I am a southerner who is currently enjoying Chicago, where I am in seminary at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (and sadly, I can’t remember the last time I wrote anything that wasn’t academic). My “winging it†plan at this point is to go on for a PhD so that I can teach theology to seminary students in creative, integrative ways. I’m still discovering what that might look like, but what fuzzy vision I do have is very much influenced by the sensibilities of the Christian Realists. Theology should be so much more than a dry, abstract discipline, and should no more be confined to a “ghetto†than art. I suspect that how we define and approach beauty has a lot to tell us about how we define and approach God, both as individuals and as cultures.
Until 2004, I lived in North Carolina and Chattanooga, Tennessee, and I miss the Smokey Mountains, real barbeque, southern fried seafood, bluegrass, the amazing beauty of the Tennessee River Valley, and family and friends. I’m very much enjoying discovering new friends, amazing ethnic food (Greek, Vietnamese, Persian, Indian, Korean, Italian, and native Chicagoan deep dish pizza, Italian beef, and Chicago hot dogs), world class art, opera, blues, theater, and improv, and one of the most beautiful and interesting cities in America.
My influences (which is really a rather snobby way of saying “favoritesâ€) include Madelaine L’Engle, Frederich Buechner, C. S. Lewis, George MacDonald, G. K. Chresterton, Brian McLaren, A. W. Tozer, Baz Lurhman, Kevin Vanhoozer, Brennan Manning, Jonathon Kozol, and Marva Dawn.