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I just registered for my final semester of classes. In six months I'll be done with seminary. That was quick! Here's what the final semester is looking like: Survey of Reformation History (my last remaining requirement) Marriage and Family in the Christian Community Dialogical/Imaginative Prayer in the Ignatian Tradition Job, Literature, and Modernity Word and Act: Sacraments, Funerals and Weddings I am most looking forward to the Job class since it hits so many of my interests: the Book of Job, the problem of suffering, comparative literature, and the modern world. The fact that it's being taught by the world's foremost Job scholar, who literally wrote the book on Job (the second book of his two-part commentary on Job is awaiting publication), adds to the allure. Also, the class is being co-taught with a comparative literature professor from the university. Lastly we're going to watch the Coen Brothers' A Serious Man , which is based on Job, and alleged...

I found this graph the other day on another blog--the always interesting Daily Dish--courtesy of Andrew Sullivan. Sullivan cites the graph to show how Obama's religious coalition reflects the diversity of America's youth. More interesting to me are the trends revealed when one compares religious affiliation between age groups. There is a clear decline in those who identify as White Evangelicals, White Mainline Protestants, and White Catholics. The trend is consistent within each age group. Conversely, there is a distinct increase in two groups--Unaffiliated and Other Christian. Clearly, America is becoming less religious, and those who do consider themselves religious are becoming less inclined to identify with a denomination. These are sobering statistics for anyone [ahem] planning to go into ministry, but they are also laden with opportunity.

Election Night seems as good a night as any to declare my candidacy for ordination in the Presbytery of New York City in the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA). It's not quite official yet. I've cleared two of three hurdles. I've been approved by the session (a group of elders from the local church) and the Committee on Preparation for Ministry (CPM) from the presbytery, but I still need to go before the full presbytery, which I'll do next month. Then I'll need to spend a year as a candidate before being certified ready to receive a call to serve the Church in some capacity somewhere (TBD). Ordination in the PCUSA is a two-step (and minimum two-year) process. The first year is spent as an inquirer, during which we reflect on whether we think we're actually being called to serve in ordained ministry. If approved by the session, CPM, and presbytery, we then move on to candidacy, which consists of at least a year of trying to discern (in conjunction with the session...

Some random musings from the cold front: I just read that the power is not expected to be back on in Englewood until Tuesday at the earliest. My Princeton apartment is not expected to have power for another seven to ten days, but classes resume on Monday. It looks like I'll be spending more time in the library than usual. The outside temperature in Englewood today was 55 degrees. The temperature inside my house was 60 degrees. Suddenly, I'm grateful for the fact that, when I was growing up, my father would turn the thermostat down to 60 every night (and never let it rise above 68 during the day). I also once lived in a dump in Hell's Kitchen that would not infrequently lack heat and hot water, and occasionally even a functioning toilet, on the coldest winter days. But that was more than made up for by the apartment's panoramic vistas of the Port Authority and Lincoln Tunnel. Given the choice, I would never opt for a cold shower over a hot one, but I'm convi...