Lesser Feasts

  18 December 2022, being the Fourth Sunday of Advent I just got my teeth whitened last week. They have always appeared very stained-- flourosis , as my Edinburgh dentist and my Tampa dentist agree--and I have always been self-conscious about them. Zoom whitening cost me $500. My teeth now look, not gleaming, not preposterously glow-in-the-dark white, but fine. Fine. And just like that, I am no longer self-conscious about my teeth. Why I waited until 55 to avail myself of this cheap and easy fix is a mystery. It suggests (I should like to think) a laudable freedom from vanity, that excessive preoccupation with physical appearance that is one manifestation of the capital vice of vainglory, which is excessive preoccupation with appearance in general. (Not all writers in the capital vices tradition distinguish vanity about physical appearance from the more general vainglory that also concerns reputation, praise, status, and so forth: but tough. They're not writing this blog post.) But...

  A former friend of mine was back in my thoughts over the last few days. I'm not entirely sure why. It's been ages now since I came to the definitive realization that he was ghosting me. ("Ghost" in this sense is one of the finest recent additions to our vocabulary.) That realization long ago ceased to sting, and the unpleasant memory of the loss, like a quick, sharp, bitter taste, barely experienced before it disappears, rarely returns. It returned this time, strangely enough, in the company of a very good friend whose company and conversation I was enjoying tremendously.     Aristotle, who knew a thing or two about friendship, explains that the stability of friendships depends on a certain equality between the friends when it comes to whatever the basis of the friendship is. In a friendship of pleasure, one based on the enjoyment each friend has in the other's company, the friends need to have roughly the same kinds and amount of pleasure if the friendship is t...

Sunset on St Andrew's Day (yesterday), as seen from my office I think I've used that line as a title for a post before, but I don't care. It's a great song. Some beginnings are coming to an end this week. Yesterday was my last full day in DC until the spring semester begins. I devoted most of it to grading and teaching prep. Whoever decided that for my last full week of classes I would schedule two articles I'd never taught before clearly did not have my best interests at heart. The evening was given over to Solemn Evensong and Benediction at St Paul's, K Street, a splendid celebration of the 50th ordination anniversary of the Revd Canon Dr Tony Lewis, Professor Emeritus of New Testament at Virginia Theological Seminary, whom I've know since my own K Street days. (He was also the preacher at the consecration of my new bishop back in September.) It was a nice smoky service requiring three masters of ceremonies, a dozen acolytes, and enough bishops to start a ...

One of my better covers Blessed John Duns Scotus, OFM, died (according to tradition) on 8 November 1308, so today is his feast day, for anyone inclined to celebrate. I actually started writing about Scotus entirely because someone else suggested the idea to me. That's not a particularly respectable reason to start working on a historical figure (my reason for working on Anselm is even less respectable; I'll get to that at some point), but the interest quickly became quite sincere, and Scotus has taken over my life and then relinquished it in waves ever since. I currently owe OUP the definitive (ha!) book on Scotus's ethics. Yeah, well, I owe lots of people lots of things. ***** I spent last weekend at home in Tampa. It was not a successful visit, since I spent the whole time suffering, and then recovering, from a stomach bug. I did lose 3.5 pounds over the weekend, but not, I suspect, in the way my trainer was encouraging. Our dog, Tess, is not particularly cuddly. She like...

Fall colors on campus  I reluctantly made the decision to stay in DC this weekend instead of going back home. Even with a direct flight and (so far) no hitches or delays of any consequence, commuting is tiring. I also knew I would need the whole weekend for work, so I didn't even let my DC friends know I would be around. (If any of you are reading this, I promise I'll do better next time.) It was a good week. I think feeling settled, even if only for a few extra days, helped a lot. I've started working with a new trainer, who is fond of words like "shredded" and "ripped" and would be scary if he weren't also a sweetheart. I attended the Eighth Annual Costan Lecture in Early Christianity on Wednesday, followed by a dinner with a dozen or so colleagues--"only non-toxic people," explained the New Testament scholar to my right. To my left was the speaker, the brilliant and engaging James F. Keenan, S.J. He knew my name but couldn't quite re...

17 October 2022, being the Eve of St Luke the Evangelist Mid-afternoon flight back to DC (verging on late-afternoon flight thanks to a half-hour delay for a tire change). Tucked inside the notebook in which I drafted this post—much as Thomas Aquinas drafted his blogposts longhand, except that my handwriting is legible—is a schedule for the week to come. There are probably five people in the world who can read this, and I feel quite certain that none of them will see this post. It's a week between writing assignments in Intro, and prep should be minimal, since I'm teaching Anselm's On the Fall of the Devil . (If my students can trip me up on On the Fall of the Devil , I need to find another line of work.) So I've made up a chart to help me make the best use of my time. One column is marked "Appointments," the other "Tasks." Anything with a definite time goes under "Appointments." This includes class, office hours, and the usual routine stuff...

