Every now and again, I feel a pang of guilt for not updating the blog. Just a year ago, I took my PhD comprehensive exams and began preparing to write my dissertation. I then moved to Cleveland - I now live at John Carroll University - and began writing in July. As of today, I have submitted three chapters to my committee and I'll finish the fourth this week. I'm hoping to have a solid draft of the fifth chapter finished around Christmas and I should get the Intro and Conclusion written in January. With a bit of luck, I'll defend in the Spring and receive my diploma in May.
I say this in order to share one reason for my relative absence from blogging. I treat writing as I would treat a job. Blogging will neither get me my degree nor will it ever get me tenure, so it's not as high on my priority list.
Then again, I'm sort of glad to be out of the blogging loop. I've become dismayed not only by the political rhetoric within the United State but, more acutely, with the way fellow Christians speak to, and about, one another. Years ago, I had the stomach for wading into online debates. I no longer do. In fact, I don't see much point in commenting on blogs/sites and I seldom read the comments boxes on sites because I find them disheartening.
Anyway, the next few weeks are rife with travel. I'm off to Boston tomorrow, then on to Hartford for the New England Oireachtas. I'll spend a week reading and writing in Boston followed by a wedding and then I return to Cleveland for three days. I'll then be off to Orlando for the Southern Region Oireachtas (for Mass). Things should quiet down come December, so I'll be locked away in my room trying to finish my project.
At some point I'm sure I'll share more about my dissertation. The title, for those interested, is "Spiritual Exercises for a Secular Age: William Desmond's Theological Achievement." It's an essay exploring how the metaxological metaphysics of William Desmond can be read as a series of spiritual exercises (Pierre Hadot in the background here) capable of reawakening the question of the Transcendent.
Heady stuff with lots of pretentious foreign words. I dig it, but it's certainly an acquired taste.
For anyone who still looks at this blog: thanks for hanging in there! I'll try to make it back someday.
I say this in order to share one reason for my relative absence from blogging. I treat writing as I would treat a job. Blogging will neither get me my degree nor will it ever get me tenure, so it's not as high on my priority list.
Then again, I'm sort of glad to be out of the blogging loop. I've become dismayed not only by the political rhetoric within the United State but, more acutely, with the way fellow Christians speak to, and about, one another. Years ago, I had the stomach for wading into online debates. I no longer do. In fact, I don't see much point in commenting on blogs/sites and I seldom read the comments boxes on sites because I find them disheartening.
Anyway, the next few weeks are rife with travel. I'm off to Boston tomorrow, then on to Hartford for the New England Oireachtas. I'll spend a week reading and writing in Boston followed by a wedding and then I return to Cleveland for three days. I'll then be off to Orlando for the Southern Region Oireachtas (for Mass). Things should quiet down come December, so I'll be locked away in my room trying to finish my project.
At some point I'm sure I'll share more about my dissertation. The title, for those interested, is "Spiritual Exercises for a Secular Age: William Desmond's Theological Achievement." It's an essay exploring how the metaxological metaphysics of William Desmond can be read as a series of spiritual exercises (Pierre Hadot in the background here) capable of reawakening the question of the Transcendent.
Heady stuff with lots of pretentious foreign words. I dig it, but it's certainly an acquired taste.
For anyone who still looks at this blog: thanks for hanging in there! I'll try to make it back someday.
No comments:
Post a Comment