Sabbatical Begins

Well, my sabbatical officially began today. The first challenge is going to be to overcome the nagging guilt that I really should be in the parish.

But I have to admit, they gave me a nice send-off yesterday morning. The Sr. Warden said a prayer over me as much of the congregation came around to support me in prayer. Then we grilled some burgers and dogs and had a nice lunch on the lawn.

As my studies in this time proceed I may post some of what I am doing here. (That is, when I am near wi-fi. Some of the places I plan to go won't have internet.)

One thing I think I should not attend to is the increasing lunacy of T[p]ECusa and the Anglican Communion. Musing on what has been going on has become a sort of anti-spirituality for me.

I do want to respond to Kyle's response to me, but my focus right now theologically is upon a sort of theology of the mountains, grounded in the doctrines of creation, redemption, and, ultimately, eschatology.

Today's reading:
the section on the mountains in Simon Schama's Landscape and Memory.

Gabriel Marcel's discussion of the difference between the ontology of mystery and of problem in The Philosophy of Existentialism.

Next on the list:
Continue slogging through David Bentley Hart's Beauty of the Infinite and dust off his marvelous little book The Doors of the Sea.

Also in the queue:
Geology of the Sierra Nevada
A Naturalist's Guide to the Sierra Nevada
and another reading of McPhee's wonderful Assembling California