CORTNEY MICHEAL
Staff Writer
Tucked away in a small office in the CAC, history professor Stewart Davenport leans back in his chair, reading a ubiquitous history book. His feet comfortably rest on his office desk.
His persona is comfortable, yet professional — academic, yet soulful. Balance is the word that comes to mind, especially since history is not his only passion. Looking at his bookshelf, one notices immediately the stacks of literature.
“I love Faulkner,” Davenport said, as he talks about his influential teachers and how they instilled in him a love for learning. Davenport is replicating his teachers’ influence at Pepperdine.
Davenport became captivated by the mystery of the past. He explored old buildings, questioning what took place many years before.
“I would often wander around and see these places still standing and use my imagination about what had happened long ago,” Davenport said.
It was this kind of inquisitive spirit that sparked his journey through higher education and eventually a higher, and very divine, calling.
Coming from a divorced and less-devout Catholic home, Davenport said he grew up faster than most.
“I definitely believed in God, but I started to see the consequence of sins in my life,” he said.
It wasn’t until a summer camp one year when he heard the gospel and responded.
“At that point, I felt plenty convicted,” he said. He said he then realized he still had lots of spiritual learning to do.
Graduating from Altamont, one of the best college-prep high schools in Alabama, he attended Princeton University, hoping to establish a firmer foundation for his Christian faith. Little did he know that the academic-spiritual type tug-of-war would continue in college. Being an academic, he consistently struggled with the question of how to merge his Christian life with his academic one, and how to do so with grace.
Davenport wrestled with his vocation. If he was a devoted Christian, did that mean he could be an intellectual professor? If he was a devoted Christian, did that mean he had to give up his God-given talent of teaching and speaking, and spend his days as a missionary or a pastor?
Yet Davenport knew his calling and he knew it well; it was one, he could not deny, he said. He said he practically had a purpose for teaching written into his DNA.
His calling was one he realized as a sophomore at Princeton.
A history teacher asked Davenport to speak about his roommate.
“I basically roasted him,” he said laughing, “I made an entire slide-show on him and I had people laughing and learning at the same time.”
Davenport said he learned that he not only loved to speak and to teach, but he was good at it too. “It hooked me,” he recalls.
Later, Davenport set off for graduate school at Yale. His eight years there mark some very high, yet very low points on his journey. He battled with his dissertation, his future and the exhaustive feeling of being a student for such a long time. Though his spirit may have been low, he said his tenacity never lessened. Surrounded by Christians who supported and lifted him up, Davenport later graduated with his doctorate in history in 2002. The spiritual lesson of God valuing character over comfort is one that was made real in Davenport’s life, over and over again, he said.
Now a professor of U.S., California, Civil War and Reconstruction history, Davenport said his love for the subject is derived from his innate curiosity and desire to understand.
“I want to know what has endured through time. My understanding of history helps me to understand the present,” he said.
He said six months ago, the thought of moving back to Alabama was reeling through his mind, but is “much more satisfied now.” His initial transition from the South to California was difficult.
“California does not have as much human mystery as the South does, mostly because its cities and buildings are constantly being rebuilt, old ones are torn down and replaced with a more modern society,” Davenport said.
In that aspect, as well as being a history lover, he had to adapt to a very different way of life. However, he said the discontentment has faded and he now deems himself as a “Californian,” loving the new culture that he has incorporated into his very down-to-earth way of life.
Aside from his time as a professor, Davenport is a gym-goer, a runner and is active in Pacific Crossroads Church in Santa Monica. He leads Bible study on Wednesday nights and is on the pastoral search committee. He said his involvement in the church not only keeps him accountable in his faith, but it also produces in him a character that is more than adequate to meet difficulty when it arises.
After years as a student struggling in the dichotomy of Christianity versus academia, he has finally united both. It is this unification that makes his teaching style, his love for learning and his love for the Lord, so magnetic to students.
“He’s just so kind in the classroom,” said Hillary Brown, a student in Davenport’s History 304 and California History classes. “You just know that he really cares about you. But he never crosses that too-friendly line. He still remains a professional, but does so with compassion for his students.”
Perhaps many underestimate the invaluable time spent in college. They see it as just another step toward hopefully, landing a successful career someday. Davenport does not disagree, but he said it is more than that.
“I want my students to know themselves as the way God made them and be the best selves they can possess,” he said. “I’m sure many of my students have experienced pain at some point. But I want them to know that God is there, He is always involved somehow. Furthermore, I want them to know who they really are and learn to interact with the world in a moral way that is historically produced.”
Davenport wants to open doors for students.
“I want my students to have knowledge of self and society, to face realism with hope, and I want them to know that they have a choice: a choice towards a life that is grounded in Christ.”
03-23-2006
