After a little Sunday night reflection on my last post, I do wonder if it is time to back away from specifically Anglican issues for now. God knows that I have enough venues to discuss those issues and, as I recall my first post, I seem to have promised that this blog wasn't going to be reduced to merely another Anglican conservative spouting off. I don't want this blog only or even principally to be known as an Anglican blog. So, it seems time for a change in direction.
The direction I think I want to head for is what, for the want of a better term, could be called applied patristics. I've been experimenting with this idea since June (see particularly my What does Hollywood have to do with Jerusalem, but I'm starting to wonder if this would be a better and healthier contribution to blogosphere in general.
In making this change in direction, I note that I'm going out on a limb. I have no formal patristics training, although I have a fair bit of Classics training. I am a rank amateur in patristics, but, as Robert Farrar Capon notes in The Supper of the Lamb, the world needs more amateurs. As Capon opines "the amateur--the lover, the man who thinks heedlessness a sin and boredom a heresy--is just the man you need. More than that, whether you think you need him or not, he is a man who is bound, by his love, to speak." So, let me think this week and, then, let me speak in due course.
Prayers for inspiration are always welcome.
Peace,
Phil
5 comments:
Hurray for amateurs -I'm sure you will approach it as is your way with carefult hought and study -by which time you will be a professional (presumably not in the Piper sense of the word!) Looking forward to your posts
Phil,
I hope it goes well for you. I can understand wanting to back away from the Anglican issues. I have been somewhat inclined to do the same. I am, however, an analyst with my degree work in political science and business. So I don't know that I am qualified on other subjects.
FWIW
jimB
Dave and Jim;
Thanks for the support on this. I'm still twisting my head around what this all means, but I expect I'll post my first post under the new regime on the weekend.
As for qualifications, I'm not sure I'm that qualified either, but I'm willing to plunge in. So, the question I can throw back at you, Jim, is what would you jump into, if you could.
Peace,
Phil
prayers have ascended... I hope you find a new direction refreshing & fruitful
In these matters, being "qualified" is irrelevant. Diving into the world of the Church Fathers is to swim in the Early Christian sea, full of brilliant wonders and even a few strange monsters, a vast and ancient world well-warmed by faith. But there's no qualifying for faith! If you want to do it, do it, and learn it by doing it.
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