The King James Library in St. Mary's Divinity School

Living in St. Andrews has really been life changing.  In the next few posts, I’ll reflect on some of the important areas where I think I’ve gained a new perspective or learned some important lessons: academics, theology, travel and on what I’ll miss when I go home after a year here.

I’ve been really blessed to have taken some excellent theology and philosophy courses here at St. Andrews.  Studying abroad as a junior has been ideal because in the UK system I am taking classes which allow me to explore issues in more depth than I would if I had been taking them in America.  That’s not to say that one system is better than the other; there are different strengths and weaknesses in both, as I’ll discuss below. Read More…

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Greetings!

It’s hard to believe that February has found us again.  I am happily back in my cozy corner of St. Andrews after some adventurous trips through the Highlands.  With several weeks between the end of exams in early January and the start of the second semester this upcoming Monday, a friend and I decided to explore the breathtaking beauty of the Highlands and Islands.

I felt like Bilbo Baggins setting off on a grand journey, wanting to see mountains, but always with the domestic comforts of a pocket handkerchief.  Be forewarned any traveler to the islands, though these places beckon with natural beauty, like the songs of the sirens they can lure you into rather tricky places.  The islands have a dooming tourism industry, in the summer.  But in the winter, many of these places bunker down until the spring thaw.

My companion and I did not realize this when we happily set off on our merry way.  Our first destination was the Isle of Iona.  We set out from St. Andrews to Edinburgh where we caught a train to Glasgow.  From there, we were able to travel up through the Highlands to the port town of Oban were we caught a ferry taking us to Mull.   From Mull, we caught a bus taking us to the small town on the other end of the island where we caught a ferry taking us the last leg ofthe journey to Iona.

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Pop culture has given us another object lesson this year in the form of an astronomical success and an anticlimactic flop.  I’m talking about Susan Boyle’s runaway success with the release of her first album, I Dreamed a Dream and the lavish holiday musical dud Nine.

Nine had all the trimmings of a Las Vegas Christmas extravaganza with all the rhinestone studded bells and whistles.  Whatever else can be said about this film, it wasn’t lacking in talent.  Daniel Day-Lewis, Penélope Cruz, Judy Dench, Kate Hudson, Sophia Loren.  These movie legends proved that quality doesn’t come with quantity or even proximity.  Push a bunch of stars on stage in expensive costumes, and you have, well, a bunch of stars on stage in expensive costumes.  You can’t take a fashion show and expect a story to evolve to fill in the space between the acts.  The weak story collapses before your very eyes under the boas, sequins and tiaras.

Just to be clear, the movie does have a plot.  The film stalks a famous director as he works on his next lavish undertaking.  The world idolizes him.  His talent, reputation and mystic make him the ultimate sexual conquest for the film’s many leading ladies, his suffering marriage notwithstanding.  A restless celebrity, a deteriorating marriage and a profusion of alluring women set against the romantic Italian coast.  His professional career and his personal life slide in and out of each other as he tries to find himself, whatever that means.  I think you get the picture.

“Flashy” doesn’t necessarily translate “bad.”  But, you take a story pinned together with strings of mesmerizing choreography and sex, you’ve still only got a more grown up version of Fantasia meets Entertainment Tonight.  Where’s the beef?

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Speaking French in France would have been helpful.   We accidentally bought toothbrushes and gum medication instead of toothpaste.   After Amanda and I left the hostel in the morning, we ended up at Charles de Gaul Etienne which we soon realized was not the same thing as Charles de Gaul airport.  No worries.  We had somehow ended up at one of the drop-off points for the airport shuttle, which we happily boarded.  Of course, it couldn’t be that easy.  After five minutes on the shuttle, Amanda got a bad feeling.  True enough, we were on our way to the Orly airport not Charles de Gaul!

By this point, the comfortable window of time before our flight was starting to shrink.  We flight was scheduled to leave in two hours and we were still in the middle of Paris, standing by the Arc de Triumph were we had exited the subway the first time.  We raced back to the subway cursing ourselves for not realizing you couldn’t fit an airport in a city.

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After two delayed flights, two cancelled flights and one exciting, serendipitous night in Paris, I am now happily back at home in Maryland.  The trip started uneventfully in the wee hours of Saturday morning.  I boarded an airport shuttle at 5:15 in the morning in St. Andrews for a sleepy ride into Edinburgh.  I got comfortable, because, for some strange reason, I’d decided to stay up late enjoying those last few hours with friends before saying goodbye for Christmas.  After all, I’d have the whole transatlantic flight to catch up on lost shuteye.  Yeah Right.

My traveling buddy Amanda and I made it onto our flight in Edinburgh, with only one minor hitch, a hitch that ended up making a world of a different 48 hours later.  Amanda had some trouble getting her boarding pass to print.  Another boarding pass was printed for her by one of the receptionists.  We didn’t know it then, but the receptionist had made an error on the boarding pass that would mean another line to stand in and eventually our return to the United States by Sunday evening not Christmas Eve.

As soon as with touched down in Paris, Amanda and I took off running through the airport to catch our next (cancelled) flight.  Somehow the cancellation took everyone by surprise, including the airport staff.  When I finally reached the top of the first queue, I got up to the desk and handed the receptionist my boarding pass. She informed me that this plane had already left.  If it had left, I would have been on it. No, sadly this plane was not going anywhere.  Thus began a long day of standing in one line and then another.  Some seven hours later Amanda and I were still standing in the airport.

