Aberdeen Studies

If we moved to Aberdeen I'd be taking Systematic Theology in the divinity school and I'd be studying Karl Barth. I'd start out as an MPhil student and progress into the PhD as long as things were going okay.

The topic I proposed and had approved for dissertation research is as follows: "In light of Karl Barth's Doctrine of Reconciliation, how should the objective reality of Christ's forgiveness of sin actualize itself in the subjective experience of interpersonal relationships within the Church?"

Basically the idea is to study how Barth envisioned his lofty and exciting doctrine of reconciliation working out in churches. How would they look? Considering the many things churches (wrongly, I think) rally around now, I'd love to come out of this with a contribution of some kind to make to a different kind of ecclesiology. That would be great.

My supervisor at Aberdeen would be John Webster. He has written and edited books about Karl Barth and also the profoundly interesting Theology of Reconciliation.

I was reading Webster's "Intro to Barth" the other day and it gave me a big heads up on the kind of teacher he is and the kind of student he looks for. He said the ideal Barth interpreter would be one who took him seriously as one of the classics (i.e. read him in his original language) and who went into it with the desire to do church theology. Then he concluded with a quote from Barth which shows his approach to theology:

"Bound to its subject matter ... [theology] enjoys complete freedom of inquiry and doctrine.... It accepts no instructions or regulations from anyone; it even serves the Church in the independence of its own responsibility. And since the God from whom it takes its name is no dictator, it cannot behave dicatatorially. Bound only to its subject-matter, but also liberated by it, the teacher of theology can have and desires to have only pupils who are free in the same sense."

That kind of learning excites me. And when I was at seminary, I won't lie to you: reading Karl Barth was a high. I'm not even joking. I can't imagine enveloping myself in Barthian studies for three years.

Of course, I'd have to learn German. I've started poking my nose into it, but that is somewhat daunting.

This opportunity at Aberdeen offers me the chance to get right in on one of the most exciting and inspiring topics in theology today. It would challenge me, get me thinking about the church, about a more holistic understanding of redemption (reconciliation), and it would (hopefully) prepare me to aptly teach and write about theology in the future.

So, that's what awaits in Aberdeen, best as I can tell.

Aberdeen Life

In the upcoming weeks my wife and I may well be deciding to move to one of three possible locations in the United Kingdom. In the next few days I'll have a post listing the attractions to each. We may end up staying home, but if we move, these are the options, in alphabetical order. First:

Aberdeen, Scotland

This is the skyline of Old Aberdeen, I think. In other words, I imagine there would be the historical part of the city and the more modern looking part. My impression is that this is facing south-east, but I could be wrong.

Apparently the University of Aberdeen is 15 minutes walk from the ocean. One peice of propaganda claimed you could see dolphins from the shore sometimes. That would be something. I guess there are castles and parks and highlands to check out too.

As you can see from the map, Aberdeen is actually pretty far north. Further north than Edmonton, Alberta, where I live now. I mean, look at it, its almost Norway for goodness sakes!

But word on the street is that the 5 1/2 hours of daylight in the winter is a bigger deal than the cold. You get frigid winds but none of this sub-arctic -40 stuff like in northern Canada. I guess you'd be wearing hoodies and jackets all year though. I don't mind that.

One other interesting thing I just found out is that my Coutts family roots go back to McDuff, Scotland (which is right about where the "O" in Scotland lands on the map there). So that's kind of cool. Maybe we'd get there and find we had long-lost wealthy relatives with a parcel of land they want to give us in the highlands.

Anyway, here's the legendary part of the school I'd be attending. Its officially King's College, Aberdeen, in the University of Aberdeen.

Personally, Aberdeen has a lot going for it. It is a bit cheaper than the other front-runner, it seems to have more inroads to community life for families of students (although it is hard to tell), it is in a cool part of the world, and it seems like the primary school system would be pretty good and accessible for my kids.

That's the city and the school. Tomorrow I'll post about the teacher and the topic.

Surgery and Life Decisions

Early Monday morning I go in for surgery to clear out my sinuses.

My family will tell you this has been a long time coming. My brother theorizes that I have an extra set of teeth lodged up in my nasal cavity. I think he saw it on a freak documentary or something. My family doctor said (and I quote his medical assessment word-for-word) its actually just that I'm "all full of snot up there." Nice.

Anyway, I'll be put under for this, and will be there overnight. I've never gone in for anything like this before. I love how I'm not supposed to drink anything after midnight the night before, and we're talking nothing; not even a sip of water from a toothbrush.

