Craig Dykstra saw things afresh
The longtime Lilly Endowment vice president’s impact is felt in the hospitable spaces he cultivated, the disciplined reflection he nurtured, and the ripple effects of a life well lived.
Craig Dykstra (courtesy of Duke Divinity School)
It is rare to meet someone whose words, leadership, and life cohere as beautifully as they did in Craig Dykstra, who died this week. Craig was an early proponent of the importance of “vision and character,” and he wrote a book with that title. He was focused on “growing in the life of faith,” the title of another of his books. Along the way his emphasis on vision became oriented toward imagination, specifically pastoral imagination, and his emphasis on character and its formation became centered on the importance of Christian practices. He helped others, and especially those of us who knew him, see things afresh.
Craig spent much of his life developing his ideas in and through administrative leadership, especially as vice president for religion at the Lilly Endowment. In that work he emphasized the importance of creating “hospitable spaces for disciplined reflection,” and he did so, drawing ever larger communities into the orbit of relationships and networks cultivated by the endowment.
Throughout his life Craig embodied convictions, drawn from his Reformed Christian commitments, rooted in the awe and wonder of God and the beauty of God’s grace. He loved the poetry of Denise Levertov, especially her poem “The Avowal” and its image of a “free fall” into floating in God’s “all-surrounding grace.”
