Covenant News

Zenos Hawkinson Book Now Available

CHICAGO (April 20, 2000) - A book written by one of the foremost writers and speakers in the Evangelical Covenant Church, Zenos Hawkinson, has been released by the Covenant Publications division of the Department of Communication.

Hawkinson's book, Anatomy of the Pilgrim Experience: Reflections on Being a Covenanter, is not just a historical description of the denomination. It is a written version of the Covenant told by an historian and storyteller committed to making the church relevant to others.

"The never-ending fascination of history for me lies in the drama of human experience, in the strange repetitiveness of our situations and problems, as well as in the color and variety of the changes we experience," writes Hawkinson as he described his passion for church history. Editors Philip A. Anderson and David J. Hawkinson (Zenos's son) attempt to stay true to this passion.

Zenos Hawkinson was a history professor at North Park College from 1952 until his retirement in 1976. In 1988, North Park established an award for teaching excellence and campus leadership in recognition of Hawkinson's devotion to his students. Besides his work at the college, he was a well-known speaker and writer throughout the denomination and was noted for his forward thinking by many colleagues.

A man with Swedish and Norwegian heritage, Hawkinson wrote and spoke often of people of faith and their individual journeys. For him, the story of the Evangelical Covenant Church and the history of Israel as found in scripture were interconnected, and his renown as a lay preacher came as a result of his ability to weave the oral tradition of both entities into a vivid and poignant canvas.

The opening section of Hawkinson's book is based on transcriptions of tape-recorded lectures delivered in 1978 at a conference ministerium, the focus primarily on what he believed were common themes of the immigrant experience. Section two, which includes five essays, delves into certain key elements of Covenant tradition. The third and final section is entitled "First Questions," a favorite phrase of Hawkinson indicating questions of life and faith.

In the book's final piece, a letter written to North Park faculty shortly before his retirement, Hawkinson shares a few indicators of what made him so passionate about what he did. Although he had never intended his work as a professor to be seen only as "Uncle Zenos's Story Hour" (as it was jokingly referred to by one student), he appreciated the truth about the importance of story to the human condition. In that spirit, Hawkinson's efforts have been synthesized over the course of 151 pages.

Anatomy of the Pilgrim Experience: Reflections on Being a Covenanter is now available through Covenant Bookstore. To order, call 773-478-4676 or contact the bookstore by e-mail at covbooks@aol.com.

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