Like and Love, Ramblings of a Theologian in Progress

The past week was the XII. International Bonhoeffer Congress. The theme of the conference was the relevance and reality of Bonhoeffer in globalization. It was a group of 225 academics and Bonhoeffer fans from around the world, spending four days deeply immersed in the theology and implications of a man who died in 1945 at the age of 39 for not only plotting an attempt on Hitler's life, but actively endangering his own by working as a double agent in the Nazi state, smuggling Jews out of Germany, and running an illegal seminary. Bonhoeffer writes, "Silence in the face of evil is evil. To not speak is to speak. To not act is to act." It's a quote that deeply resonates with people. It invokes a type of populist will to speak out against evil. It's a quote, which I think sums up his theology and his life. And over the last week, as we checked our Facebook accounts at the conference, we all learned about the appalling resurgence in violence in the United States. ...

Our possessions "BrExited" our flat on Thursday. This past month, I've been obsessed with getting everything packed away and organized, knowing that 23 June would arrive sooner than I wanted it.  I thought when we moved over to Aberdeen, packing was difficult. We were faced with trying to pack our entire lives into two suitcases a piece (and those were mercifully larger suitcases because my father-in-law booked our tickets and we got baggage 'upgrades'). What were we going to need for two years? What could I take to make this strange country 'home'? But happily, everything else was going in a storage facility- so we weren't actively getting rid of those trinkets and baubles that make a house feel homey. This time around we have the same two suitcases. Fortunately we also had the means to ship stuff back (read: we are mostly shipping my books home...), but what we leave behind here is being left behind. We aren't coming back to reclaim it a...

Over Easter I purchased two self-starter herb kits. I'm not entirely sure what possessed me to do it. Possibly it was the discovery of how delicious fresh herbs are thanks to our Hello Fresh boxes (confession- I never actually used herbs before, so probably any seasoning would have shocked me into doing something different with my cooking). Possibly it was the faint blooms of spring punctuating the Aberdeen landscape inspired me to try and grow something. More than likely it just seemed like a cheap and fun project to undertake. Whatever the reason, I've been trying to raise a parsley and basil plant for about a month now. I've learned that I am not good at raising plants, the rose plant I had at Pope John is the major exception. My plants were sufficiently dead until Jack stepped in and took over watering them. Turns out that herbs need a lot more water than I had expected. My little, sad plants are now quite full and about to outgrow the planters they came in. Which i...

Let it never be said that academics don't spend too much time in their heads. If anything, spending that much time alone with our thoughts is probably the single greatest hazard for academics. You build and build up circular walls until you've discovered that you're in a well. And I have a suspicion that those in theological fields might be in more peril than other fields. There is an inherent worry because ultimately, if you are working in theology, your subject isn't just an interesting topic. It isn't just something that is important to you. Theology is built upon those questions of ultimate concern. Who is God? How does my understanding of God affect my understanding on myself? The world? Ethics? Salvation? How is God revealing God's self to humanity? To me? These questions are coupled with rote demands of academic life as well. We live in a culture that has started viewing education through the lens of economic models. Society demands that money spent ...

If you have a television, you may be familiar with a type of programming called “edu-tainment.” These shows embark to be a hybrid of documentaries, reality television, and serialized sensationalism. The epitome of the “edu-tainment” empire is the History Channel- a station that markets itself not only as rooted in teaching history, but also in franchising a series entitled “Ancient Aliens,” a reception of history if major events were controlled by aliens. And if you think I am being derisive to these programs, let me stop and confess that I LOVE them. While I’m not exactly proud of this, I’m also not so ashamed by it that I wouldn't confess to it if asked... or preaching a sermon. This is a long running love of mine. Twenty-five years ago, when TLC stood for “The Learning Channel” and actually created somewhat educational content, there was a series of programs about the end of days and the Book of Revelation. As a child I mistakenly watched this programs and proceeded, as few ...

