Back in Melbourne after a whirlwind week in the States. I had a great time! We spent the first four days at the AAR meeting in Philadelphia, then had a couple of days in the Big Apple. Highlights included:
- David Bebbington (one of the godfathers of evangelical history) coming to my paper and asking me lots of tough questions. Actually, that was mainly scary.
- meeting a scholar who had come to the same conclusions as me about early Methodist culture (but was safely out of my period!) - we had a frenzied half hour of comparing bibliographies - 'read this!', 'read that!'. Very encouraging!
- listening to the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek be entirely outrageous about chickens, belief, necrophilia and Marx.
- a very warm welcome from members of Duke Divinity School faculty
- a profound and moving discussion between Miroslav Volf, Sarah Coakley and Nicholas Wolterstorff about redeeming memories... only the second conference session I've ever been to that has made me weep.
- the book exhibitions... every publisher in Christendom, with 50% conference discounts. I actually hyperventilated! I have brought back a juicy stack of books to read, as well as lots of Christmas presents!
- watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (already out in the US) - not that good a movie, actually, but it was fun to be watching it ahead of schedule!
- the American Museum of Natural History. Dinosaur skeletons are so cool!
I'm very grateful for such a stimulating and (in spite of jetlag) refreshing week. Now to get back into routine and actually write something!
1 comment:
Thanks, Greg. I meant to tell you that Andrew's sister has just been interviewing for a postdoc at St Andrew's - but I think she would have missed you by a week or so. Enjoy the rest of your sabbatical!
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