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Greetings Friends.  Here are Dr. Snell’s Top 6 recommendations.  Enjoy!

Plato’s Republic

Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics

Augustine’s De Trinitate

Aquinas’s  Summa Theologica

Heidegger’s Being and Time

Lonergan’s Insight

Thanks Dr. Snell!

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Dr. Hall is now serving as Chancellor at Eastern University and Dean of the Honors College, but he still enjoys teaching a class on the spiritual disciplines.  Take a chance to explore these 5 recommended authors from Dr. Hall!

Richard Foster

Dallas Willard

Henri Nouwen

Mother Teresa

John Chrysostom

Happy Reading!

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I’ve emailed a few professors and friends asking for their Top 5 book recommendations in their particular areas of study.  We’ll begin with Dr. Cary’s recommendations in Theology, a good place to begin any day of the week, but especially on a Sunday.  Dr. Cary is Scholar-in-Residence at the Templeton Honors College and teaches classes in Western Civilization, Philosophy and Theology.

He writes, “The important thing here, I think, is to make
your acquaintance with key authors.”  Here are recommendations about
where to start:

Augustine–Confessions (try the Hackett edition)
Thomas  Aquinas–Anton Pegis’ anthology, Introduction to St. Thomas Aquinas.
Martin Luther–Freedom of a Christian (in the anthology edited by
John Dillenberger).
John Calvin–Start browsing in the Institutes.
Karl Barth–Start with Evangelical Theology: An Introduction.

Thanks Dr. Cary!

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Greetings All!  I hope you’re doing well.  I’m doing well here in St. Andrews.  Things are pretty quiet here at the end of Reading Week, but I’ve been keeping busy with some good books, some stimulating (and humiliating) games of chess and the best fish and chips in the UK.  Today I finally visited Anstruther, which is an absolutely lovely fishing village about a half hour (ἡμιώριον, Greek has its own word for half hour, fyi) bus ride from St. Andrews.  Anstruther is legendary for its fish and chips, which, having personally tested, I can faithfully say, are magnificent.  I ordered the traditional haddock, which was caught in local waters, fried to a golden brown and served on a bed of locally-grown and freshly fried chips.

On the bus ride back, I concocted a list of 5 ways to know you’re in St. Andrews.  This list will inaugurate what, I hope, will be the beginning of a series of Top 5s.  I’ve got some good things coming down the pipe so stay tuned.  Here goes:

Top 5 Ways to Know You’re in St. Andrews.

5. Meeting friends and/or professors in Tesco. Tesco is the local grocery store, so in a town this size, it becomes pretty central.  Everybody’s got to eat, so sooner or later you will run into them in Testco. (True story, I first felt like I belonged in St. Andrews when I recognized someone grocery shopping.)

4. Charity shopping. In St. Andrews, the charity shops are better than retail, hands down.  Not only are the prices better but the quality is too, assuming a moderate level of serendipity.  And, if at first you find nothing, just keep popping in, eventually you will hit pay dirt.

3. Academic Gowns.  On Sundays, the bright red academic gowns dotting the streets are a dead giveaway.

2. Chariots of Fire.   Only in St. Andrews can you go for run or a leisurely walk along West Sands, the famous chariots of fire beach.  (I think my friends in Philly understand the feeling; it’s what you feel running up the Art Museum steps singing the Rocky theme song).

1. Golf.  Of course, no list of Top 5s of St. Andrews would be complete without golf, that Royal and Ancient game (which you can play at old course of the same name).

So there you have it.

Cheers, KG

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Here at St. Andrews we have arrived at Reading Week (ironically named since most students don’t do any reading at all, but you didn’t hear that from me).  But it’s not much of a secret.  Classes are canceled during Reading Week to give the students a chance to read and catch up on their work (or even get ahead, what a concept?!), but many students travel and go to wonderful, exotic places or head back home for a nice reprieve.

I’m staying in St. Andrews, but before you call me boring, I do have a plan (or at least so far I’ve been planning one day in advance. I’ll take it as a plan).  I’m going to visit local places.    Today I visited Dundee, which is the closest big city to St. Andrews.  I decided I’d mosey on over, ramble down the streets, take in the sights, and stop by the library to pick up some divinity books.  I got three out of four.  I look a scenic bus ride through the countryside to Dundee, got off in down-town Dundee and decided to find the library (eventually).  I didn’t really know where I was going, but somehow I found the University of Dundee campus and from there getting to the library was easy.  Once I got to the library, I realized that there was one little think I’d forgotten to check: University of Dundee doesn’t have a Religion Department.  I realized this when I was found the two shelves devoted to divinity squeezed in between philosophy and the sciences.  Oh well, that just meant it was time for a bit of shopping.

Dundee has some really good shopping, if you’re ever in the area.  Besides all the big name brands, there are also some good charity shops, where you can find some great treasures if you have a spot of luck.

Tomorrow I’m heading over to Anstruther to sample some of their world-famous fish and chips!  I hear it’s really beautiful, so if the weather is nice hopefully I’ll have some pictures to post as well.

Since I have time this week, I’ll also hopefully be getting to do some extra reading that I wouldn’t normally have time to do.  I’d really like to read through Isaiah and let the images and theology sink in.  So there it is, I’ve said it on the internet, I guess that means I better stick with it! 

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