2012 Lenten Reflection Series
Last week I began the 2012 series with Entering Lent: “I Want†in Higher Education. As you may remember, Kent Annan’s  After Shock saturated my 2011 Lenten reflection. With Kent’s recent visit to South Central PA and the deep chord which “I Want” struck not only with me, but also a number of the students with whom I watched it, I wondered if my 2012 reflections would largely draw from his earlier book Following Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle (InterVarsity Press, 2009). Although this may still occur, on Friday I began reading a new book.
I picked up a copy of The Book Nobody Read: A Closer Look at the Book that Moved the World by Owen Gingerich, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and of the History of Science at Harvard University and a senior astronomer emeritus at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, at Hearts & Minds Books when dropping off materials from Scot McKnight’s Christian Scholar Series presentation en route to have dinner with and then hear Owen present on the fascinating adventures related in The Book Nobody Read. But that’s not the book I’m referring to 😉
As occurs in gatherings of Christian scholars and students, I connected with a number of people.* At the conclusion of the lecture sponsored by the Central Pennsylvania Forum for Religion and Science and Messiah College’s Center for Public Humanities, my friend Ted Davis (who directs the Forum and is Professor of the History of Science at Messiah College) introduced me to Paul Nisly. Paul is a retired Professor of English at Messiah College with a specialty is Southern literature. He particularly appreciates digging into William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor. In addition to being an academic, Paul serves as a bishop in the Mennonite Church.
When introducing my work with the Emerging Scholars Network in South Central PA and the Christian Medical Society (CMS)/CMDA at the Penn State College of Medicine, I related the various speakers which we have hosted over the past twelve months. Messiah College alumnus Janel Atlas was among those whom I mentioned. As some of you may know, Janel presented at both the Medical Center and the Elizabethtown Public Library on They Were Still Born: Personal Stories about Stillbirth (Rowman & Littlefield, 2010). Paul responded to Janel’s story and the work at PSU-Hershey by sharing some of his own loss. [Read more…] about Lent brings me back to reflections on loss, grief, suffering
