Lunch at the “Head of the RiverCcafé” was our kicking off point for the walking medieval tour of Oxford. What a wonderful cap to the week! We began at Christ Church, which had an interesting Lewis Carroll connection and contains the Oxford Cathedral. Medieval expert Dr. Parker’s tour had numerous stops and points, via the old wall, the first colleges, then the later additions and on to modern times by way of the Bodleian, much like a walk through time in Oxford from the tenth century up to now. Effectively ending at the GK Chesterton library, a work in progress still. In all a far superior tour to the one the tourists get. The drizzle and rain was no deterrent for us, if anything it served as the mists of time to teleport us back to the days of Saxon Oxenaforda. There is nowhere in America that such a tour could be conducted. It reminds me that there is a depth as well as a breadth to history.
Such deep history is the kind that we must seek in apologetics, especially cultural apologetics. Anything less is simply a glancing blow at history, a fad, even. Is America a fad? I don’t know, but I do know that to write with deep truth and ancient truth, one must access this kind of deep history at the least. Perhaps that is why the Iinklings were so successful? Who could not be inspired in such a place as oxford, and how could genius coupled with community in a place with such deep history not eventually produce such works as those we have read? I am inspired to write voluminously and within my community I have worked to establish over this last year. I am inspired to set goals and revisit abandoned projects and lagging projects before this summer is out. And most of all, I am inspired to “read for my degree” even more than “study for it” as is the American attitude, and I am pleased to have had this mighty “dreaming spire” of a class be the tent stake marking the precise middle of my program.
Such deep history is the kind that we must seek in apologetics, especially cultural apologetics. Anything less is simply a glancing blow at history, a fad, even. Is America a fad? I don’t know, but I do know that to write with deep truth and ancient truth, one must access this kind of deep history at the least. Perhaps that is why the Iinklings were so successful? Who could not be inspired in such a place as oxford, and how could genius coupled with community in a place with such deep history not eventually produce such works as those we have read? I am inspired to write voluminously and within my community I have worked to establish over this last year. I am inspired to set goals and revisit abandoned projects and lagging projects before this summer is out. And most of all, I am inspired to “read for my degree” even more than “study for it” as is the American attitude, and I am pleased to have had this mighty “dreaming spire” of a class be the tent stake marking the precise middle of my program.
This time next year, when I have graduated and begun the next phase of my life, who knows where I will be? Oh that’s right… the one in whose name I do all this in the first place knows.
(Author’s Note: I close this particular journey with this thought... The Inklings were influenced by their environment, their relationships, their own selves, and the calling they had to be what they were created to be. I pray today that I can be so productive in my life. Not for fame or fortune, but for purposefulness. I have entered a new phase of my academic life, no, more than that… finally begun to realize my calling as an apologist, and I am renewed, refreshed, and inspired by this trip in ways no other has done. After five trips to Europe, three of which took me to Oxford, I know that I could live there, work there, and be a part of it. But even if that is not to be, I know in my heart that Oxford will always be a part of me, and remains my favorite city in the world – the world for which I am still so sad.
(Author’s Note: I close this particular journey with this thought... The Inklings were influenced by their environment, their relationships, their own selves, and the calling they had to be what they were created to be. I pray today that I can be so productive in my life. Not for fame or fortune, but for purposefulness. I have entered a new phase of my academic life, no, more than that… finally begun to realize my calling as an apologist, and I am renewed, refreshed, and inspired by this trip in ways no other has done. After five trips to Europe, three of which took me to Oxford, I know that I could live there, work there, and be a part of it. But even if that is not to be, I know in my heart that Oxford will always be a part of me, and remains my favorite city in the world – the world for which I am still so sad.
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