In Constant Dialogue
I experienced a whirlwind turnaround in my life when I came to Santa Fe to go to St. John’s College. I started coming to Holy Trinity the week after I met my now wife, Emilia. At the time that I began to come to the services I was still living in a kind of secular materialism, but I have been searching for the truth my entire life and so had no qualms about exploring yet another avenue of thought. I had no thoughts whatsoever about Emilia being my girlfriend or Christianity being my faith (never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined this). However, two key aspects changed everything.
The first important aspect was this: I met some people at Holy Trinity that day who have changed my life forever. These people had the thing. They possessed the kind of completely assured, foundational, deeply rooted peace that absolutely nothing could shake. I got the sense that I had never before seen this thing these people had anywhere else. From there my innate Johnnie behaviors (I am still here after 4 years, so it’s clear these structures were encoded from the beginning) kicked in and I started reading as much as I possibly could. Through repeatedly being present during the most important event in the universe (the divine liturgy), through talking to Fr. Jesse and the parishioners at our vivacious parish, through visiting the monastery as much as I was able, and through voraciously reading about Orthodoxy, I realized that there was nowhere else to go but down—or up I suppose—from here. I had reached the bottomless well, and I had to begin to draw from it—or the highest ladder I suppose, and I had to begin to climb it. Now I’m married to my best friend in the world and spiritual partner, and I'm a senior at St. John’s College! Wow!
The second important aspect was this: Being at St. John’s and discovering Orthodoxy at the same time have been reciprocally beneficial things. The more I read at school, the more Orthodoxy came to be in dialogue with the texts for me, and the more I read about Orthodoxy, the more I saw parallels between it and the thoughts of the great philosophers. Everything we read Freshman and Sophomore year at St. Johns just gives you this beautiful and mind boggling understanding of how ancient thought came to its fulfillment and fruition in the incarnation of Christ on Earth.
So these two things were ultimately very intertwined for me. I think St. John’s College is a fantastic place for Orthodox students to go because it provides a kind of environment that challenges you in all the right ways but is never hostile or demeaning. A prominent longtime ROCOR tutor at the college once gave me a word that’s stuck with me. When I expressed to him my fears about reading the moderns who criticize and “overturn” Christianity Junior and Senior year he said to me: “Read the moderns with the intention to understand them completely. If you truly come to understand their arguments, it will only strengthen your faith.” This has turned out to be very much the case for me. In fact, the more time and energy I spend really trying to understand the points of views expressed by the enemies of Christ and His Church, the more I am filled with zeal for Him and am certain that He is the Truth. Furthermore, my classmates serve a very similar role for me as the authors we read. We are in constant dialogue with one another about the texts that we read. Having the opportunity to speak with so many people with so many diverse viewpoints makes me a better conversationalist and makes me able to understand where people are coming from, even those who disagree with me on a fundamental level.
If you are an Orthodox student who is thinking about coming to St. John’s, here is my advice: Do! I have consistently grown stronger and stronger in my passionate love for the St. John’s program as the years go on. There is not one other school in the country where you can get an education as engaging and invigorating as this one. I stand by that. If you want to be challenged academically, socially, and spiritually in order to become stronger, happier, and more curious, you must come. If that’s not enough for you, and you still aren’t sure: here’s the reasoning I used to weasel myself into at least trying it out: If you start anywhere else and don’t like it, you have to start over at Freshman year when you transfer to St. John’s. But, if you start Freshman year at St. John’s and don’t like it (an impossibility, but just tell yourself that you have this out if you truly don’t like it), you can transfer anywhere you like and not have to start over! There you have it.
Evan John Shortridge - Undergrad Program - Graduating Class of 2026