Tonight I was honored to deliver the fall 2005 Paul C. Wilt Phi Kappa Phi lecture, compressing several chapters of material from my work on the Lord's Prayer. Here is the Adobe Acrobat version of the lecture. I am sorry that I don't have copies of the wonderful comments of my two respondents, Carter Crockett from our economics and business department and Jeff Schloss of our biology department. Nor is there a transcript of the lovely discussion that followed. All I will say about them is that I have plenty of good things to think about, and that they are just the kind of thing that can happen at a Christian liberal arts college. Thanks to everyone for coming.

21:45 (file under /topics/preaching)

The last post was in February! Is this blog dead?

Well, it just so happens that this blog is only mostly dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive.

Nevertheless, it is only slightly alive, and it will stay that way at least until the end of the semester. I have more responsibilities at home, more students than ever, more committee assignments, and several urgent projects. But I do appreciate the encouragement that I get from readers not to stop, and I am taking that encouragement seriously.

Not blogging for eight months is an interesting experience, though. First the pressure of not publishing dissipates. Then the guilt of not publishing gradually disappears. Finally the joy of learning without the obligation to report on it re-emerges. Of course I miss blogging too. But when I return I will also miss not blogging.

While the blog is mostly dead, keep watching this space for links to those projects when they come on-line. Here are links to a few recent additions to TelfordWork.net:

"You Can Say That Again" is a sermon on joy I delivered in August.

And "The Soulless World of Tom Wolfe" is an article in the current issue of The New Pantagruel.

Most of all, you should read the tremendous textbooks I have chosen for my class on the Life and Literature of the New Testament. They'll keep you busy! Each is worth a review in this space. Maybe next semester....

As I said, there is more in the pipeline, so don't give up quite yet.

Back to work now!

12:07 (file under /topics/preaching)