Careers, oh Careers

I've been seriously considering a career in medicine lately. These past couple years I've just been considered medicine as an open possibility, but not my primary focus. However, now I'm really beginning to consider it as a real possiblity. I dunno if this change in thinking is going to be permanent or not, time will tell.

More to come, I'm sure.

Kev

Shipped!

Good news.

My iBook has shipped from...wait for...Shanghai, China. I wonder, why Shanghai of all places.

FedEx International Priority, maybe it'll be here on Monday. That would make for a wonderful start to my week.

Book me

14 inches of wonderful goodness. Ordered and preparing to be shipped as I type. New generation iBook too!
Specs:
- 1.42 GHz PowerPC G4
- 512 MB RAM
- 14.1" TFT Display
- ATI Mobility Radeon 9550 (32MB Video Memory)
- 60 GB Hard Drive
- Combo Drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
- Built in Airport Extreme
- Built in Bluetooth

Goodie goodie!! Should be here by the end of next week.

Interesting Essay

This is a neat read:

Leaving Evangelicalism: When You No Longer Belong

Family Gathering

It's nice having all the family around. Sure is tiring though.

Couple more days and I can put in my order for a 14" iBook. Psyched!

Stigmata

Stigmata was on TV tonight, I tuned in about a 1/3 of the way through. It's some horror flick from the late 90's. I rather liked the film. Of course, when I heard "the kingdom of God is inside you", I was like..psht - rippin off the Gospel of Thomas. I was like meh, still a good movie. The end 'blurb', however, was rather amusing. It spoke about the 'Gospel of St. Thomas' which was found in a library in Nag Hamadi in 1945. Except for the fact that I learned it as 'Nag Hammadi', true on all counts. It goes on: the Gospel of Thomas contains sayings that scholars from all around the world believe come closest to the words of the historical Jesus (my paraphrase, that's the gist of it). Throughout the movie it is portrayed that these secret sayings could topple the Roman Catholic church, and in effect present a challenge to modern day Christianity. It also plays it out as an Aramaic document. Unfortunately, I haven't ever heard of an Aramaic Gospel of Thomas. What I do know is that the Nag Hammadi version was written in Coptic, and there are a few Greek fragments found in Egypt which date to the second century (quite a bit earlier than the Coptic one @ Nag Hammadi). As far as we can tell, the Gospel of Thomas was written in Greek in the early to mid second century CE. All of this is no big deal, but for the movie to claim such high things about its historical value is a rather bold move. The value of the Gospel of Thomas for reconstructing the historical Jesus is precisely the question on the table, hardly something close to worldwide consensus! I guess they seem to have overlooked people like John Meier, or Ed Sanders, or Tom Wright - all central figures in historical Jesus scholarship. I don't mean to take a shot at scholars who give great weight to the Gospel of Thomas; however, I just found it pretty rude for the movie to give the impression that there is widespread agreement amongst scholars. I guess it's just the misrepresentation of present scholarship on the historical Jesus which bugs me. But, ending 'blurb' aside, really cool movie.

And if you haven't figured it out already, I don't agree with celibate priesthood. I still can't figure out why priests have to be celibate in the Roman Catholic tradition. I can dig the Pope and the sacraments and all that, but no woohoo for the priests! Ouch. Anyways, word on the street is Peter, Jesus' brothers, and even some of the apostles were all married. Poor Paul though, guess he never went for it.

Good ol' online quizes

Just for fun...

You scored as Servant Model. Your model of the church is Servant. The mission of the church is to serve others, to challenge unjust structures, and to live the preferential option for the poor. This model could be complemented by other models that focus more on the unique person of Jesus Christ. Servant Model 67% Mystical Communion Model 61% Sacrament model 61% Herald Model 45% Institutional Model 11% What is your model of the church? [Dulles] created with QuizFarm.com

Neat...