The United States and the United Kingdom are not the same place. Over the past 19 months, the differences have become apparent in some hilarious ways. For example, football means something dramatically different in Aberdeen than in Houston (and I use dramatically because both sports incite equal amounts of drama). I am fortunate in that I share a graduate student office with non-Americans. My department is overwhelmingly American and at times it can feel as though we aren't living in a foreign country, and to a larger extent a foreign culture. The realization of how vast these differences are appeared in an unusual manner this afternoon- the rights of postgraduate students to take personal time, or annual leave as its known here. The discussion emerged in response to a lovely blog by a postgraduate student elsewhere in the United Kingdom. At her university, the school requires their students to take annual leave, up to six weeks a year in that case. It seems that she isn'...

This morning began in the way most of my mornings begin. A quick breakfast and out the door to the office- where I safely confine myself to a desk and read and write. This morning had two deviations. The first was an innocuous chat with my friend Amy. We are hosting a Seder dinner on Thursday for Maundy Thursday and needed to run logistics. As conversations are inclined to do, we found ourselves also chatting about The Passion (the Mel Gibson movie) and how unsettling it is. Then I returned to my office and read about the attacks on Brussels. And while that bombing is tragic and unsettling because it shakes our Western sensibilities, I've found much more coverage on it than on either the bombings in Ankara or Istanbul that happened in the last week. Or for that matter one of the continued bombings occurring in many other places in the world that, to be blunt- aren't former imperial powers (which is a nice way of saying WASP-y). And I can't help but see the connectio...

I am an introvert. While I'm not surprised by it, I've only recently been able to find the value in it. Thankfully, academia is a collection of introverts. My colleague and friend, Joy Allen, who is a rare extrovert in our department, once remarked that the extroverts needed to plan the excruciating periods of networking at conferences to balance out the nominal amounts of social time they would get normally. You would imagine then, that postgraduate work would be windfall.  Postgraduate work is inherently lonely. The premise that you, alone, are adding a unique contribution to research often means that you are alone. It's the combination of long hours in your own head, driven by your own sense of urgency and pressure to add a small, and often rather insignificant, 100k works to the collective knowledge of the world.  It can be hell, and I'm never surprised at the number of studies published about the correlation between postgraduate work and mental illne...

Luke 4:1-13 Jesus went to the desert for forty days after being baptized. He was full of the spirit. During that time alone, Satan tempted him, at least three times, but the Gospel reading alludes to more. At each temptation, Jesus rebukes Satan and quotes the scriptures to him. At the end of forty days, Jesus leaves the desert and begins his ministry. Between one and three years later (depending on which Gospel you are reading), he’ll enter Jerusalem to shouts and accolades, be betrayed by a friend, handed over to the authorities, condemned to death on the cross, and crucified. For at least 1700 years, the church has engaged with some practice of Lent- a period originally to prepare new converts for baptism on Easter Sunday. But few writings appear before the Council of Nicaea. In this ancient Catholic tradition, the observance of the forty-days makes sense. It is a period of preparation, to go over the last details of what conversion means for the new believers. I’ve been ...

Sermon for St. John the Evangelist, 17 January 2016. From Isaiah 62:1-5 How are your New Year’s resolutions going? We are halfway into the first month of January 2016 and, according to The Guardian, 43% of our New Year’s resolutions have fallen away already. By the end of January, roughly 2 Sundays from now, 66% of people who made a resolution will have broken it. Our plans to choose better and remake one or more areas of our lives will fail. Not that we don’t sincerely want to stick to those resolutions- life just gets in the way. The weather keeps us from going on that evening run. Work occupies our time and we don’t make time for that cup of coffee with a friend. Take away is faster than cooking a meal, with both our budget and our plans to eat healthier feeling the pain. The Dry January campaign more or less assumes that 31 days is the max amount of time they can encourage people to give up alcohol. We want change for the better, but consistently fail at...