I had a great conversation with a friend over cooking dinner last night, about communities of practice, and how much of a difference that makes in terms of one's life, and one's own spiritual practice. She's someone who practices in Thich Nhat Hanh's tradition.

Have I said enough times how much I'm enjoying seminary? Case in point: today's subject in the Christian Worship class, which was how the church has looked at time over history. There are some fascinating things to think about in terms of our theology of time, and what we want in the rythm of life.

One of the things I'm learning, due to a really fortuitous combination of courses this semester (primarily the combination of the big bible class, and Jewish mysticism) is that I get to do interesting comparisons of Judaism and Christianity. Judaism was of course, the religion of Jesus. What fascinates me most right now is that fact that we share a book (the Hebrew Bible) doesn't mean much. The fundamentals of both religions are quite different.

I had a class today, where we were all going around the room, and the teachers had asked for a one word, or one phrase description of ourselves that would help them remember us. I said "I'm a mystic." Someone asked me once why I called myself a mystic. I had to think a minute or two. In that process, I realized that I came to that label not so much from a head space, but from a heart space, which is why I have a hard time sometimes explaining why I think I am one.

As I've said before, I've nicknamed PSR "Progressive Christian Central." They are launching a new website in a couple of weeks, called Progressive Christian Witness. In their words it is

Finals

First, you might have noticed the blog entries have gotten a bit less frequent lately. That's because I'm in the throes of finals. Next week is the last week of classes, and I'm completely swamped. Don't be surprised not to see a blog entry until break.

Speaking of finals, my final project for the Art & Religion course, which has continued to be, er, a challenge for me, is up on the web. Enjoy.

During the first session of what everyone here calls "the Bible class" - the large class that does history and archeology of the times of the Old and New Testaments, and during many other sessions after, I have wondered what it is my counterpart in a fundamentalist seminary, like, for instance Southern Seminary is learning. I like to think of this imaginary counterpart, someone who is conservative, born-again, and, of course, straight. What is she hearing?

Yesterday, I made a huge step. At least it feels huge, and, I think, to many of you reading this blog, it might sound huge. I joined a new church. Now, one would think that this would not be a big deal. I am a seminarian, preparing for ministry, after all. I should have a home religous community now that I am a few thousand miles away from where I started. In fact, if you know me, it would be kinda odd for me not to, at least eventually, settle into one faith community during most of my stay here in Berkeley. Perhaps not quite this soon, but likely in the first year sometime.

I keep wishing my brain had a tape recorder. I've overheard some amazing and funny things over the lunch and dinner tables over the past month. I can't remember 99%, but here are some of the 1% that stuck. (These quotes are probably not exact.)

... to a Ph.D. in neuroscience than a B- in a paper for Art and Religion. The major criticism of the TA, which I imagine is completely valid, is "you need to work on drawing conclusions and interacting with the existing scholarship." You might imagine that that comment made me kinda chuckle.