10.
[4] Sullivan, 10.
[5] Sullivan, 13.
[6] See “The Secrets of Oxford’s Streets | And What Lies Beneath the University,” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jck5VOnNL0s (retrieved on August 12, 2023).
[7] See “OXFORD | 4K Narrated Walking Tour | Let’s Walk 2021,” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsR_G4as2fQ&t=1978s, (retrieved on August 12, 2023).
[8] See “John Templeton Foundation grants SFI $2.5 million to pursue general theory of complexity,” here: https://www.santafe.edu/news-center/news/JTFgrant-2015-announce-comprehensive-theory-complexity, (retrieved on August 12, 2023).
[9] Sullivan, The Secret History of Oxford, 57.
[10] Sullivan, 56.
[11] See the mission of the John Templeton Foundation here: https://www.templeton.org/about/vision-mission-impact (retrieved on August 12, 2023).
[12] Sullivan, The Secret History of Oxford, 183.
[13] Sullivan, 183.
[14] Sullivan, 39.
[15] Sullivan, 70.
[16] Sullivan, 70.
[17] “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” – Ephesians 2:10 (ESV)
About the Author
Travis Vaughn
5 responses to “Oxford and Three Goals”
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So well articulated, Travis! I too hope to gain “context for clarity in choosing and resolutely follow(ing) the best” pursuit,…linking the past with the present,…and gaining new vistas for my NPO.” To think that we will be in such a place where so many great thinkers fleshed out their research, their thoughts, and their every day lives is exciting to say the least. May it provide an atmosphere that inspires us in unique and transformative ways regarding our NPOs as well as our future life journeyings.
I am curious. If you could have just one conversation with someone who attended the University of Oxford, who would it be and why?
Esther, that is such a great question. There are so many names that immediately jump out! Perhaps one that stands out at this moment would be William Gladstone. His family name has been in the news recently. According to the BBC article I read this week, Gladstone’s father, John Gladstone, was “one of the largest slave owners in the British West Indies.” (see https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-66606975) Reparations has been the subject around Gladstone’s descendants. I had only known of Gladstone’s quotes, like the one I mentioned in my post. This new information brings a great number of things that I would like to converse with Gladstone about. I am still phrasing the questions in my mind.
Really well written post, Travis. You’ve made me think about how our learning in Oxford, including those informal conversations, could push my NPO forward. Admittedly, I think of my NPO work as forward-looking, doing something new, affecting change and so I think I’ve been forgetting to look to the past. Thanks for the reminder that I can look for clarity and inspiration while in this historically significant place.
Man, Travis, you are such a thought provoking leader! I love the quote by Gladstone. I really resonate with it and will keep it in mind as I experience Oxford. Thank you for the creative and clear way you write and definitely thank you for your humble walk with God. I’m looking forward to seeing you man!
Now you have me wondering if there is anyone or any place at Oxford studying mental health and the church… My NPO is tied to mental health and specifically in the church. I didn’t have any expectation that our visit to Oxford would be able to help me address my NPO – in truth, I didn’t give it much thought. Now you have me curious.