Life’s Reflections

Well, a week has gone by since Thanksgiving, and I thought I’d share a brief recap. On Thursday, the American students studying here went to the office for the Oxford Study Abroad Programme and had turkey sandwiches. One of the tutors here asked me what Thanksgiving was about. “Is it thanksgiving for arrival [to the new world]?” I told him that it could be, but that it was more a day to give thanks in principle for what you have, for family, friends, the ability to throw a feast—that it was a day of thanksgiving to remember what you have and be thankful. He found this a very interesting and worthy holiday.

Then on Saturday we had the real feast. I actually went over on Friday afternoon to watch over the Bywater children and keep them out of their mum’s hair so she and some of the other students could prepare the food for tomorrow. My roommate, Josh and I, then spent the night there. The next morning, Lindsey came over to help prepare food, and the rest of the students came at around 11:00 am. Then we ate at around 1:00 or so. It was amazing. Mrs. Bywater cooked a delicious turkey, Andrea made stuffing, Jessica made apple pies, and we had mashed potatoes, pickles, vegetables, and scrumptious home made cranberry sauce to boot. It was one of the best thanksgivings I’ve ever had. I have to say that after all the time I’ve spent with the Bywater family and my friends here, that we really are a family (or pseudo-family as Josh calls it). Kevin and I have spoken on the loyalties this group has, and it’s extraordinary.

Some of the Summit Oxford students at Stonehenge

It’s been a while since I’ve last posted, but I’ve been busy. We got to see Warwick castle a while ago, and last Saturday we went to see Stonehenge as well as the city of Bath. But for now, here’s a recount of yesterday, Friday the 21st.

At 10:30 am I met with my English Literature tutor, Dr. Rooksby. We discussed the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins and Thomas Hardy. It was a great session as always. We discussed the differences in styles between the two writers as well as the differences in their worldviews, one being a Jesuit priest and the other being a secularist. I’m loving the studies we do on the writing and how these brilliant authors communicate. I’m reading “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens for next Friday, so I’ll be busy.

Kevin and I met for lunch. We talked about a variety of issues, many of them relating to my future and career goals. After speaking with him, I feel like I’ve got a much better idea of what I should do for my undergraduate and perhaps even in consideration of a post-graduate degree. The trick for me is that I have so many interests ranging from philosophy, theology, history, film, theatre, literature, economics, politics, culture and so on that I struggle in finding what fields to focus in. But I felt today was really helpful.

At 4:00 I went to the Lamb and Flag which is one of the pubs that C.S. ‘Jack’ Lewis and J.R.R. ‘Tollers’ Tolkien used to meet at. Emilie Noteboom, Kevin Bywater, Josh Hynie and a friend of his, Tim Brahm, all came to discuss various issues. We discussed art and to what extent an author’s intentions make his art virtuous or perhaps even immoral. It was a great discussion.

Today we’re off to Lane House at 2, so I’ve got some work to get done by then.

Radcliffe Camera

Well, it’s currently 3rd week here in Oxford. I’m fencing in the Oxford University Fencing Club, and there’s some very good fencers there to be sure. I also attended the Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union (OICCU) meeting tonight. It was a real blessing to sing, pray and fellowship with believers in Britain. I see the U.K. as being several years ahead of the U.S. in terms of the increased hold that secularism has on the U.K. There’s actually hope in the U.S. of overturning abortion. It’s difficult to see that here in the U.K., and yet these believers press on. We may not hear much about it in the U.S., but God is doing great things here in Oxford with the believers. There are believers who are high ranked in the University and the OICCU is a very strong group similar to Campus Crusade or Navigators.

Much of my time is spent in the Bodleian library. The Bod is actually several buildings. Nik and I who are studying Philosophy and Literature are usually in the Radcliffe Camera. If I’m not there, then I’m usually spending time in my college library.I’m also having a great time in my college. I’ve made some new friends here. Matthew Ball is a fresher studying science of humanities at New College. He and I enjoy talking worldviews over lunch. I also have a friend from St. Ebbe’s named Claire Greig who’s vice-president of OICCU and is studying classics at Magdalen College (the same college where C. S. Lewis taught classics). And I’m making other friends at fencing.

