Oxford Day 4

The high point for me today was the evening program, "An Evening of Piano, Poetry, and Song." Dana Gioia, the chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts, read some of his poems. I'm a big fan of his and got to meet him and his wife afterword. The soloist and the pianist were excellent as well.

After the program was over, some of us went to the pub at Kebler where Dana recited some more poetry--all from memory. The amount of poetry--not only his own but that of many other poets--that he has memorized is phenomenal. Darryl Tippens, the provost of Pepperdine University who I mentioned in an earlier blog, told me that at a class where Dana came as a guest lecturer he recited Dante from memory in Italian.

The Oxford philosopher, Richard Swinburne, gave one of the keynote addresses this morning on the self and the soul that many (it was probably over the heads of the vast majority) couldn't understand. I think I would have to include myself in this category. I gave it a valiant effort, but it was very tough sledding!

The pictures below are of the circular building in Radcliffe Square and the front side of St Aldates Church.

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Thought for the Day

God is love and love is goodness giving itself away.
--Edith Stein

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Oxford Day 3

Wow. Today was a rich feast! We started off with devotions by John Lennox, Reader in Mathematics, Oxford University and Fellow in Mathematics and Philosophy of Science, Green College, Oxford. He recently was in a debate with Richard Dawkins (author of The God Delusion) also of Oxford. Francis Collins, Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute among other titles, and author of The Language of God, gave one of the keynote addresses in the morning and then gave another presentation at my Science and Theology Symposium. He is articulate, funny, and an excellent presenter. The thoughts shared in the symposium were stimulating. The Science and Theology symposium are held at Pembroke College, right next door to Alsdate Church where we meet for the morning sessions. It is a smaller college than Keble College but the grounds are just as lovely.
I have posted two pictures of one of the quads in Pembroke College hoping that you can make out the beautiful flowers in the flower boxes and the manicured lawn.



After dinner we were treated to a two hour concert by the City of Oxford Orchestra at the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin. They played pieces from Mozart, Handel, Gluck, John Rutter and a few other composers. It was excellent.

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Thought for the Day

I am a man, and reckon nothing human alien to me.
--Terence

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Oxford Day 2

Today was an interesting day.  Richard Mouw, President of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA gave a good lecture with the title, "Restless Hearts in a Search for Meaning."  At the Science and Theology Seminar that I am attending in the afternoon, psychologist, Paul Vitz, professor emeritus at New York University and Professor and Senior Scholar at the Institute for the Psychological Sciences, gave a presentation, "The Concept of the Person as a Resonating Laminate."  It was quite interesting  but it would take way too long to explain what he means by "resonating laminate," so I won't.  

The second presenter, Douglas Huffman, Professor of Biblical and Theological Theology at Calvin theological Seminary, gave a talk on what we can learn from the Bible about human personhood.  Again, I thought it was interesting.  

By the way, the food is excellent.  We eat breakfast and dinner at the Dining Hall at Kebler College and lunch is on our own.  I have a few more pictures to add flavor to my blog.  The Dining Hall has a large stained glass window at one end and this could have been the set for the Dining Hall in the Harry Potter movies.

I have included a picture of a stone walkway over a road that we pass on our way to St. Aldates Church where the morning worship and lectures are held.

I have included the inside of St. Aldates Church as well. 

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Thought for the Day

We live in a deranged age, more deranged than usual, because in spite of great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing.
--Walker Percy

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Arrival at Oxford

I had a good flight from Logan on a Boeing 777. I had more leg room than I am used to having in "coach" and with the help of the new noise-canceling headphones was actually able to sleep for more than half of the six hour flight--that's a first. The plane touched down around 6:30 a.m. (Oxford is five hours ahead of Boston) in excellent weather and I made it through customs without a hitch. I walked underground to the central bus station where I caught my 8:30 a.m. bus to Oxford. As we entered the city of Oxford, we passed a Starbucks (!) certainly a good omen for this conference. Thankfully, there are no Dunkin Donuts cluttering the street corners here.

I arrived around 10:00 a.m. but had to kill time because the rooms weren't ready until noon. I am staying in Keble College located a little north of the city centre. I have a couple of pictures of Keble: one of the chapel and the other of one of the interior quads. I have a single room with my own bathroom and ethernet service (no WiFi).















Dinner is at 6:00 p.m. this evening and the conference begins at 7:30 p.m. with worship at University Church of St. Mary The Virgin. The preacher is Derick Bingham, teaching Pastor, Christchurch, Belfast, and Fellow, the Royal Society for Arts; his sermon title is, "Of Children and the Stars: Is humankind Greater than Matter?"

St. Mary's, by the way, is the site where Cramner, Latimer and Ridley were tried and condemned for heresy by Queen Mary (Bloody Mary) a devout Roman Catholic. C. S. Lewis preached his sermon "The Weight of Glory" here on June 8, 1941.

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Thought for the Day

A major indicator of our well-being or wholeness is the extent to which we have become integrated personalities; that is, persons in whom the various elements that make us who we are, are embodied in a away that enables meaningful relationships with others who are different from us.
--John W. DeGruchy

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Off To England

This evening I head off to England to the Oxbridge Conference sponsored by the C. S. Lewis Foundation. It occurs every three years and involves spending a week in Oxford and a week in Cambridge. I attended six years ago and found it to be an amazing conference. This year the theme is "The Self and the Search for Meaning," a topic that I am particularly interested in. If you take the link to the website you can see the variety of speakers they have and the kinds of workshops that they offer.


I will be staying at Keble College in Oxford and at Clare College in Cambridge. The track that I will be taking during the afternoon sessions is "The Science and Theology Symposium." The conference has first rate presenters so I am very excited about having the opportunity to attend. I am supposed to have internet access in my room so I hope to blog every day about impressions and things that I have learned.

