Life in the Girls’ Dorm

So it’s been Spring Break for a week now. Abbey’s been in Des Moines, then Lincoln (Nebraska), then Washington (Iowa). She’s been off, gallivanting around and as for me… I’ve been stuck here reading. My Comps exam is now only two weeks away. Yikes!

Anyway, I’ve been brushing up on the early church today and thought I would impart a little wisdom to you all.

Did you know… Santa Claus was present at the 1st Ecumenical Council. That’s right, St. Nicholas of Myra in Lycia (modern southwestern Turkey) was there at the Council of Nicaea. So, a special thanks goes out to Santa (well… not just Santa, 229 other bishops helped) for creedalizing Jesus’ divinity.

I wonder if his belly shook like a bowl full of jelly at the demise of that scoundrel Arius.

Go homoousios!

Abe and I just thought it was time to spruce things up a bit. Our time here in the girls’ dorm is running out, so we decided to give it one last push before we head back to the Promised Land. Anyway… Jake and I, for a very, very short time (though I did make a failed attempt to revive it), did some work together on a WordPress blog and I really liked the look and feel of it. So, have a look around and tell us what you think.

Abe and I both underwent some change today. I got new spectacles…boring. Abe got a haircut…not so boring. She’d been growing it out for roughly a year and a half (save a trim or two) but had been growing tired lately of what I affectionately had deemed “yeti head.” So she decided to chop it off. However, it wasn’t an easy decision. After doing some quick math, she figured that if she decided to grow it out, it wouldn’t be that length again until she is almost thirty. Man, we’re getting old. While this distresses me a bit, it bodes well because this woman keeps getting more b-e-a-utiful.

Jake Bouma has tagged me in this 123 Book Meme. I believe it is a ploy to get me posting again after a rather long hiatus. Well I guess it worked and here’s how the meme works:

(1) Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. No cheating! (2) Turn to page 123. (3) Find the first 5 sentences. (4) Post the next 3 sentences. (5) Tag 5 people.

“He had a brutal upbringing, being beaten heavily by his father and harassed by the police for innocent games. He became repeatedly arrested for the same offence — on every occasion, as far as he was concerned, trumped-up charges by policemen who didn’t like him. He joined the Royal Navy where he was birched, and ended up in his twenties as a chimney sweep.”

This passage is from Callum Brown’s The Death of Christian Britain: Understanding Secularisation 1800-2000. In this book, Brown offers an alternative opinion on British secularization theory. Secularization theory posits Enlightenment rationalism and industrialization as the culprits responsible for Christian declension. This, theorists argue, has happened slowly, over a long period of time, since, roughly 1800. Brown’s thesis is that the decline happened not slowly over time, but abruptly around the 1960’s. Quite attached to this, Brown argues that the responsibility for the decline fell not on Enlightenment rationalism or industrialization, but on the social furor of the “swinging sixties.” Particularly, he speaks to the notions of the homosexual law reforms, the feminism, and the sexual carte blanche of the age. Brown argues that it was the combination of social convulsions that resulted in the “death of Christian Britain.” Browns refutation of secularization theory has elicited major interest. This book is a watershed work in the field and the scholarly community has not been able to ignore it: whether they agree with Brown or not.

Now that this post is getting way too long, I must explain the quotation. Brown is particularly interested in oral histories. (interviews, questionnaires, etc…) This passage is part of his discussion of how oral testimony reflects the evangelical narrative. The passage above is about Arthur Turner from Lancashire and it goes on to tell his “salvation” story.

I tag the vis, ryan, brandon, sam, and brad. We’ll see if anyone is still reading this old blog

Over Christmas break I had this ridiculous idea to get out my wedding dress. I was thinking about how much it cost and that I only wore it one day! My whole family was together so I talked my sisters and my mom into getting out our dresses and having a fashion show! We laughed so hard putting our dresses on and remembering our wedding days. I think my Mom is just the cutest, her dress fit her perfectly! After that, we put them all back in the closet. Who knows when they will surface again.