Matthew's Journal

[Yes, I know there's still a load of outstanding updates. Maybe this evening]

After the house inspection, I faffed a bit, and then went to Selwyn for the lunchtime discussion. Joe had to leave early, so Jim lead the discussion. We talked about why Christmas is so popular (small child, family scene, so quite "unthreatening"), and Easter is less so, because the resurrection is such a challenging event. Even the gospels don't say much about it; we talked a bit about narrative structure at this point, and how the earlier parts of the gospel narrative are able to look back at the Old Testament, after the resurrection we are challenged to look forward.

There were a couple of side-discussions - one about a certain Easter Sunday sermon on the ordination of women, and another on how the resurrection wasn't a re-winding of the passion - Christ still bears his wounds, and so on. It was also noted how we spend a lot of time going to church just before Easter, but then go back to work on Easter Monday. Is the resurrection the happy end to a sad story? The disciples didn't think so at first...

We talked a little about the relative importances of the Incarnation and the Resurrection. There seem to be a couple of extreme positions - you can over-emphasise the Resurrection and so miss the trivial argument that the Incarnation is a necessary pre-requisite or the more interesting one that it's in the Incarnation that God actually becomes human; conversely, you can over-emphasise the Incarnation, say that's how God sanctifies creation, and ignore the Resurrection entirely. Some balance is necessary.

On another note, work is going too slowly - I'm an utter lack of motivation, and things are just drifting currently. This is Not Good.

I note I woefully missed the booking deadline for a BBSRC-organised careers event. Bother. Never mind, I'll have to do some work instead!