I Figured these two pictures would be interesting to place beside each other. The one on the left is my (famous?) picture of elation at being in the Bodliean Library in my first week here. The picture on the right is an attempt at a recreation which I took only minutes ago. It was a fun waste of time, but I particularly wanted to point out how my hair has noticeably grown, and although it might not be obvious I think I've lost some weight since coming... and if you pay close attention you may see the loss of life and joy in my eyes from three months of endless reading, researching, and writing... just kidding, but I thought my attempt at recreating true joy fell short.

Anyway, the normal sleep pattern has continued. I was in bed by midnight, and up by 8am, its been great. Today I even accomplished some work on my last paper. I'm about 1/3 finished. Although its the easiest third since its all philosophy of history, with no evidence or citations, just observations, ect... in fact, its pretty poor stuff, and after some editing it'll probably cut down to only 25% of the total, but still its a dent.

Today was the first time I've experienced Kansas-like weather. In the morning it was beautiful and warm, by noon it was raining terribly, then it cleared and was beautifully sunny, then a thick fog rolled in, which was washed away by another deep rain. Here are some of the pictures... both weren't taken today, but I think it still communicates what the outlook was like.
















For some reason I'm a fan of the comparison photos today. Hope you've enjoyed them as much as I have.

Sadly, I've been having trouble with uploading my videos. I'll keep trying but in order to give this blog some more substance let me tell you about the last couple of days. The past two days I've totally shifted in my sleeping schedule. I've gone to bed by midnight, and gotten up by 6am. Its been really awesome. I know why I haven't done it before, but I must admit, its better in a lot of ways from my past system. I've had a couple of hours each morning to study the bible and pray. Its been great... lots of insights. This morning I was taking a shower and I had an epiphany about my philosophy of teaching history... so I hope you enjoy:

Teaching history, as any other discipline, is both a subject and a method. The confusion of this truth is often the cause for the apathy many students show towards history.

As a subject history is often encompassed by the ‘Who’, ‘What’, ‘When’, and ‘Where’ questions. Who did what, when, and where did it occur? It seems to me that many teachers employ, or at least many students encounter this pedagogical approach to teaching history. The problem with this approach seems to be centered on the issue of interaction between student and subject.

Extremely few students will connect with the ‘Who’ subjects of history because it is certainly not themselves and its most likely not someone they know personally. It is difficult to overcome this introspective. Many pupils simply do not care about long dead individuals. Unless they happen to have a family connection, or a personal relational knowledge of the individual many students find it difficult to connect on biographical history alone. They desire more.

Few will connect with the ‘Where’ because the vast majority of students will live in areas of relatively little historical impact. In the grand scheme of history, American cities pale in comparison to the historical juggernaughts of London, Paris, or especially Rome. Geographical history is therefore confined to the few major events, and a compilation of minor historical events of a student’s immediate area.

Due to their age, many students have only interacted with around twenty years of history, and even that’s the history that we are just beginning to discover. Eventually history moves back in time beyond any personal connection to the particular time period. At these points history has become an abstract. It no longer has any connection points for students and becomes a ‘boring’ subject because of it.

The only topic which may yet grasp their attention is the ‘What’ of history. Events and occurrences are not limited by identity, location, or temporal placement. Students may be able to connect with any persecuted person of anytime from anywhere not due to the connection with that individual, time, or place, but due to the event taking place. The ‘What’ is the only interaction to which they can relate.

Sadly, many students experience only this side of history. Quizzes, essays, and tests are frequently based mainly or even solely on these criteria. A question may go as the following:

Fill in the blank

(Who) (What) (Where) (When)

Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 4^th, 1776.

It is uninteresting because it could just as easily be:

Max ran in the park yesterday.

These questions seem to be asked because they are easy to ask, easy to learn and study, easy to recall, and easy to relate… and above all easy to grade. In all ways these types of questions are the easiest historical questions with which to interact. Students gain little but percentage points and grades from these questions. Little knowledge is actually taught, merely trivia. Both this trivial knowledge and the percentage points will be worthless later in life.

However, the method and the interest in history both shine when different questions are posed. It is precisely the ‘What’, ‘How’, and ‘Why’ questions of history that make history interesting and relevant. I could ask, any student could study and regurgitate that Jefferson wrote in Philadelphia on the 4^th of July 1776, but without out know what he wrote, why he wrote it, and how he and his countrymen had reached that point it contains no deep meaning. Students will never find themselves historically being someone else in the same time and place, but they may often discover that they are in a similar historical event, and understanding why they are in the situation and how to handle are invaluable lessons.

Students connect with the “hows and whys” of historical events (whats). These questions are more challenging to ask, to study, to conceptualize, and to answer. In fact, many of the answer to how or why something occurred are subjective and vary. There is rarely a single right answer. Learning this lesson and how to interact with history in this manner is life changing. They are far more difficult and time consuming to interact with or grade, but the value of the lessons far exceeds the sacrifice of time or thought.

