Like and Love, Ramblings of a Theologian in Progress

I was anxiously awaiting the email that arrived. The day before, via facebook, a notification had been posted to fill out a form, hit submit, and cross your fingers to receive an advanced copy of Rachel Held Evans' new book,  Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again, and being a part of the book launch team. The email arrived, as did the golden ticket (aka the PDF of the advanced copy). To put this in perspective, I have been an RHE fangirl since 2012 when I first read A Year of Biblical Womanhood.  I was just out of seminary, recently married, and trying to figure out life. The humor in her writing amidst her earnest questions about what the Bible calls women to be versus what a conservative, evangelical society told women. I loved it. On top of that, my church had RHE come in 2014 and I was able to meet her (and be her chauffeur) and she was just as gracious and funny as her voice in her writing posited her to be. I never had the same...

It's the end of February! Which means another installation of #364daysofhealthier update. If I could describe February in one word, it would be: travels. We've been all over the place, which might have detracted from my general mental health to be honest. Our small explorer has now made it to 3 different countries and Austin, an oasis in Texas that could, by all definitions, be its own country. He's taken 4 flights, various trains, a bus or two, multiple taxis/Ubers (yay easily installed car seats). Where my sleep has suffered, he has slept for almost all and at least part of every flight. Fingers crossed he's as good on the way home. So what have I been up to this month? Well, I've branched out a bit from just focusing on physical health. Or I've tried to, some endeavors have been better than others. Highlights/lowlight - - Physical The Good Cycling! - I have surprised myself that subjecting myself to someone calling out random gears at me for 50 mi...

It's almost February! Which means its time for the first installment of "What Crazy Things did Claire Try This Month?" My goal for this year was start the practice of a healthier lifestyle - mind, body, soul, and spirit. January was definitely heavy on the body aspect, simply because almost everyone seems to get into the "let's get in shape" spirit in January and I found a bunch of discounts and friend groups to go along with me on some of these endeavors. February should be a bit more balanced. AWESOME THINGS Houston Half-Marathon : above anything else I did this month for health, running the Houston Half is at the top of the list. I ran 10 of the 13.1 miles, so I hope to significantly improve my time next year by running the full race. If you ever get the chance, go out to the race track with signs or water bottles (or both) and cheer the runners on, I was surprised at how much of a difference it made. I'm already signed up for next year, and I...

For those of you who don't follow me on Instagram (@cehblanton if you want to), I've embarked on a resolution of #364daysofhealthier. As the hashtag suggests, this year I'm trying to focus on getting myself into a healthy state of being - mind, body, soul, and spirit. Last year was definitely the YEAR OF BABY. It was a hard year y'all. The pregnancy wasn't terribly hard, but the delivery was. Jack had to be delivered by emergency c-section and for someone who is a planner, the sudden decision that he had to be delivered NOW really set up those first few days and weeks and months to be really hard on me. On this side of things, I am going to be brave and confess that I had Post Part Anxiety/Depression and thankfully with a team of doctors, family, friends, and time, I'm in a much much much better place now than I was even 3 months ago. But one of the things I learned from that was that I do need to steal some time away from being mom-phdstudent-wife-cook-cleane...

We are the typical American family when it comes to food habits. In that, we eat a rotation of approximately the same 5 meals: - Chicken Tacos - BBQ Chicken - Sauteed Salmon - Spaghetti - "Meatloaf" Pies Every once in a blue moon, I'll add something "fun" to the mix: - Stir Fry - Pretzel Chicken - More different fish - Roast Chicken Fun meals ceased to exist once baby boy showed up, but now that he's able to sit in a high chair AND has a bit of a schedule during the day, cooking is incrementally becoming an easier task. Last night I found a slow cooker magazine (yay Better Homes and Gardens!) and realized that I'm bored with the same 5-6 meals. Trying to find new permutations of said meals is also a task I don't completely enjoy. Only Tuesdays should signal a specific food (e.g. Taco Tuesdays). So here goes a novel experiment - I'm going to try and cook something "new" once a week. Full disclosure - I'm a big fan of...

My dear Jack, Today was an exciting day in your life and one I'm sure you will not remember since you are only almost 5 months old. Today your father and I brought you in front of South Main Baptist Church and you were officially welcomed into that family. And then we had cake afterwards (sorry that you didn't get any, you are a baby). Bonhoeffer (who you will be familiar with soon enough) wrote a beautiful letter to his nephew on the occasion of his baptism. I hope that when that day comes, I'll be able to pen something even half as eloquent and thoughtful as Bonhoeffer, but I'm afraid you'll have to suffice with your mom's slightly clumsy and inelegant reflections. This will include today and those subsequent watermarks on your life. There are two things I know you will not remember, but I hope that you'll learn in time from today.  The first is how much your South Main family already loves you. We knew that your biological family would love you,...

As we were on a particularly long road trip this July, Jack (the husband, the baby was sleeping) and I discussed what potential employment avenues I might pursue after I complete my PhD. Two things emerged from those conversations: 1- I have an incredibly supportive husband. 2- Despite feeling a call to the ministry of theological education (which I still feel called to), there is a growing concern within me that the path to get a job doing that in a Baptist context is getting murky. So when the social media explosion (or implosion) over the invitation of Russell Moore to be part of a preaching symposium at Truett, co-sponsored by the ISR erupted yesterday, that twinge of uncertainty reemerged. Given that this is much too long for a facebook post, but feeling that I want to contribute to the conversation, this blog post will need to suffice in lieu of a preferred face to face conversation. Let me begin by asserting that my heart is rooted deeply in the Baptist tradition. I love ...

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...