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Sunday's Prayer

O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon all your faithful people your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Thought for the Day

Revenge is barren. It feeds on its own dreadful sin.
--J. C. F. von Schiller

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Thought for the Day

Every man is the sum of his own works.
--Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote

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Thought for the Day

The legs of those who require proofs of God's existence are made of wood.
--Persian proverb

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Thought for the Day

Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents determinism; the way you play it is free will.
--Jawajarlal Nehru

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Thought for the Day

We are made for one another, and each is to be a supply to his neighbor.

--Benjamin Whichcote

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Thought for the Day

In humility alone lies true greatness, and that knowledge and wisdom are profitable only in so far as our lives are governed by them.

--Nicholas of Cusa

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Almighty God, fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in our asking: have compassion on our weakness, and give us mercifully those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask; through the worthiness of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

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Thought for the Day

For the purpose of Christian faith is not to make us religious, but to make us more truly human.

--John W. de Gruchy

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The Bane of Poison Ivy

I was working in my yard on Sunday afternoon and unbeknown to me came in contact with poison ivy of which I am very allergic.  I am now paying for it, although I must say that I have had it far worse than what I have now.  I would call this annoying but it is not driving me nuts (I'm already there so how could it?)

What I find a complete mystery are the places that react.  I know from what I have read that it an only spread through the skin's contact with the sap (whose name I can't remember but know that it begins with an "u.").  But how it can appear in otherwise isolated areas seems bizarre to me. You would think that it would display a trail, a pattern.  For instance 99 percent of the allergic reaction has occurred on my right side, but there is a small outbreak on my left bicep.  It doesn't make sense to me.  In any case, I would have to say that poison ivy rates right up there in I- don't-know-why-God-created-them with mosquitoes!

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Thought for the Day

Being a Christian cannot mean ceasing to be human.  But neither can being human mean ceasing to be Christian.

--Hans Kung

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Thought for the Day

When you arrive at a fork in the road, take it.
--Yogi Berra

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Thought for the Day

Scientism and anthropocentric humanism are the attractive blooms that adorn a nearly rootless society.

--Georgia Harkness

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Thought for the Day

One man with courage makes a majority.
--Andrew Jackson

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Buddhism in Japan

Today's New York Times has an interesting article in it about Buddhism's struggle in Japan.   More and more people, especially in urban areas, find it less and less compelling, not unlike what is happening in the West with Christianity.  What do you make of the increased secularism that is occurring in the first world?  Do you think it is inevitable?  If not, do you have any thoughts about how to address it?

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Thought for the Day

Man always travels along precipices.  His truest obligation is to keep his balance.

--Pope John Paul II

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Sunday's Prayer

O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of our servant who calls upon you, and grant that I may know and understand what thing I ought to do, and that i also may have the grace and power faithfully to accomplish then; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

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Thought for the Day

Anger deprives a sage of his wisdom, a prophet of his vision.

--Simeon, b. Lakish

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Thought for the Day

Time is precious, but truth is more precious than time.

--Benjamin Disraeli

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Thought for the Day

Courage is never to let your actions be influenced by your fears.

--Arthur Koestler

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Thought for the Day

A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as that of his fellowman, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help.

--Albert Schweitzer

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Thought for the Day

Work as if you were to live 100 years.  Pray as if you were to die tomorrow.

--Benjamin Franklin

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Weekend in Philly

I spent the weekend of the 4th in Philadelphia.  My daughter, Michelle, was rowing in the Independence Day regatta on the Schuylkill River.  Beth and I had never watched these kinds of races before and really enjoyed watching them.   We also did a lot of sightseeing and went on a duckboat ride with a wild and crazy guide.  We were impressed with how well-preserved Old Philadelphia is.  We spent half a day in the Philadelphia Museum of heart and were impressed with the collections.  We learned (on the duckboat ride) that the famous scene in the Rocky movie where Sylvester Stalone runs the steps to get in shape are the steps to the front of the Museum of Art.  (The duckboat guide said the most frequently asked question is "Where are the steps in the Rocky movie?)

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Thought for the Day

Go Godward: thou wilt find a road.

--Russian proverb

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Beatrice's story

Nicholas D. Kristof has a great Op-Ed piece in today's New York Times, "The Luckiest Girl,"which includes Beatrice, a Ugandan woman who just graduated from Connecticut College and Heifer International, a humanitarian organization which we support through Heifer Sunday.  I find it hopeful that we can make a difference.

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Thought for the Day

The final wisdom of life requires not the annulment of incongruity but the achievement of serenity within and above it.

--Reinhold Neibuhr

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Do You Believe in Hell?

In the Sunday Globe there was an interesting article in Ideas section with the title, "What Lies Beneath," a recent pew study on religion and public life.  It revealed that only 59 percent of Americans believe in  hell while 74 percent believe in heaven.

 
Several scholars interviewed for the article shared a brief history of the belief in hell going back to the Mesopotamians.  They note that since the Enlightenment, there has been a gradual change in viewing God as punishing to God as benevolent.  A scholar from Barnard College, Alan F. Segal, suggests that this loss of belief in hell and the more benevolent view of God is a function of "American Pollyannaism."  He notes that many Americans view heaven as an improved America: "it's sort of like a retirement home in the sky, or maybe an assisted living community without the physical deficiencies."

What are your thoughts about heaven and hell and this development?

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Thought for the Day

What is to reach the heart must come from above, if it does not come thence, it will be nothing but notes--body without spirit.

--Beethoven

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Thought for the Day

A religious man who says in his heart there is a God receives his life daily by divine appointment as a gift and a task set before him.

--Paul Ramsey

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