In what is clearly an act of procrastination, the author reflects on the end-of-semester weariness and what it all amounts to in a world that continues to suffer.

One night this semester I was in class, and we were discussing the process of sorting out things we have to do, get to do, want to do, and don’t have to do. It was insightful, and felt very mature in that peculiarly “pastoral” way that many of us here in seminary are aiming for. And a quote came to my mind that felt very apt. Not thinking much about the source, I started to type it into the chat box of our zoom lecture-- something along the lines of “I might not have everything that I want, but I’m grateful for all the things I don’t have that I don’t want.” It then occurred to me that that quote, I was pretty sure, came from the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. I laughed at myself, and threw that citation into my message.

I am keeping you in my thoughts as I read through your letter to the Philippians. I can’t say it puts me at ease though, Paul. I’m just a few chapters in and you’re already talking about how much you want to be with Christ. I’m learning a lot in my Pastoral Care and Listening classes and if I might be so bold as to “hunch,” it sounds like you might be having some feelings around our friend Jesus. Frankly, since your potentially guilt ridden reflections have become foundational text for Christianty, I think it is only fair to read them with the knowledge that you definitely have some stuff going on.

“In the 18th century, the philosopher Hegel worried in one of his religious works, “the death of God haunts this age.” Long before Nietzsche began to write, Hegel had already seen into the future; today, the sentiment lingers on and most developedly in the Death of God literature made famous by theologians -- or rather theothanatologians -- in the mid twentieth century. Despite all of the attention the Death of God theme got during its heyday, many subthemes of the genre remain under-probed and unchallenged.”