Entering Comprehensive Examinations Phase: Unknowing

Doe Library, University of California at Berkeley

My apologies for my departure from my usual practice of blogging.  I had begun my second year of doctoral studies and the year began with a busy-ness that even some of my family members could not believe.  "Weren't you supposed to be just... studying?"  No, alas, no.  Lots of busy work, administrative details, and a ton of other things that come with doctoral studies.  But I have come already to the penultimate stage of the doctoral journey: the special comprehensive exams.  Scary, I know, but life is scary in general, no?

I have decided to write about ecclesiology in my dissertation, a subject that is near and dear to me.  I came to know of Jesus through the church first in a Cyprian-esque manner, I suppose.  No, it was not a situation where I suddenly received some obvious truth from a transcendent source that brought me to visit a church; I went to church first - thank you, mom - and found community, and then there, I found Jesus.  And usually, what drives people out of church is not because of some theological contradiction or something along the lines of The Da Vinci Code (a novel which, for reasons I still know not, generated so much controversy), but because church members act in ways unbecoming of Christians.  With "Church" having negative connotations in our day and age, I hope to contribute to the discussion of what church should be, and can be.

I will document my comprehensive examinations and my dissertation in my other blog, A Nicene Academic, which you are welcome to follow and read along.  Suffice it to say, it has been very busy this past semester.  On top of being teaching assistant for two classes, I gave a presentation at the American Academy of Religion last November on Asian American ecclesiology.  I was notified a few weeks ago that my paper for the International Ecclesiological Investigations Conference in May at Georgetown University has been accepted, risking the possibility of my presenting in front of a few cardinals, archbishops, and other big-named theologians.  May God have mercy.  Then, I've been asked to be a part of a panel on Chinese-American conversion in October of 2015 at a sociology (?!) conference in Newport Beach.  Already, this is shaping up to be a busy year.  Having said that, I am quite grateful for God's provision of opportunities, whose grace renews every morning, and whose mercies never last.