From one world to another…
I am back from eight wonderful days in sunny California, bouncing between Sacramento and the Bay Area and visits with friends, sisters, brothers in law, nieces, and nephews. We were…
The final, final, final exam
I was a bit embarrassed in church yesterday because our priest (very kindly, I might add) asked all the students in the congregation to stand up so that the congregation…
Odd ways in which seminary learning is useful….
I have just completed a grueling two weeks of writing three essays, with a combined page count of 48 pages, for two classes. One was on the Sacred and Secular…
A Day in the Day
Here I am, sitting in the Day Missions Reading Room at the Yale Divinity School Library. I used to think the name referred to this being the room where one…
Thomas Aquinas’s prayer for students!
This week is the second of three reading weeks given to seminarians at Yale. The idea is to have time to catch up on reading, work on papers, and so…
Ecclesiastes at the Yale-Harvard game
As a way of celebrating two of my classes’ coursework being done, I went to the Yale-Harvard game with a friend today. One can’t park at the stadium, so one…
Notorious sinners?
Sometimes, seminarians dive into heady discussions in the YDS commuter lounge, so called because there are lockers, a piano, and several love seats and tables where people can rest and…
Why I haven’t blogged…
I’m sitting in the large common room of YDS with sunlight streaming in the large windows, looking at the painting of H. Richard Niebuhr (who taught at Yale). I am…
Todo lo que hicieron por uno de mis hermanos, aun por el mas pequeno, lo hicieron por mi
Well, what a week. I realize I say that every week, but really, seminary is pretty exciting and intense. I had two big tests last week: a midterm in New…
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…
In short, many good and bad things happened these past ten days. On the good side, I was treated to two incredibly beautiful (and free) choral performances, both sponsored by…
My quest for a church…
One of the things that a lot of seminarians do is to look for a home church while they’re at seminary. Most of us have been very active in our…
What I learned this week….
For some reason, many people here in New Haven have been asking me how classes are going, and the answer is, “Great!” (or in German, “Sehr gut!”). I am thoroughly…
How seminary is different from grad. school
In some ways, seminary is graduate-level education in Biblical studies, theology, Church history, ethics, perhaps Biblical languages, and so on. But on today, September 11th, one of the most obvious…
A typical seminary day for me….
Every day at seminary is a little bit different for me due to various worship services and a different class schedule every day, but here is a typical day: 6…
