Good News!

Unbaptized Infants Released From Limbo.

This post is dedicated to all of our readership who weren’t baptized as infants, but were born well before this upcoming papal pronouncement. Back in the day, we would have had to go to limbo if we had not made it out of infancy; I’m glad that’s no longer the case for all the new babies entering the world!

‘Bout Stinkin’ Time

Four years of fan-dom.

At least three missed opportunities.

Tonight, I finally see in concert the one to whom I lost my Arminianism.

Why Christian Scientists Shouldn’t Be Allowed Near Puppets

OR

How Not To Edit Children’s Television

* NEWSFLASH *

Today, Allison Brestel (that’s my girlfriend) called me in utter joy to inform me that she is now capable of twitching her nose “like a bunny.” Then she told me that I wouldn’t blog about it because I would be too embarrassed to have a girlfriend who called me to tell me that.

She obviously doesn’t know me all that well yet. She will learn.

Fun With Personality Assessment

Bethany first sparked my interest in the Meyers-Briggs personality test. I always seem to test as an INTJ, with J being my weakest characteristic, and sometimes I wonder if I’m really an INTP, mostly because of my uncertainty as opposed to the INTJ’s certainty. So, what are you? If you don’t know, here’s a short little test to get a rough idea.

If I am an INTJ, I’m in good company. Supposedly C.S. Lewis, Hannibal Lecter, Gandalf the Grey, and Mr. Darcy all demonstrated INTJ characteristics. Now that I think about it, Jacob and I did always say that I was the broody Darcy.

A Thought for Good Friday

From John Stott’s The Cross of Christ:

For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives which belong to God alone; God accepts penalties which belong to man alone. (160)

My Favorite Poet

Familiarize yourself with T.S. Eliot.

(Edit: That sounds rather like a command, which I seldom do. So how about, “Familiarize yourself with T.S. Eliot, if it suits your fancy.”)

It’s Official

Bethany and I will be moving to South Bend, IN next August, where I’ll be starting a Ph.D. program in modern transatlantic history. Although a lot of people know this by now, I thought I’d wait to post about it until I at least get the official documents mailed.

Notre Dame has been my first choice for graduate school all along. The department is strong in both transatlantic history and religious/theological history, which are my primary interests, and will encourage me to pursue this somewhat boundary-crossing course of study. (“Transatlantic” simply means I’ll be looking at both sides of the Atlantic – particularly America and Germany – and especially the exchanges between them.) The faculty includes people such as George Marsden, Mark Noll, Alexander Martin, and James Turner – all working in modern Christian history – with and from whom I’m looking forward to working and learning.

Bethany will be looking for a job in South Bend to help pay the bills while I’m hiding behind stacks of books. Our next big tasks (well…after getting married, of course) are finding housing and a church home in South Bend. It can be a little scary thinking about leaving long-term the places and people we’re familiar with, but we’re also looking forward to starting fresh our life together.

Don’t worry though; we’re still around Lincoln for a while (well, I will be soon anyway), and looking forward to a summer enjoying being married and around our friends and family.