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Letters to a Student: Encouraging Words from a Christian Mentor
Life on campuses or the 21st Century can be a very challenging experience for the young Christian. Amongst competing belief systems it can seem the only one absent is orthodox, evangelical Christianity Then there are the practical concerns and temptations...for the parent and student alike it is a daunting prospect. Letters to a student, by Dr Donald Drew is a series of letters from an old friend to a student giving advice on all sorts of issues, which a student may encounter in their years at college - Freshers Week, Christian Unions, evangelism, doubt, temptation, guidance, marriage, singleness, mountaineering, literature, music, exams, consumerism, and graduating. The tone is similar to Letters to Malcolm, by C.S. Lewis.
- GenresChristian
192 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2003
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September 6, 2024
It is a cause of great concern for Christian parents and not an uncommon reality that some students who have been brought up in Christian homes and seem to be following the same path lose their way spiritually at university. It is also true that many students with no Christian background come to life-changing faith while at university, often through Christian friends or contact with the Christian Union. The university years can be a turning point (in either direction) or a confirming point in life.
This book is written in the form of letters from an older friend to a Christian starting out at university, “giving advice on issues like Freshers’ Week, Christian Unions, developing a Christian world-view, evangelism, doubt, temptation, guidance, discovering your gifts, relationships and graduating”. The chapters, which consist of one ‘letter’ each, are quite brief, ranging in length from one to five pages.
Sometimes a letter reads a little like an ordinary personal letter, touching on a variety of subjects. Sometimes it is more like a lecture on one topic, such as one entitled ‘The Consuming Culture of Consumerism’. Often a subject is introduced in one letter and developed in later ones. For instance, in a chapter entitled ‘Today’s Controlling Ideas’ the subject of naturalism—the idea that everything that exists is contained within the tangible world of nature—is briefly introduced but then elaborated, compared with creationism and its implications set out in later letters.
As well as helping students to navigate and respond to the assumptions, philosophies and world views they will meet at university, Donald Drew also gives forthright advice on personal matters of development and spiritual growth. Several letters deal with the character, importance and necessity of the Bible in the daily life of a Christian. He also talks about prayer, marriage and singleness, temptation, faith, doubt, art, literature, hobbies, friendship and guidance. Though the letters are a little intense and daunting at times, they are always wise, forthright and clear.
Though the author never married or had children of his own, in other ways he was well qualified to write such a book as this. As a secondary school teacher and pastoral head for many years, he was accustomed to guiding teenage boys, with all their vagaries and virtues, through their later school years. As a staff worker at the L’Abri study centre under Francis Schaeffer in Switzerland and as a regular lecturer at American and British colleges and universities, he had much experience of counselling and communicating with students and answering their questions.
Donald Drew was my English teacher and housemaster at St Lawrence College in Ramsgate in the 1960s. I can testify to the integrity and solidity of his Christian character. With his very high personal standards and expectations of the boys under his care, he could be austere and daunting—something not unusual in the context of the ethos of English public schools at the time. Even so, he was held in high respect by his charges, if not in their affections. I owe him a great deal for the practical and spiritual guidance he gave me personally as I came to the end of my school years. I still remember a number of his sayings, for example: “You’re not what you think you are but what you think, you are.”
Donald Drew gave me a typescript copy of what must have been a very early incarnation of this book when I left school in 1968. It had developed and changed almost beyond recognition by the time it was finally published 35 years later, when he was in his 80s. Inevitably, then, some of its expressions, references and concerns seem a little dated now—not surprising in view of the fact that it is now over 20 years since its publication. It is perhaps more surprising how up to date and relevant so much of it is. There is a wealth of wisdom and good advice for those who will persevere with it.
This book is written in the form of letters from an older friend to a Christian starting out at university, “giving advice on issues like Freshers’ Week, Christian Unions, developing a Christian world-view, evangelism, doubt, temptation, guidance, discovering your gifts, relationships and graduating”. The chapters, which consist of one ‘letter’ each, are quite brief, ranging in length from one to five pages.
Sometimes a letter reads a little like an ordinary personal letter, touching on a variety of subjects. Sometimes it is more like a lecture on one topic, such as one entitled ‘The Consuming Culture of Consumerism’. Often a subject is introduced in one letter and developed in later ones. For instance, in a chapter entitled ‘Today’s Controlling Ideas’ the subject of naturalism—the idea that everything that exists is contained within the tangible world of nature—is briefly introduced but then elaborated, compared with creationism and its implications set out in later letters.
As well as helping students to navigate and respond to the assumptions, philosophies and world views they will meet at university, Donald Drew also gives forthright advice on personal matters of development and spiritual growth. Several letters deal with the character, importance and necessity of the Bible in the daily life of a Christian. He also talks about prayer, marriage and singleness, temptation, faith, doubt, art, literature, hobbies, friendship and guidance. Though the letters are a little intense and daunting at times, they are always wise, forthright and clear.
Though the author never married or had children of his own, in other ways he was well qualified to write such a book as this. As a secondary school teacher and pastoral head for many years, he was accustomed to guiding teenage boys, with all their vagaries and virtues, through their later school years. As a staff worker at the L’Abri study centre under Francis Schaeffer in Switzerland and as a regular lecturer at American and British colleges and universities, he had much experience of counselling and communicating with students and answering their questions.
Donald Drew was my English teacher and housemaster at St Lawrence College in Ramsgate in the 1960s. I can testify to the integrity and solidity of his Christian character. With his very high personal standards and expectations of the boys under his care, he could be austere and daunting—something not unusual in the context of the ethos of English public schools at the time. Even so, he was held in high respect by his charges, if not in their affections. I owe him a great deal for the practical and spiritual guidance he gave me personally as I came to the end of my school years. I still remember a number of his sayings, for example: “You’re not what you think you are but what you think, you are.”
Donald Drew gave me a typescript copy of what must have been a very early incarnation of this book when I left school in 1968. It had developed and changed almost beyond recognition by the time it was finally published 35 years later, when he was in his 80s. Inevitably, then, some of its expressions, references and concerns seem a little dated now—not surprising in view of the fact that it is now over 20 years since its publication. It is perhaps more surprising how up to date and relevant so much of it is. There is a wealth of wisdom and good advice for those who will persevere with it.
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