I want to begin with complete candor. I am not a blogger, or a tweeter for that matter - in fact, I am rarely if ever a Facebook-status updater. However, I am very much politically and socially engaged. And despite my hands off approach to the current communicative technologies of the day, I concede that for some one who wishes to engage with people in American society, of all ages, these technologies are not to be ignored. Along with that concession comes the birth of this blog, which I hope will serve as a forum for intelligent discussion; including, but not limited to: the state of conservative Christianity in America today, and more specifically how it is helping to shape the dialogue between itself and the ever-widening secular academic world. To this end, I am especially concerned for the younger generation of high-school graduates who are soon to embark on college. How will the Christian respond? With Isolation? For that is certainly not the answer. And what of the skeptic young agnostic or seeker? Will his or her lingering interest in what some think of as the "numinous" be thoroughly snuffed out? Given the climate of today's colleges and universities, most likely. I know first hand, being educated in a well-to-do Massachusetts public High School, and later a Massachusetts State College, what attitudes and inclinations most will meet when they reach the halls of esteemed academia. But I digress.
This introductory blog is for the reader to hopefully understand, in a basic sense, who I am and why I am doing this. And although most of the people reading this now are probably relatives or close friends, I'll just pretend that I am reaching the hearts and minds of many an inquisitive thinker. My undergraduate degree is in English Literature, and it was to literature that I was going to dedicate my adult life. For I found the richness of human history summed up in the totality of it's pages. Whether novel, poem or essay, I believed, and still feel their is some truth, to the notion that literature is man's greatest window into the thoughts and emotions of those before us. What other single entity can be both literature and art, history and politics, sociology and economics, all while being held together with a single binding. Those of you with kindles will allow for the weight and beauty of the allusion to sink in anyway. But for all it's beauty, and hours and hours of profound insight, intrigue and adventure, the traditional western literary canon couldn't maintain my devotion. For as a Christian, all of it crumbled under the weight of Scripture. I know some may be thinking: what of Milton and Herbert, to you I say amen. However, despite the great wealth of Christian writers and thinkers in the last two-thousand years, those entrusted with faithfully teaching the western canon today have divorced the worth of these writings from whatever particular religious inclination it's authors may have had. And this has been epidemic in higher education within America - swiftly taking over History, Philosophy and of course Science departments as well. Given this, I am now engaged in a Masters of Divinity program, exchanging Wordsworth for Paul, and Keats for Tertullian. My hope is to continue uncovering the unending worth and rich truth of God's word; my passion is to be blessed with the opportunity of engaging the "thinking" portions of American society in an open and honest debate about the merits of Christianity over and above the claims of pure materialism.
This blog will hopefully be the vehicle through which I can in some small part address those today who are actively speaking for or against the worth and importance of faith generally, and Jesus Christ specifically. I hope to post various media through this blog and foster conversation and engagement with the dialogue ravaging on between reason and faith. Although there is much more I could, and would like to say about myself, my interests, and those thinkers, writers and pundits whom I would much like to engage with - for now, this not so short introduction will have to suffice...good night.