  Tampa, Florida. Labor Day weekend. The kayaks have arrived. So too has the all-day rain. We have not yet been out on the lake. Washington, D.C., Thursday, 8 September. On my way back from teaching the first third of the Phaedo , the dialogue that recounts the death of Socrates, I hear some buzz from students about the Queen's health. "They're calling the family in." Back in my office, I connect to BBC News. Huw Edwards is leading the coverage of Her Majesty's death capably and with dignity. It would of course be silly to say that I thought the Queen would never die, and the death of a 96-year-old is not in itself surprising -- though it's a bit surprising when it happens just two days after she has welcomed her fifteenth prime minister, looking physically diminished but still cheerfully meeting the demands of her role. There are those who wonder whether it is appropriate for Americans to mourn the Queen. I say it's always appropriate to mourn an extraord...

 The first day of school requires a new outfit. Washington, D.C. Tuesday, 30 August. It takes me a little while to realize that something quite strange is happening. I look out and see books open. Texts are highlighted, underlined, marked up with Post-It notes. The students aren't just smart. They're prepared. I'm going to have to up my game. The only downside is that Georgetown is still requiring masks during class (except for instructors, as long as we stay six feet away from our students). Learning names is going to be difficult. After the first three class meetings I will know the names of the handful of students with distinctive hair, and that's about it. I absolutely hate  not knowing names. Washington, D.C. Wednesday, 31 August. This outfit  has started a new project that I don't quite understand -- something about videos to accompany a sort of great books curriculum for college students -- and they interview me for two different videos. There's a morning...

  Yesterday I decided to buy a new suit to celebrate the new job. I quite like it, but let's face it: the socks are the best part. Medieval Ethics was graciously canceled because of low enrollment, so this semester it's just Intro to Philosophy. I have thirty students, whose names I'm going to struggle to learn because Georgetown is still requiring masking in class -- though nowhere else, which is super-science-y -- and so I have fewer cues to go by. But good heavens, they read the heck out of Plato's Euthyphro . Oddly, several people thanked me after class. Does that mean I did a good job? No idea. Maybe Georgetown students are just incredibly nice. One guy asked if he could put his pastor in touch with me so I could do an adult formation thing for his parish (a Lutheran church near Capitol Hill). Sure, why not? Another thanked me for being "reasonable": "I'm an atheist, so I was worried about this, but I like the way you took other views seriously....

Feast of Saint Augustine 28 August 2013 St Paul’s, K Street ✠ I speak to you in the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen. As always when there is a saint, we have a biographical sketch. But today is the feast of my favorite theologian, my first philosophical love, and I hope you won’t mind if instead I say a few words from my own experience of Saint Augustine. It would be hard to overstate his influence. This largely self-taught thinker, imbued with a smattering of ancient wisdom, some second-hand Platonism, and an ever-deepening knowledge of Scripture, produced a body of work that remains vital and powerful. To a surprising extent, Christians still think his thoughts, still understand with his mind, still draw up battle lines around his controversies. Even in reaction, he wields influence: would anyone be invested in the misguided contemporary project of rehabilitating Pelagius were it not a way to take a stand against Augustine, like a rebellious teenager clumsily tryi...

Content warning: nekkid dudes in a weird painting. ***** I did a rough calculation: there were about 300 papers at this conference. Apart from the plenary talks, there were eleven sessions running concurrently at any given time. That's a lot of medieval philosophy -- more than I have an appetite for. But I missed more sessions than I would have liked, because my jet lag was absolutely brutal this time. ***** When I wasn't listening to papers or sleeping, I was out walking. I love long walks in cities. Paris was having a warm spell, and I made the (in retrospect obviously stupid) decision to walk all the way from my hotel to Sacré Cœur, a solid two miles away, on the hottest and sunniest day. Thanks to a timely rest and a liter of water, I was fine. My heart quailed when I reached the foot of the steps. Maybe I should take the funicular. No. Don't be ridiculous. You've climbed the Seven Hills of Edinburgh. You've walked in the Highlands. It's just steps. Turns ou...

The view from my balcony at the Hôtel D'Orsay  Normally I prepare for travel abroad. In the whirlwind of new faculty orientation and settling into my apartment and my new office, I just didn't this time around. I even managed to schedule an "onboarding" (I hate that word) call for my website redesign for Saturday morning, when I should have been getting properly ready. My packing consists of shoving back into my suitcase whatever I had taken out of it over the previous three days. (Conveniently, settling into my apartment did not include unpacking.) As soon as the call is over, I head for the airport. At some point I get a message from the place I'm supposed to be staying. If my French serves me correctly, they are telling me that for health reasons, they are no longer supplying bath towels. Google Translate informs me that my French is indeed serving me correctly. I'm not quite sure how you can advertise a place as "tout équipé" and then take away t...

  Orientation begins on Wednesday at 8 am, so I have no excuse not to be at Morning Prayer at 7:30. The rector officiates. He is Scottish. I worry that when we have lunch in a couple of weeks, I will alarm him by my enthusiasm for all things Scottish. For now, though, I'm just delighted to have been invited to celebrate at the occasional midweek Eucharist and participate in their very robust adult formation program. ***** The first speaker at orientation is the Vice President for Mission and Ministry, a Jesuit. He talks about Jesuit values, about Ignatian spirituality, and it's all very lovely. It will become clear to me over these two days that the university really does take its Jesuit identity seriously. ***** That's my first we're-not-in-Kansas-anymore moment. My second is when the provost speaks to us. My former provost was noteworthy for his ability to speak at indefinite length while conveying no information of any kind. My new provost is the opposite: clear, str...

