Apologetics

After a very pleasant day yesterday hanging around Oxford and sipping cappuccinos, it was down to hard work today. Morning Prayer at 7:30 followed by 4 long lectures/seminars on apologetics over the course of the day. We got off to a good start with Dr. Andrew Moore asking us to differentiate between "rational apologetics" and "witness apologetics" - the latter becoming increasingly important in post-Christendom.
Later we had John Cottingham talking about where meaning comes from. Got to talk to him in the common room, which was very interesting. He's a bit of an expert on Descartes so I asked him some questions about duality and the persistence of human identity, like you do. He agreed with me, or maybe I agreed with him. And apparently Descartes wasn't into Cartesian dualism as much as we think (like Calvin and Calvinism). (But not Hobbes.)
The last lecture was by college principal Father Robin (I am Fr Michael here, according to my welcome envelope). In keeping with the college ethos, asked about a contemporary Christian aesthetic, he thought it would be better if we all went "back to the source" - the Latin Mass. I do not. In fact, I think God likes diversity.

Now here's a bit of a psalm we had at morning prayer. Be thankful you don't have to sing it antiphonally, to an obscure chant, like they do here.


Psalm 103
Praise the LORD, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Location:St Stephen's house, Oxford