Graduation Day!

Today is graduation day– congratulations to all my fellow Grand Rapids Theological Seminary graduates!

Summer Class and Birthday Books

Even though the semester isn’t officially over, I’m already thinking about my summer class: Readings in Fourth Century Trinitarian Theology. The goal of the class is to summarize the key players, events, and ideas of the “Arian controversy” including some discussion of the precursors (i.e., Origen) to the theological dispute. Here are the books

• The Search of the Christian Doctrine of God by R. P. C. Hanson (875pp +)
• Gregory of Nazianzus on the Trinity and the Knowledge of God by Christopher A. Beeley (323pp +)
• Early Arianism–A View of Salvation by Robert C. Gregg and Dennis E. Groh (194pp +)

I’m also excited about some of recent birthday gifts.

• Custom embosser to clearly mark my books as mine. 🙂
• Plato: Cratylus, Parmenides, Greater Hippias, Lesser Hippias (Loeb Classical Library)
• Neoplatonism by Pauliina Remes (207pp +; edited by my wife with a “Jesus” sticker over the naked Hypatia :))
• The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (tr. by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky; (776pp +)

When am I going to find time to practice French and study for the GRE?!

Post Lenten Reflection

Here are some thoughts about my attempt at fasting during lent.

1) My desire to remains abstinent from all useless media and information faltered after a week or so. The only thing that probably kept me from wasting time was being so busy. But, even near the end I found myself checking blogs and what not.

2) I shouldn’t do this kind of thing alone. It’s helpful to have some encouragement.

3) I didn’t fill the open time with prayer as I had hoped. I still need to learn to pray if I want to continue being a Christian. I see no other way around it. No prayer = practical atheism.

4) I filled my time with classical music, especially Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sheherazade. I even purchased Gardiner’s conduction of Beethoven’s symphonies.

5) Even though I’m mostly done with the semester (just final exams left and finishing one little assignment), I have found that my desire to write posts or visit blogs has decreased. Possibly because I’m getting more focused on my future academic pursuits that there’s not much out there that is interesting. If it is interested, it’s so far removed from my field of study that I’ve just stopped trying to bother.

A Lenten Fast

As lent approaches, many Christians are (or should be) evaluating themselves in preparation for the Easter celebration. As of late, I have had a constant nagging about the use of my time. Yet, the reason why I dread “wasting” time is the repeated realization that during those hours I could have been “doing something better.” Pushed further, I saw that there dwells within me a constant desire to acquire knowledge. This is not bad in itself, but it does have its risks. Most notable is my desire to “stay on top” of things in various fields. Whether it be related to my studies, sports, or news in general, I want to be “in the know.” But is such knowledge necessary or even valuable? One could argue either way, but I have come to see my thirst for such knowledge to be rooted in a desire for (in Evagrian terms) vainglory and pride (pride here meaning the building up of oneself at the expense of another). So, with the exception of necessary activities related to school and the like, I shall once again be limiting my internet intake to a bare minimum (i.e., bye bye, blog). During that time while I try to live a more simple life, I hope to meditate on this idea: is holiness relevant?

Shocking Disappointment

The more I read John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty, the more I realize how much his thinking has already influenced me by way of American culture. It’s shocking to be reading someone with whom you know you shouldn’t agree (i.e., Utilitarianism), only to find yourself giving the occasional “Amen!” (that’s the disappointment).

It also made me realize that Christians today need to read Mill’s essay if for no other reason than to be confronted with the fact that the ideas and philosophies which they take for granted aren’t necessarily “from the Bible” as they have been deceived into believing.