January 2008
39 posts
Kindness
I remembered this passage again recently from N. T. Wright’s book Simply Christian: “… I want to draw attention to something else—something often ignored in the clamor for better and clearer rules for Christian behavior: that we should be positively kind to one another: ‘Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. ...
“If you don’t know or care you’ll be alright
I heard it’s...”
– Matt Pond PA (a band I’m getting back into)
A thought on academic work
I’ve wondered often whether my decision to come to Durham is the best way for me to prepare for some form of church ministry, which is what I think I want to do with my life long-term. Lately I’ve had the thought that, although I can’t study pastoral counseling or preaching or “practical theology” in a university setting like Durham, the simple act of reading—I...
Blue sky
Today was the first day of sun and blue sky we’ve had in Durham in a long time. I didn’t know how much I’ve missed it. On my walk to church this morning (it takes about 45 minutes, which I love), everything looked brighter and happier. There’s a lot more green grass in winter than I realized. And every day we’re gaining two more minutes of daylight. Yes.
“Marcel Proust dips a madeleine in some tea and is overcome with longing for a...”
– (Here.)
Some good stuff here →
“It was like one of those dreams where you’re filled with some extravagant...”
– Rev. Ames (from Gilead again; I couldn’t get into this book last year, but I can’t get enough of it this time around)
“A theologian is born by living, nay dying and being damned, not by thinking,...”
– Luther
“These people who can see right through you never quite do you justice, because...”
– Rev. John Ames, from Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
He even had the costume flown over! →
“In the summer of 1971, I decided to drop out of seminary… My wife Judy and...”
– (Here.)
LOST in 8:15 on iTunes →
(A quick way to prepare for 1/31/08. HT: pomomusings.com.)
My new British vocab, Round 2
Invigilate = to proctor, oversee Crockery/cutlery = I’d call it plates (or dishes, I guess) and silverware Swings and roundabouts = ‘what goes around, comes around’ Row = argument (pronounce it like ‘cow’) Can’t be bothered = ‘couldn’t care less’ Blimey = [no explanation needed, right?] Crikey = [same] Telly = TV Jumper = sweater, pullover Zed = this is how people here say the last letter of the...
‘Three or four families in a country village is the very thing to work on,’ Jane Austen wrote in a letter about her novels. I think she meant, if you want to come to terms with something like ‘the human condition,’ you ought to aim small. This issue of universality vs. particularity fascinates me. It makes for constant ‘to-ing and fro-ing,’ as one of my professors here would say. Several...
Recommended:
Steve McCoy’s Music Mondays.
“The colonization of each other’s minds is the price we pay for thought.”
– Mary Douglas (1921-2007), British social anthropologist (I’m almost finished writing an essay on her work)
John Webster's Kantzer lectures at TEDS →
Anti-Love Poem
Sometimes you don’t want to love the person you love you turn your face away from that face whose eyes lips might make you give up anger forget insult steal sadness of not wanting to love turn away then turn away at breakfast in the evening don’t lift your eyes from the paper to see that face in all its seriousness a sweetness of concentration he holds his book in his...
Questions
I watched a FOX ‘roundtable discussion’ with the GOP presidential candidates a couple of nights ago. Huckabee talked about how he would use ‘overwhelming [military] force’ to ‘crush’ any threats to American national security. He promised to keep America as the strongest nation in the world, and for anyone who threatened our national interests with military...
“It’s the only thing I’ve found that doesn’t make my eyes roll...”
– a friend earlier this week telling me how he loves to read, write, and talk theology and how he’ll keep doing it, no matter what he ends up doing for work