While walking beside a class of students, trying to develop the answers to ‘how’ questions and ‘why’ questions the door is opened to explore deeper philosophical ideas about life. Little in the way of life lessons can be taught by history through ‘who,’ ‘what,’ ‘where,’ or ‘when,’ but loads can be explored through ‘whys’ and ‘hows.’

My goal then is to be the type of teacher who will put in the extra work and thought to explore the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of history beside my classes. Certainly there will inevitably be those who always find historical investigation boring or useless, but hopefully this approach to teaching will limit that number.

It has been a very full week. Last Thursday Shelby came to town. It was a great fun time. She's so good at interacting with people that she fit right in. Everyone in the program commented about her, she made a great impression. She stayed in Oxford about a 45 minute walk which got tiresome for us both, but it was well worth it.

A wonderful addition to the week was that Shelby and I were able to meet and eat lunch with future Tabor science professor Timothy Richmond and his family. We ate pizza and just talked for hours. I think it was tough on his little girl Mia, but we all had a blast. His wife is a former Kansan and they are both amazing people... they'll be great fits for Tabor, and I'm excited to see how they impact our community. I'm also hoping to see them again after the semester is over, because Tim is doing a post-Doctorate program in Belgium, and I'm hoping to see them as I go through on my European tour. I'm hoping to get a picture soon, but Shelby's camera is where it resides for now... so its coming soon.

Shelby and I also got the great chance to spend a day in London. It was beautiful. Saw the sites, and enjoyed London life... riding the tube, evensong at St. Pauls, meetinWe saw all theg up with our friends Nick and his girlfriend Christin. Big Ben, Parliment, the National Art Gallery, Trafalgur Square, the Canadian Embassey... it was all a blessing. We even got the chance to debate a little. At Shelby's hostel that night in London, we got into a discussion with a Cambridge (ha) Math professor.

He asked us where we were from, we said the colonies, and he asked whether we were comfortable being hated by the British and Europeans. I replied that our government and the Bush administration have enacted a lot of policies that have pushed us in that direction and that I don't care much for what our American reputation means in the world. He responded by praising the policies of the Bush administration... so of course you can see how it began. By the end he had said, "I think America is the strongest best country in the world, and they shouldn't be slowed down by people disagreeing with them." I responded by saying, "And that's why the British and Europeans, our allies, dislike us... that attitude is completely incompatible with international diplomacy, and we have ignored that."

Then the discussion turned to Christianity, because this Cambridge Professor was an atheist. So we argued whether it was reasonable for an educated person to believe in a man walking on water. I argued that "natural laws" are predictive not explanatory, that any evidence is based on testimony and that any natural law in regard to buoyancy is at best 99.9% predictive, which cannot account for the .01% of historical accounts of people walking on water. I've got to say, thanks to my philosophical theology class and Tabor experience, it was a great conversation. Go OXFORD!!! It was a ton of fun, but sadly the guy was was pretty inebriated so I don't think anything stuck. However we did make some great friends in Chris and Eli, a Canadian and Australian who had joined the conversation. It was a fun night.

I left the hostel at 3am, got on a 4am bus back to Oxford, and was in bed by 5am. The next day I pushed the envelope to finish a paper in two days. Thankfully it was probably the easiest paper of the entire term. Whether it is accurate or useful to label Thomas Macaulay a Whig historian... the answer is YES and YES... so all I needed to do was say that in 2,000+ words. It went fine and I finished my last primary tutorial of the term. I only have one paper left to go.

This week also contained our program's Thanksgiving feast. On Saturday we hosted around 80 American students, SCIO workers, and famililes at our house. I was in charge of carving the seven turkeys with Adam Grahm and organizing the Football game (American style). Both went amazingly well. We had a great time. The football game was a lot of fun, and I remembered how to tap the speed, so I was able to kick it into high gear a few times. It felt great. I decided to wear blue for Tabor and Oxford, so it was my Oxford Soccer uniform + some blue tights. It ended with a double overtime field goal kick, by Clint (our RD) who is also a soccer player. It was also an opportunity to start Christmas. What fun. Here's a video of the common room.




I got the chance to interact with Ethan Rosenburg, our director's seven year old son. We played a Star Wars card game, and discussed American Football. He explained that the Denver Broncos was his favorite squad. I said that I liked the Kansas City Chiefs and he responded that they were the Broncos rival and he often rooted against them. It was all very British and proper... I loved it. Then we proceeded to talk Star Wars, could it get any better?

I'm certain that there is more I should cover, and sadly I've just given a very rough overview of the week. There was so much more contained in each one of these events. There's simply not enough time or space to explain each. However, I hope all these photos and videos have in some ways given you a view into the experience.

One more paper to go. My parents are almost ready to come over. It should be a great last week. I'm planning an end of term European tour. Edinburgh, Scotland; Luxembourg; Brussels,Belgium; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Budapest, Hungary; Bratislava, Slovakia; Vienna, Austria; Prague, Czech Rep; and Frankfurt, Germany. I'm hoping it all comes together.