The Summit Oxford group (finally pictured) is still meeting together on Fridays usually. We will have dinner at the Bywaters, perhaps have a conference call with an author, share recent discoveries and discuss hard issues. Last Friday we tackled the question of what God asks for us in our faith as far as certainty and living it out.

Kevin takes us out individually for lunch/coffee once every two weeks. I told him then, and I’ll say it here. Aside from deciding to pursue higher education in the first place, Summit Oxford is the most important educational decision I’ve ever made.

Well, what we call 0 week in Oxford is wrapping up, so I’ve met with both tutors (and actually had a full tutorial) and am now getting ready to dive into the 1st of 8 weeks of study in the Michaelmas term.

Yesterday I had my first official tutorial with a paper to turn in. It was for the study of the 19th century novel with Dr. Rooksby. We’ll be reading several books this term as well as some poetry. Likely authors will be Robert Louis Stevenson, Wilde, Keats, Byron, Dickens and Austen (who I just finished with Mansfield Park). We discussed the themes of Austen and how she was writing during the Romantic period but was not necessarily a romantic novelist herself. It was a terrific discussion on the themes of self-restraint and responsibility that Austen wrote about, even on the sentence level of her works. A great deal of our study will be of the English language and what people do in order to communicate their thoughts with clarity and/or nuance. We will meet once a week for eight weeks discussing novels and poetry.

My second tutorial covers the German language on a conversational and somewhat cultural platform. I meet a couple times a week and Mrs. Prodhan and it is very intense. Easily 90% of our conversation is in German, but that is what makes it a better learning experience. I’m currently in the Bodleian Library (which includes but does not contain approximately 12 million books) and am working on a German news article (oder Deutsch Zeitung Artikel).

Unfortunately, my tutorial with Mr. LeMay (Whinston Churchill’s speech writer) did not come through as planned due to some miscommunication on the study matter. It’s unfortunate to be sure, but I’m still sure this will be a great term, and I am looking forward to the increased time with Dr. Rooksby.

And of course, the Summit portion of the term is still going on. We spent yesterday afternoon (and some of us the evening) with the Bywaters. We spoke to John Christy, the state climatologist for Alabama and a scientist on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He told us about the actual science that is rarely reported. He gave an example. Last year the surrounding ice of the arctic was at the lowest in recorded history. The media reported it. In the same month, the antarctic was at its all time greatest in surrounding ice. That was not reported. He also mentioned the dangers in global warming extremists and the socialist tendencies of governments now who are using climate change to push agendas through.

Finally we spoke with Bruce Thornton, an author who is writing on the cultural climate in Europe with the great secularization and the problems with Muslim immigrants. He told us about the current situation with how Islam will soon dominate many countries because of the population growth in Muslim communities compared with native Europeans. Unfortunately, there’s already been some backlash among radical groups which could lead to greater conflicts in the future.

New college dining hall

It is a truly fascinating time being here. I’m loving every minute of it. From spending time in an old library to eating in a dining hall cafeteria that’s hundreds of years old. The more I am getting used to the idea of researching on my own and writing up essays and such, I feel that something I want to do for my undergraduate degree is write a thesis. That would be very helpful I think.

Well, till next time!

This is a bit late, and I’ll try to write more on my tutorial status soon, but weekend before last (the weekend of the 28th), seven of us went up to Scotland. It was terrific.

We arrived Saturday morning in the capital city of Edinburgh. We all did various things like visiting the galleries, walking the royal mile, visit the tartan weaving mill and enjoy the Princes Gardens.

Andrea on the walls of Stirling castle

Day 2 (Sunday) we took a train up to Stirling. Josh and I had been there before, but the others had not and were very impressed. The beauty of the lowlands is indeed a thing to behold. We went to the castle and enjoyed the tour very much. I even met my tour guide from two years ago when I was here with Grandma and Grandpa: Michael Korr.

