House update:
The primary danger of the deal falling through was that our house would not appraise for the high amount we were asking. It appraised for the full price :)
Dissertation update:
There's a line in the instructions for the dissertation proposal that says after I submit my proposal they have three options: either it gets passed, they return it to me for me to make substantial changes, or they give me a ThM and send me on my way. I wasn't terribly afraid of the last option (I have a nice mentor), but it did put things in perspective. I've been working on the PhD for 5 years now, and they could just hand me a masters and say see ya, don't come back. That would pretty much ruin any career I've been working towards. I was afraid mostly of the second option, that I'd have a lot to do before it would be acceptable, because I need to be prepping for a class I'm teaching this fall at Wheaton. I was hoping, sometimes beyond hope, for the first option. :) :) :)
On to prepping for teaching about evangelicalism and how to relate to culture!
Any books you care to suggest that I could use at a slightly conservative evangelical school as an introductory text to theology and culture concerns? The main text I'll be using is Noll's The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. Or suggestions for good assignments??
Family update:
All Good. We're headed to Tooele, UT in the next week. My grandma is turning 90, and we're going to go wish her well. I can't wait! I've been needing a good road trip for quite some time. We're going to do some camping on the way, too, weather permitting; and we'll be hitting NW Iowa on the way back to visit Robin's grandparents.
3 comments:
Some suggestions off the top of my head:
1. Don't take the approach of teaching them "how to relate to culture." That makes it sound like you are trying to teach them ballroom dancing or something totally unrelated from their existence. The fact is, they live, breathe and create culture on a daily basis. They are and were never apart from it.
2. Having said that, the approach you mention is likely born from traditional evangelicalism's tensions with "the world," i.e.: anyone that isn't evangelical (lest you think that means non Christian, consider it also often includes Catholics, and even those from liberal denominations). If you teach evangelicals how to relate to culture in this vein, be aware that you are implicitly affirming a subsystem of Christianity that affirms a tension with this "world."
3. If you do affirm this tension, recognize that "in" side of this "in/out" equation has become highly Americanized. For instance, "evangelicalism" as these students understand it is not at all likely in tension with capitalism; in fact, it is a standard bearer for the same. It is also not in tension with Americanism, however defined. Nationalist ties are supported rather than challenged by this (sub)culture.
In other words, a sectarian religious approach (tension with the "world") in our (and Wheaton's, I daresay) version of evangelicalism has, ironically, been captivated by human creations, taking in these temporally limited systems and anointing them as divine in origin.
Of course, you could, as I would suggest, teach them to be in tension with the things Jesus was in tension with: anything the opposite of loving God or loving neighbor. You can explore Ron Sider and Evangelicals for Social Action (and Wheaton does maintain a collection on them: http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/GUIDES/037.htm). Teach them that injustice is an affront to God and you don't have to sell your intimacy with God to pursue it. Teach them new words, how to reclaim old ones by thinking about them in new ways, and teach them to walk in the way of Jesus.
There was a text put out recently edited by Sider and Stassen, I think, that was an anthology of evangelicals and social justice. I can't find the name of it for the life of me but that would be the book I recommend to you.
Have fun.
Wheaton, Nice!
Appraisal, Sweet!
Dr. Tim, Flippin rad!
Master Tim? Not a chance ;)
I like the Harry Potter books. Use one of them.
Hmmm.....
I really don't have much to say about your blog, I just had no other way of figuring out how to get a hold of you. I was pretty sure you wouldn't check Trinity e-mail anymore, so I wasn't going to go there (although my account is still up and filling with junk all the time). I also see you haven't blogged here since July, so who knows when you'll see this. The only way I found this was by googling your name.
Anyway, it is I, Nick Yankey, from those great 8am classes last year. Just wanting to make contact...talk theology and such because I really like your perspective and I'm sad that I didn't take advantage of talking to you more. Only now as a sophomore (and having transferred to Indiana Wesleyan U) do I realize how much more I could have gotten out of last year. Anyway...if/when you get this, shoot me an e-mail at nick.yankey@student.indwes.edu.
I enjoy the pictures of the family. The boy looks great!
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