I'm also sleeping a lot better. The week exhausted me and allowed me to jumpstart a new sleeping schedule. Last night I was out by 11pm, and up at 6am... pretty normal. Tonight seems like I might be able to do the same thing, which was wonderful because it allowed me to have a time for prayer and bible study. Its been a great week.

Today has been amazing, and its just beginning. Because it is Thanksgiving I just had to share this short thought:

Some of you have been asking me what the biggest lesson or most important thing I've learned from my time here at Oxford. And I think I must give the same answer Karl Barth once gave.

You see, Karl Barth was arguably the most influential and prominent theologian of the 20th century. His writings and research have influenced countless Christians. Once, he was giving a speech at the University of Chicago, and afterwards people crowded around him to shake his hand, and hopefully ask him a question. One such student asked, "Dr. Barth, in all of your studies on the Bible and all your lifetime of work on theology, what is the greatest lesson or deepest thought you've become aware of?"

Dr. Barth without hesitation or a moment's thought replied; "Jesus loves me."

I am thankful that I have learned this too. This morning God spoke joy and peace into my life. It's been a wonderful morning so far. There are eternal things to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! While you are all settling down to a nice, filling, American-style meal, my fellow ex-patriots and I shall be attending lectures, researching and writing papers, and meeting with our professors. Not to worry though, our Thanksgiving has just been moved to Saturday instead. I'll let you know how it all turns out. I'm in charge of getting the turkeys carved on Friday night, and, for some unknown reason, they've decided to put me in charge of an afternoon football game. I tried to explain what "football" meant to me, but nonetheless I will attempt to organize the 'american-style,' as they put it, as best I can. By the way, the picture is my attempt at photographic-art... its the Bodliean Library at Night (5pm)...

There's not much to report, as usual. I just worked on papers all week. One on the historian Thomas Babington Macaulay (what a cool British middle name), and the other on the doctrine of the atonement. They were both great fun, and the Macaulay paper I presented last night. My tutor was impressed and I think it was actually one of my best papers so far. The question for that essay, and the one he just assigned me, also on Macaulay, were dreadfully easy. They have turned out to be simple "YES or NO" questions... well goodness, how do you say "yes" in 2,000 words?... I'm training myself to be efficient with my words.

The atonement paper was loads of fun. Its not as well written on paper, but the truths of it have be written on my heart. Mostly it seems that theological philosophers tend to abandon most elements that make God or Christ recognizable, and they tend to latch on to a single truth and then explain it to death as the "only reasonable understanding." This seems to have happened with the doctrine of the atonement. There are gobs of theories, each one focusing on one aspect of the idea, and for that reason incomplete... which spurs some other philosopher to develop a newer theory which deals with the problems but falls into the same illness.

For example, there is a theory that the atonement is all about Jesus defeating the evil powers and principalities of this world through his perfect life and innocent death under their hands. Another, suggests that Jesus is the sacrificial lamb which satisfies God's desires for justice. Another theory is that Christ's death pays off a debt we owe God. Yet another stands on the atonement as God opening the door for us to be reconciled with him. The problem is that all of these theories compete against one another, and I think they all have truth in them. It doesn't make sense to me why we would put God into our box of atonement and say, "it means this 100%." It seems perfectly reasonable to me that God used Christ's death to accomplish many things... conquering evil, paying off our debt and releasing us from punishment by claiming Christ as our perfect sacrifice, all for the purpose of becoming reconciled with God, because of His love and grace. So it was a fun paper.

Today, my lady-friend Shelby is flying into Britain. Her father work for United Airlines, and she's wanted to come to England for a long time, and what better time than when you know someone here, right? She'll celebrate Thanksgiving here with us, and then we'll spend a day in London. It ought to be a lot of fun, and I think she'll really like the people here... I sure do.

On that note, let me tell a quick story about my friend Adam's birthday. Adam turned 22 a few days ago, and at midnight, we decided to throw a big jamboree... We all had work to do, but how often do you really get to hang out with brilliant great friends? We decided to cook-up all the meat we had, and feast ourselves upon a manly meal. The result was a sausage, bacon, hamburger birthday cake, with potatoes, and fried vegetables. We completed this endeavor by 2am, and proceeded to watch the Shawshank redemption. It seemed like the guy thing to do. It was a ton of fun. A bunch of college guys, hanging out. It was a blast, and made me miss my friends, but happy to have added these guys to that list. Here's the video.


Happy Thanksgiving!

Finally had a night where I didn't have to stay up writing or researching... couldn't sleep anyway. My sleeping cycle is destroyed. Thankfully I saw something amazing in my insomnia. I live at the top of Headington Hill just outside Oxford city. Tonight, there was not a cloud in the sky until a thick fog rolled into town, but it enveloped Oxford first before rising up the hill. In those brief moments before it engulfed the house the fog actually smothered the ambient light from the city. For the first time in England, I saw the stars. They were just how I'd left them back in Kansas.

I know it may sound really cheesy and poetic, but it was a nice little moment for me. Goodnight. No pictures or video updates for tonight... go to bed! Although I hope you do enjoy the new Tabor inspired color (colour) scheme.