If you are really bored and want 45 minutes of how I went from a chemistry pre-med major to dean of the SHC this is for you. Nice sleep aid too. (Click on the link in the tweet for the podcast interview.) @shcdean and @PennStateHonors helping students transform into the […]
Mack
Psalm 88 Psa. 88:10-13 Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the shades rise up to praise you? Selah Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon? Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your saving help in the land of forgetfulness? […]
Last Sunday I was driving home from Altoona, about a 40 minute drive, after having served as a supply priest for a small parish. It was a glorious afternoon and I had the topdown all the way. That calls for music and U2 was at hand. I set it all […]
Getting ready in the hotel room this morning ESPN just played one of their “My Wish” pieces, a story about a young boy with a rare form of lymphoma who is “drafted” by the Carolina Panthers. I have very complicated and mixed feelings when I see these stories. First, of […]
Well, I don’t want to be quite so strident, but some have no such qualms. This past week I came across, via Facebook, this post “Are Christians Wrong About Heaven?” which was in turn inspired by this old interview of NT Wright in Time magazine. So in the more recent […]
In the late 80s early 90s I read a bunch of Chaim Potok’s works, his famous books about young Jewish men growing up in a modernizing world. He came to speak at Wheaton College when I was there as a grad student. For those who do not know, Potok was […]
My wife has recently written about the fact that when we travel and there are churches or cathedrals to visit, we light a candle for Mack. We have done this since last summer, the summer after he passed. There are usually hundreds of candles burning there. People light them for […]
This week at the International SBL meeting, three Qumran sessions were given over to commemorating the work of John Collins on Apocalypticism. In the first session Prof. Collins, in his summary of his work on apocalypticism, said something that made me go “hmmmm.” Now, I should say that I may […]
Every now and then a group that I really care about goes on tour. It is rare, but it happens. Even more rarely I am able to go and see them. Such is the case next Tuesday! The 77’s, a group I have followed since the 80s, will be in […]
The idea for this post came not really so much from reflecting upon the process of selecting Mack’s headstone, but on some recent conversations. People have a habit of using the phrase “I want my obituary to say…” as a way to express the impetus or motivation for their actions […]