Against Nothingness

When you start to read the classics of Christianity, as I did in Toronto and afterwards, you will find a lot of writing on prayer. The Kneeling Christian, several books by E.M Bounds, the Desert Fathers, and more all found there way into my hands. As I read I experienced a buildup of pressure to pray more. But, since I did not pray more, I also experienced a buildup of guilt.  In so many ways I was still very young and immature in my faith. I was a university student still out of my depths in Religious Studies and therefore working hard at school, a volunteer student leader in a campus ministry, and I was playing way too many video games. On top of all of that, Kristina and I started dating in my second year of university. This was an entirely long distance relationship. She studied at Simon Fraser in Vancouver. I studied at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Neither of us had money for plane tickets, but we rode buses.  In other words, my life was full of good things. But my life

During my second year of university, fueled by the discover of Crux that I mentioned in this post , I started visiting Christian bookstores. Nothing I found in Alberta matched up to Crux (until I found Pilgrim's used books in Calgary which, sadly, is no longer around). Still, one does what one can.  On one such visit I bought my first systematic theology: "Finney's Systematic Theology: The Complete and Newly Expanded 1878 Edition."  600+ pages of theology from the engineer of revivals. It sits on my shelf, unread to this day. I still tell myself I will read it sometime, if only out of historical interest, but it may never happen.  Why did I buy it? Three reasons. A friend pointed it out and said something like "this is the kind of book you should read." I had a hunger for deeper biblical and theological learning. I was sinking into the "Arminian/Calvinist" debate and Finney seemed like he might help (And who knows, he might have).  Why didn't I

What do you do when you are in over your head? How do you face being out of your depth?  I over prepare. I worry away at something, pulling it this way and that, planning out as many eventualities as possible, and take in as much information as I can find. I read a lot (I know, you are shocked!). In school I could come across as an over-achiever but what many didn't know was that this was born out of anxiety.  So I had a long list of books, meant to prepare me for Religious Studies, as I wen into my second year of undergrad. I knew math. I knew physics. I knew chemistry. These were firm ground beneath my feet. I did not know history, philosophy, sociology, textual studies, world religions, or ancient languages. These were shifting sand. So I picked up the books and read.  One of those books was  The Social Construction of Reality.  This is a book which re-frames the task of the sociology of knowledge as an analysis of the social construction of reality. That is, it explore