Learning to write in the tropics

When a published book goes into several editions at some point the author thinks it is a good idea to update a bit the preface, which is something like “why do this in the first place?’ type of writing. When I began this blog some three years ago it was a bit of a pandemic project connected to an academic need. While the need still exists it seems slightly mind-boggling to think I was living at the time in a country that still required masks. Although, that being said, I am now currently living in a country that almost two months ago recommended making masks compulsory again during the combined flu/covid season we were experiencing. Now, some years on, it might be a good idea to rethink this whole thing again or not. Sometimes it’s simply fine to ‘spill my guts’ as it were on here expressing what needs to be ‘screamed’ to the world at any give time. Until the world becomes too much and hibernation is necessary. This happened between July and December of the past year. The news was so u...

Part of the reason linguistics matters have come to the forefront of my work is the particular way in which they related to my work on Edith Stein’s essay’s on Woman and the comments made by several friends on what they perceived to be her narrow view on women in today’s world. I couldn’t understand it at the time because Stein’s ideas are in line with their own way of thinking. My lack of understanding stemmed from not having read either the English or the Spanish versions of her essays.  This term I am tutoring a student who is analysing an evangelical influencer group that is anti-feminist but defend what can be understood as fractional complementarity. I felt she needed to read Stein to better understand the broader context of Christian Feminism and how the group she is analysing has failed to comprehend certain aspects of metaphysics, unsurprising given their evangelical background and how, since Luther, this has been a weak point in Protestant theology. My student does not re...

 I am not a linguist. Fairly clear statement, but not quite. While I cannot explain the intricacies of language nuances or historical development of how we got Santiago from James or the other way around for a decade I have lived in three languages on a regular basis. Since I grew up bilingual this isn’t such a radical change in theory but the third language is German and German has the curiosity of being both very concrete and very diverse in each words meanings. Work, especially in relation to Edith Stein, has underscored the issues that can come up when a translation becomes to interpretive. The words that I have been thinking of this weekend is the German word for communicating and taking communion. In what may seem like a contradiction to the assumed exactitude of the German language the word for communicating and taking communion is the same: “communizieren” but seen from a different perspective, whether the use of the word in this was intentional or not, it allows us to medi...

 These past weeks have involved intense discussions, prayer, and thinking on a topic close to the hearts of all of my fellow discussants. Our concern, pain, and confusion is clear. St Catherine of Siena comes up regularly. Watch this space if you are interested in some weeks or a few months you might want to find out more. Independent of them and only briefly publicly saying what I think on one topic specifically, I write this very brief note. The role of women is one of those topics that has become a ‘hot’ topic for Catholics and one can be easily misunderstood if one is too diplomatic. It has happened to me as a theology student in Cambridge and being amongst anglican ordinands I was diplomatic and wholly misunderstood. The way I, a Catholic, think about this topic is radically different from theirs and I wanted to spare their already confused and frayed spirits. BUT being misunderstood on this important topic did no one any favours. As a Church we have some wonderful sources for...

 Those who know me personally know that the practice of Lectio Divina has shaped my practice of the faith for some time now. Since my student days at the Oxford Catholic Chaplaincy. Far from a pious claim this is has been and continues to be  a confirmation of how much I don’t know about scripture. It is an honest recognition that I, and most likely many other Catholics, don’t spend enough time before our Lord in the written words of Scripture.  Today’s reading is from the Gospel of Mark, like the past few weeks, we continue in Chapter I. Today Jesus cures a leper. Fr Nicholas Crowe at Blackfriars Oxford goes far deeper into the minute symbolic meaning of the actions taken by the Leper in today’s Gospel during the  homily  he gave at Mass, than I will do. What stayed with me from this week’s Lectio with the local Dominican fraternity was the phrase that comes at the end of the Gospel. The leper understandably joyful about his being cured tells all and Jesus can ...

 My life lately has included barely any social media outside of work related social media……here’s looking at you Las Casas….but I do sometimes log on to facebook to see if it is still there. I sometimes come across something that really makes me laugh, today the thing sort of went in that direction. One of the brothers (dominican) of a well known priory in that place on the Cam asked a random question. WHAT suggestions do you get for reels and videos? This coming right after seeing the comment by a mom somewhere in the midwest about the effects scrolling has on people’s mental health. She writes some very good essays on substack about spirituality though her thinking was going also a bit in this direction. Both comments and the brother’s question made me stop and think about something I rarely think about: what is in my own social media feed? I decided for this exercise, and so as to respond to the brother, to exclude twitter….yes I know it’s now X but just don’t like the sound of ...

 I rarely, in reality, most likely never have, written an end of the year post. I have no thought out reason for the absence of end of the year posts, my years simply finish, usually surrounded by some configuration of family members in some corner of the world, and more often than not, I spend the last day of each year baking something. This year, on the contrary, has ended quite differently, after a year of many unexpected changes in job and place of abode, it began quite differently from how it is ending. And that is exactly what I needed at this point in time. So I am not baking nor am I in some family members home in some part of the world, rather I am in my home, in my corner of the world…..and my brother is doing most of the cooking. God is always surprising and we must do our best to not reduce Him to our size. We tend often to see things as we think God would see them but in reality it is our way of viewing life and those around us calling it God’s way when in reality what...