Since being sick Friday life has really spring boarded back to business. The weekend was a great time of rest and reflection. Saturday most of the group went to London, sadly I felt like I should make sure not to miss any more classes so I stayed home and caught up on work and grocery shopping. I’m finding out that since I’m not that picky about what brand I buy in the super market that I’m making my dollar (pound) go a lot further. That’s been nice to know. Sunday most of us go to an evening Church service at St. Andrews which is on the far North side of town with one of our professors, Jonathan Kirkpatrick. It’s an Anglican (Church of England, Episcopal) Church which, at times, is only one step (papal submission) away from being Catholic, but St. Andrew’s runs a night service that is very popular with students and youth. It is much like any Evangelical church back in the colonies (U.S.A.) with a contemporary worship band and livily preaching, there was a little bit of liturgy in there, but little of the theology that I struggle with was present. They even did some hymns which were great!
I’ve found more and more people being curious about Mennonites and as such I’ve spent many walks and nights trying to explain Mennonite Theology to the group. At times people are shocked, other times bewildered, but it seems like people want to know more. This has been a lot of fun for me to live out and explain. Interestingly, many people here (90%) would call themselves pacifists, but I seem to be uniquely suited in having a solid theological reasoning for it. That has been the subject of a little debate with the other 10% who disagree, although I’m trying to adopt a position of sitting back and letting other people talk (hard for me to do) since there are so many educated people here who are willing to take up the discussion.
Today (Monday 10 Sep 2007) has been an incredibly busy day so far and it isn’t nearly over yet. We had class as usual which went well. We watched a movie for our British Landscapes class, had tea, and listen to a lecture over the rise of Women in literature and Christianity that came to pass after the Black Death swept through England in the 1340s. It was fascinating to hear the stories and lessons of the English people who went through the plague and the new social order that arose out of such desolation.
Afterwards we ate lunch and set off to the libraries of Oxford in search of materials for our respective papers which are due in a week. My first paper at Oxford is over the British hero Robin Hood, whose legend grew in the Greenwood forests, just a few 100 kilometers north of Oxford near York and Nottinghamshire. I will be making the point that in British History it has at times been advantageous to have a hero who is also a criminal and to explore how this has affected real and fictional characters since the 13th century when the first reports of Robin Hood appear… characters like Guy Fawks, or Han Solo… exciting eh? Most of the day was busy deep in libraries exploring these aspects of history and literature.
I also spent time in our main building at Frewin Court catching up on a program I missed due to the illness on Friday and on the way back home acquired a bike helmet (rest assured mom and dad) and exploring an used book store with some fellow students. The discussion fell on my personal theologies again which took up the whole 20 minute ride back home. What a blast!
I made some quick soup and gobbled it down, and have returned to the studying. But there was one thing I wanted to relate before I go. As I understand it, this blog is now on the Tabor College website and I want to thank Vance Frick and Will Enger for doing the work to put this up.
My first message to any Tabor students or prospective students who might be reading along is that (and I know this will sound forced but) you are actually getting a great education at Tabor. I know that you might not think so, since it’s a laid back, small environment, that’s exactly what I thought. I wholly expected to be blown away by Oxford University and all the intelligent people I’d encounter, but I’ve found that, while I might not possess the vocabulary these intellectuals do, I often have the knowledge and ideas that are respected by the group for their insight. My point is, at Tabor I wasn’t sure that I was getting a great education or just great connections, but the fact is what I learned at Tabor is going the distance here at Oxford… so far so good.
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