Day 3 was incredible. Josh enjoys a good hike. I suppose he would have to in order to be an effective wildland firefighter. Yes, there’s a bit of comradery between us. Anyway, while Andrea and Tommy stayed in Edinburgh to shop and see Edinburgh castle, Josh lead Daniel, Lindsey and myself on a 12 mile hike from Milngavie (pronounced mul-geye) up to Dryman using the old highland road. It rained. It shined. It was a terrific hike and something for which I will always be grateful.

Go to my gallery where I have a great deal more photos of Scotland available.

From left, Daniel, myself and Joshua

Well, I’m almost finished with the Summit portion of my studies here. We’ve discussed Biblical prophecy, spiritual warfare, global warming, Islam, atheism, new spirituality, cults (a.k.a. pseudo-Christian religions) and the historical reliability of the Bible. I can’t believe it’s going by so quickly. I’ll really miss seeing the Bywaters every day or so. I may make my class notes available online, though some I’ll be retaining. There’s probably some stuff that would be very confusing or misleading without the understanding of context. As we’ve been learning about scriptural interpretation, context is King.

We have one more day of Summit Worldviews, and after that we’ll meet once a week to discuss worldviews, etc, so the Summit aspect isn’t really ending. It’s going to be a drawn out part of the program where we engage the culture and then discuss it in weekly meetings. I’m getting my tutorials coordinated soon. I’ll be taking tutorials in British Literature (19th century fiction to be exact) which I’m excited about. I’ll be studying Dickens and other authors. I will also have a tutorial in German to continue my education in my second language. I’m interested to see how well I learn in a tutorial setting there. I will also be taking rhetoric from Mr. Le May, who worked for Whinston Churchill as a speech writer during WWII. I’m truly blessed to be studying here.

Tomorrow we’ll be reviewing what we’ve learned. We’ll also be discussing a film we watched, V for Vendetta, which is a film oozing with worldview ideas and philosophies. I’ll enjoy nitpicking that.

This weekend before term starts, some of us will be going up to Scotland. It should be terrific!

I thought it suitable to write a brief entry enumerating, so to speak, my loves of this new programme.

This picture is a picture of Blenheim Palace, where Winston Churchill was born. While it was one day’s outing, it gave me time to reflect on the three things I love about Oxford. First off, the culture. There is so much history here and is truly moving to one’s soul. I am speaking of experiences ranging from eating at the pub where Lewis and Tolkien often met to standing in the same street where three bishops were martyred for their faith. I have friends in the U.K. who find it amusing when Americans go ga-ga over the cathedrals and such. Perhaps it is to them, but I find it amusing that many (but not all) Brits take these amazing things for granted.

There are also the people. My roommate, Josh Hynie, is a great guy. We often talk about our thoughts of the day and what we learned. We both have a love for Scotland and for the history here. He’s got a great love for art and architecture, so this place is heaven for him. There’s also three other men living in our flat: Daniel, Nik and Tommy. Tommy is quite the business man. He has his own company and is extremely knowledgeable on issues of economics. It’s really fascinating to me. Nik is a humanities and philosophy student and gets so much out of JP Moreland than I ever will. I feel like I’m able to tag along in the rudimentary philosophical discussions and if I’m quick on my feet, I can remember to throw in the word epistemological or ontological at just the right moment to give the illusion I understand him. Daniel also has a lot of great theological and philosophical insight. He has a great knowledge of scripture as well as his history. One thing I love about this group is that all of us guys have different skills and strengths. When I hear one of them talking outside my field, it encourages me to want to study more of that subject, and it also humbles me, reminding me that we all have our gifts and abilities and we all compliment the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12).

Perhaps the greatest thing about these guys I live with is the household discussion. Maybe once in twenty we’ll be discussing a movie or an activity. The rest of the conversations revolve around our readings, philosophy, cultural criticism (sometimes ours and sometimes Britain’s), and our own thoughts and insights to arguments and discussions. This leads into the next topic, and that is the programme itself.

