Reach

Unfolding Life
Reaching to the sun
Reflecting its rays
Soaking its light
Growing night and day
With hidden life of the mystery
Waiting to be noticed

Undeniable Quotables

"Age is no better, hardly so well, qualified for an instructor as youth, for it has not profited so much as it has lost. 

"One may almost doubt if the wisest man has learned anything of absolute value by living. Practically, the old have no very important advice to give the young, their own experience has been so partial, and their lives have been such miserable failures, for private reasons, as they must believe; and it may be that they have some faith left which belies that experience, and they are only less young than they were. 

"I have lived some thirty years on this planet, and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors. They have told me nothing, and probably cannot tell me anything to the purpose. Here is life, an experiment to a great extent untried by me; but it does not avail me that they have tried it. If I have any experience which I think valuable, I am sure to reflect that this my Mentors said nothing about."

                                                                                      -H.D. Thoreau, Walden

I paste this excerpt here not because it resounds fully within me but because of the way it strikes me.  I cannot help but read herein a profound self-absorption too unaware of the shoulders on which he stands.  At the same, I cannot help but co-lament on the profound disappointment I've felt with the generations to prepare me for this life.  Admittedly, I claim ignorance to Thoreau's tone here.  Is he serious? Overstating? Producing some unforeseen irony?

Still, its meaning resounds.  But, I catch the echoing complaints and harness them under the disposition of gratitude; for one thing, I lament my un-oriented youth; for another, I appreciate how my elders have tried; for the third, I have experienced in some select instances wisdom emanating from the corners of some, from the peripheries of others, and from the core of true life masters that I've been graced to know and under whose tutelage I've found rest.

  

Undeniable Quotables

Father Adrian van Kaam:

"Jesus' whole life was an uninterrupted chain of appreciative abandonment options"

-Formation Theology, pp. 176

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Question: If Jesus was a Jewish Rabbi, why haven't I sought out friendship or gotten to know any contemporary ones?

Curriculum Vitae

Curriculum Vitae

Education:
Epiphany Certification Program: Certificate in Formative Spirituality, May 2010.
M.A.B.S., Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky, May 2008.
B.A., Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois, May 2004.
Major: Religion; Minor: Classics; Minor: Music.

Professional Experience:

Academic
Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant, Asbury Seminary, 2008 – 2009.
Research Assistant, Augustana College, 2003-2004.

Administrative
Manager of Multicultural Ministries and International Students, Asbury Theological Seminary, 2006-2009.

Teaching Experience:
Wilmore United Methodist Church: Sunday School and Young Adults, 2007-2009.
Potter’s House Campus Fellowship, 2000-2004.

Professional Academic Organizations:
Context Group (Biblical Literature in its Social-Cultural Context), since 2008.
Society of Biblical Literature, since 2008.
American Academy of Religion, since 2009.

Honors, Awards, Grants:
Eta Beta Rho: Hebrew Honor Society, since 2007.
Gamma Sigma Alpha: Greek Honor Society, since 2003.
Freeman Association: ‘Building Bridges’ Asian Exchange Program, 2004.
Carlson Scholarship for Music, 2000.

Unpublished Articles:

Academic Articles:

“Untangling the Taceat: 1 Corinthians 33b-36 and Paul’s Rhetoric on Women’s Voices.”

“Sinner Come Home and the Edge of the Curse”: A Theological Review of Apostasy in Hebrews and James.”

“Capturing the Unconscious: Lessons from Anthropology, Classical Studies, and a Social Scientific Criticism of Biblical Literature.”

“Foundations of Christian Formation: Unexpected Life.”

Book Reviews:

Review of Christopher Bryan and L.T. Johnson on Romans (Comparison: The Force of Classical Studies), A Preface to Romans: Notes on the Epistle in Its Literary and Cultural Setting (Oxford: O.U. Press, 2000) and Reading Romans: A Literary and Theological Commentary (Macon: Smyth and Helwys Press, 2001).

Review of Andrew Chester and Ralph P. Martin, The Theology of the Letters of James, Peter, and Jude. New Testament Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge Press, 1994).

Review of Peter H. Davids and Richard Bauckham (Comparison: On Their Own Terms, A Comparative Analysis of Comments of 2 Peter and Jude), The Letters of 2 Peter and Jude. The Pillar New Testament Commentary Jude, 2 Peter. Word Biblical Commentary no. 50 (Waco: Word Press, 1983).

Review of John H. Elliott, What is Social-Scientific Criticism? (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1993).

Review of John H. Elliott, A Home for the Homeless: A Social Scientific Criticism of 1 Peter, its Situation and Strategy, 1990 (Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2000).

Review of Ben Witherington, III., Paul’s Narrative Thought World: The Tapestry and Tragedy of Triumph (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1994).