And the real kicker is that they recommend I do not make any important life decisions within 24-48 hours of being put under. That's convenient, since my wife and I needed another reason to put off our decision another few days about where to live in the fall! We're literally weeks, maybe days, away from deciding (click for pictures):

Aberdeen?
Edinburgh?
London?
Nowhere?

Eight months ago when I started the process of seeking out the possibility of PhD studies I was winnowing down a list of 26 or so potential schools in Canada, the US, and the UK. I took the strategy of figuring out two topics I'd want to study and proposing them to potential professors. Based on positive feedback I'd go from there.

This got me narrowed down to a list of 6 schools I'd actually apply for. 3 in the US and 3 in the UK. One gong show of a GRE later (okay it wasn't that bad, but obviously not good enough for the US!) and I'm left with 3 choices: All in the UK.

Eight months ago if you told me I'd have even one choice I'd have been out-of-my-mind overjoyed! So I'm not looking a gift-horse in the mouth, whatever that means. But, still, its a tough call. To be honest it may yet be we can't go. Its an expensive move for a family of six. Maybe I should have thought of that back when I had my list of 26 schools!

But the momentum here seems to be that we may try to give one a shot (if moving across the ocean, incurring massive debt, and embarking upon a life-dream/majorly difficult goal can be correctly identified as the sort of thing you "give a shot"). We will have visa applications and all still to do, wo we pretty much have to decide by early May.

Just don't ask me for a decision in the next 48 hours. I'll be having the snot drilled out of me.

Out of the Comfortable Quiver: The Note

Let's not pretend this is easy.

Hunched over one of the twins changing a diaper, my ears were perked and my back straightened by the conversation of wife and son unpacking his school bag at the bottom of the stairs.

-- "Hey 'Lij . . . . Where did you get this note?"

-- "Oh that . . . . Someone on the bus gave it to me."

-- "Were you being mean to someone?"

-- "No."

-- "Then why would someone give you this?"

At this point my nose had peaked round the corner and I'd made my way over to read the note. In a child's scrawl, trailing off almost indiscernably at the end, it said:

If you bully me then I will have to get an adult involved.

--"Who gave this to you?"

-- "One of the bigger kids on the bus."

-- "A bigger kid?"

-- "Yeah, a grade oner. Christian. He wrote it for me."

-- "He wrote it for you?"

-- "Yeah . . . . I told him what happened and he said to give this to the mean kids."

-- "Oh were some kids at school being mean to you?"

-- "They just hurt me a little bit. Pushed me and I fell and hurt my knee."

When we saw the bruise the hair on my neck stood at attention--angry--against who I'm not sure. Its weird because unless it gets worse there is not a lot we can or should do.

A week later, calmer, but alert now too. Some decent chats: Kid-friendly shades of turn the other cheek and put away your sword; wise as serpents and innocent as doves---how to get out of a jam kind of stuff. He gets it a bit, I think. No more bruises so far, but there are no guarantees.

I won't pretend that week was not deeply disconcerting. The sense of helplessness is startling. There are all sorts of kids out there coming from all sorts of situations, and mine is out there with them; one of them.

But there are also big kids on the bus who write notes for little kids, and I wish I could tell them they're my heroes. They'd probably be all like whatever old man.

Is This Really Happening?

I like going to parades with my kids. And no matter what the array of lame and/or amazing "floats", when these guys go by its always a shake of the head and "Is this really happening?"

"Did I just see that?"

"I don't understand."

I think Shriners do some good charity work. I don't know, but I think so. I hope so.

I attended the Shrine Circus recently, and though they spent a good half hour parading themselves around the place in front of the captive mostly young audience and then belaboured to introduce themselves---they didn't really tell us anything. What they did do was tout their commitment to provide "affordable family entertainment," and even though they took every opportunity to sell incredibly overpriced must-have kids' merchandise to can't-say-no-parents and brief and boring animal rides for safari-like prices in the lengthy intermissions while parents had to find a way to keep antsy children at bay---I almost believed them!

So I hope they do some good charity work. I don't say that to be mean. But does anyone even know what these guys do? Aren't we sort of not supposed to know? I guess I might be okay with that, but I get sort of curious whenever the mini-cars and marching bands enter my life again.

I'll say this for them, though, they sure know how to stimey a parade-goer. And I think I have them to thank for over half of the bagpipe-marching-bands I've ever seen, which I don't see nearly enough. So, despite knowing next to nothing about the Shriners and not being sure I even want to know, I have to tip my hat to them. I love a good bagpipe-marching-band.