My flight was on time, my bag came quickly, and I was at my apartment by 3:00. Perfect. I had forgotten how much light the place gets: Rather than unpacking, I decide to walk to the office and start settling in there. It's a pleasant forty-minute walk. I pass Christ Church, Georgetown, on the way to the entrance to the University and ultimately my new building. I'm eager to see how my nine framed Scotland photos turned out. According to an email, they arrived yesterday. Unfortunately, they are nowhere to be found. The departmental administrator suggests that I go to the mailroom and gives me very clear directions about how to get there, which I proceed to fumble mightily. After some random wandering, stairs leading nowhere, and a brief detour through the Esplanade of Confusion, I do manage to find it. The folks at the mailroom are super-helpful, but they can't find my packages. I send an email to customer service and hope for the best. At least I have time to unpack the thr...

John Houston,  Sunset over the Sea  (1971-72 I head up to Georgetown in six days. In that time I need to finish an external review for promotion, write two papers, organize an edited volume, and tinker with the syllabi for my two classes. Oh, and preach. Obviously, I won't get all of that done by Tuesday. Whatever the consequences of my overcommitment + occasional unproductive days + mountains of proofs to read may be, I will have to face them. (Academics know, of course, that there will be no consequences. That's one reason we're all so terrible about meeting deadlines.) Rather than feeling oppressed by my manifold and great deadlines, however, I'm mostly excited. Stoked. Chuffed. Looking back, I see I had a really good summer. Both Anselm volumes (the VSI and the translation volume) are fully completed and in press, with publication dates in late November. One promotion review is already done. I've chosen the readings (just not the assignments) for my classes. A f...

"For when by heavenly mercy we arrive by our various roads at the homeland for which we now sigh, we will rejoice all the more that we have been called back from our diverse places of exile and now come together." -- Anselm of Canterbury, letter to Henry, a monk of Bec, c. 1070 Now Anselm is talking about heaven, as he so often did, not about Sewanee (aka God's Holy Mountain [aka Anglican Disneyland]). But he is also talking about friendship: the sorrow of friends when they are apart, and the marvelous joy of friends when they are reunited. At Tuesday's Eucharist, the celebrant prayed, "Remember those of our number who are grieved that they cannot be among us, and those whose absence we grieve." So many times during the week I thought "I would have loved to see the look on his face when that happened" or "I wish I could have talked with her about that bit." There was the sorrow of friends when they are apart. May God call them all back ne...

Tuesday There are, no doubt, some who think that the Mozarabic Preface is a bit much for a ferial Eucharist in the Season after Pentecost. They are, however, incorrect. And, more to the point, they are not celebrating the Eucharist in the Chapel of the Apostles today. The celebrant has remembered to put on his black shoes. He will maintain an unblemished record of black-shoe-wearing throughout the week, for the first time ever. Wednesday The Conference celebrates Solemn Eucharist, Rite One, with the propers For the Departed. The celebrant (who, to be fair, has been an Episcopalian for only forty years) mangles the Summary of the Law. The first performance of Malcolm Archer's setting of "Faire is the Heaven"  (beginning at 29:39) is beautifully sung. The thurifer, sacristan, and crucifer are all highly competent, flexible, and delightful. The person who runs the sound board and keeps me from having to keep turning my microphone on and off -- microphones are, of course, an ...

The view for Morning Prayer (Antiphon for the Venite : "Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness") After Morning Prayer I headed down to Manchester, where my sister is building a house. It was great to spend some time with her and my younger niece, who turned 18 last month and is heading off to college at Western Kentucky University next month. The house is really lovely, and thanks to my sister's handling of the finances, they're coming in well under budget. It's all quite impressive. Then back up the mountain for registration. How wonderful to see so many familiar faces (masked though they were) after a three-year hiatus! I caught up with our chaplain, the inimitable Barbara Crafton, who for health reasons is handing over the officiating and presiding to me, though she will continue to do all the preaching, thanks be to God. I'm always happy to preside, though chanting the liturgy at a conference of church musicians brings a certain amount of pressure with...

Tess The Sewanee Church Music Conference begins tomorrow. It's our first time meeting in person since 2019, and the usual family-reunion atmosphere will be all the more intense, all the more joyful, for our long absence from one another. Malcolm Archer will be our conductor, Fred Teardo our organist, and Barbara Crafton our chaplain. I will preside at some of the liturgies, but mostly I will rehearse and sing with the choir (the choir = everyone attending the conference), which is what I prefer. As always I have headed up to Tennessee a bit early to spend time with my Mom and Dad, who live in Spring Hill, about thirty miles south of downtown Nashville and ninety miles northwest of Sewanee. I haven't posted in quite a while because there hasn't really been much to talk about. I've been working hard on page proofs for Anselm: A Very Short Introduction  and Anselm: The Complete Treatises with Selected Letters and Prayers and the Meditation on Human Redemption , both of wh...