Personal Update

So, it's been about 10 months since I have published on this blog. I'll get to why in my next post, but in this one I just wanted to give a quick update on my life and some current things I am thinking about.

First, my wife and I and our son moved from Chicago about a year ago. We moved to Plymouth, IN into an old farmhouse - our nearest neighbor is about 1/4 mile away. This is a drastic change from our place in Chicago. We moved to be closer to family, as this greatly helps with doing my doctoral work.

Second, over the last year I have been studying for and taking my comprehensive examinations for my doctorate at Loyola University of Chicago. This was fantastic to finally get through. And now I have a good story about getting ripped in part of my oral exam by Adriaan Peperzak over some stuff I said about Heidegger and language. I'm just happy I did not cry.

With my exams finished, I am now beginning to think about my dissertation more fully. I've worked to narrow it down, so that this is not my life project. And, basically, I am going to work with deconstruction and theology. I'll make an initial claim that deconstruction is less about taking apart of destroying a tradition/text and more about a right attunement to be able to listen to the entire history of a tradition/text, including the internal differences. I then want to take that structure and look at how Christian theologians have a similar method of attunement in their theological thinking; specifically I'll be looking at some by texts by Nicholas of Cusa. I may also look at Augustine and Simone Weil, but we'll see.

I have also spent the last semester teaching Introduction to Philosophy at Indiana Wesleyan University. It was a great experience - I love to teach. I had a good group of students and I feel like we all learned a lot.

Lastly, I'm working on a few papers for conferences and for submission to some journals. At the Wesleyan Theological Society this year I am presenting on Emergence theories of Consciousness and Entire Sanctification - looking at how some new emergence theories of consciousness inform our understanding of entire sanctification, specifically a more Maddox/process view. Sorry Collins! Second, I'm presenting at the Society for Pentecostal Studies on the role of experience in the religion/science dialogue. I'm looking at more "pop" level books (Dawkins, Collins, and McGrath). I've learned more about biology than I ever cared to. Lastly, I'm presenting a paper at the Interdisciplinary Nineteenth Century Studies Society: it is a conference on human rights and I am presenting on Luther Lee and how he puts forward a natural theology based upon the humanness of all humans. I'm going to specifically look at what he says about women and slavery.

On the submission end, I'm tinkering with an Eastern (specifically, Kyoto School of Buddhism) reading of the Sermon on the Mount. I'm also working on the idea of prayer as a political practice, specifically if viewed through contemporary phenomenology.

Well, I'll post more regularly and hope to see people around.

peace.