I love the intense studies. Just today at a pub, I made a comment about being born again. Kevin asked me to explain, to flesh out the idea. I had actually never done that. He would ask me “Is that really what Jesus meant? Can you show me? What about this?” He wanted to draw out the ideas that we often package up to the point of becomign cliché but rarely expand upon. While we go through powerpoints on various worldviews, we often will go deep into the situations of scripture. We went in depth into Matthew 24 where Jesus prophecies all these things like earthquakes, stars falling, the Son coming into his kingdom, trumpets sounding and then Jesus says that all these things will come about before “this generation” passes away. We spent a great deal of time studying just that chapter and resolving the seeming problems therein. It’s difficult, and it’s fun. Another amazing part of this programme is that we get to have phone and video conferences with various authors like Hugh Hewitt, J. P. Moreland, Gary DeMar, Richard Abanes and Francis Beckwith.  I wish that we could go at least twice as long. We already have just one more week of the Summit session before the term starts up.

Briefly, a word about the Bywater family since I have oft mentioned them. Kevin and Angela Bywater live in Eynsham, north of Oxford with their four children: Elizabeth 9, Katherine 6, Emaline 4, and Roderick who’s about 18 months. Kevin is currently pursuing a PhD at Durham University. They truly are an amazing family. They are so comfortable opening up their home to us students. They’re even opening up their home to us during term time so that we can have it as a sort of getaway place to go and study. I can’t imagine how different the Oxford experience would be without them.

Well, week before last, we studies cosmic humanism and the new age movement, but perhaps my limited time would best be used giving you an update on our studies that greatly fascinated me for this week: Islam (which means “submission”).

We read the Qur’an over the weekend (it’s roughly the size of the new testament), and studied more about the Islamic worldview, current activities in the Muslim world and spoke with a Sheik from the middle east.

Reading the Qur’an answered many of my questions. I learned how they affirm the virgin birth but not the sonship for instance. And in some ways, Allah is very similar to Jehovah but he never, ever takes the role of a father figure (nor the role of a forgiving husband to his idolatrous Israel). I had always wondered for myself what the Qur’an said about living with non-Muslims and the nature of God. It was very fascinating. The Qur’an has some verses that teach to live in harmony with the Jews and Christians, and there are some saying to “slay them” wherever they are found. This confused some of us until we learned more and discovered that the Qur’an was written over a period of over 20 years. The Qur’an itself teaches abrogation, where if there are two contradicting verses, the one that was revealed more recently is the one given priority. For instance, before A.D. 622 Muhammed and his followers were living in Mecca and were a bit of a minority. The Surahs (or chapters) written during that time instruct the Muslims (which means “one in submission”) to live peaceably with their non-believing neighbors since they are “people of the book” and that if they desire peace, then you should live in peace with them. Later, Muhammed had to flee to Medina, he gained much more power (both politically and militarily) and it was at that time that the later and more violent Surahs were written.

The meeting with the Sheik was very interesting. He gave us an introduction to the religion of Islam and stressed very much their respect for Jesus. It was somewhat frustrating listening to him and asking questions. Many times he would emphasize our need work together and live in peace, Jews, Muslims and Christians together, like they are doing in “Saudi Arabia and Iraq.” That was an eye opener for sure. When we asked him about certain practices being right or wrong, he took a quasi-moral relativist point-of-view. He wouldn’t criticize our practices because “Who am I to judge?”, and he also wouldn’t criticize the situations of honor killings. At one point, he mentioned the situation with the Danish cartoons and how horrible the situation was that the prophet was mocked and people died. What stunned us was that he placed the blame for the deaths on the cartoonists, not on the enraged Muslims and that he was relieved that after learning the lesson that they are shown respect. When asked if it was alright to killings, he said “For the health of the society, we have to sacrifice some, I’m not saying killing, we say eliminate some, for the health.”

It was very fascinating. It has given me new insight into the Muslim world and into the feasibility of establishing a free society in Iraq. People often draw parallels between the peace loving Christians and the peace loving Muslims and how there were also war-crusading Christians and war-Jihadist Muslims. I enough history to see that members of Christian and Muslim society have been involved in liberty and unjust war. But here’s the rub: The crusaders in the Middle ages were not following through with the Christian message; the radical-Jihadists are following the Islamic teachings and tradition.