photo credit: bartvandamme

Edward VIII was an unlikely third Adam.

In December 1936 Edward VIII, King of England for less than a year, chose to abdicate his place as king in order to marry American socialite Wallis Simpson.

Our first father Adam similarly abdicated his throne to chase after a forbidden love.

Christ temporarily abdicated his to win a people for himself, fallen kings.

Doesn’t your unhappiness point to a previous kingship? Pascal thinks so.

Who would indeed think himself unhappy not to be king except one who had been dispossessed?

Today and tomorrow in 1855 townspeople in Devon, England, reported very peculiar cloven hoof tracks in the snow that went on in a straight line for 100 miles, even traversing housetops. The phenomenon has since been known as The Devil’s Footprints.

The footprints were so-named because many of the more superstitious townspeople believed that the footprints were the work of Satan, since they were allegedly made by a cloven hoof. There were many attendant rumors about sightings of a “devil-like figure” in the Devon area during the scare. Many townspeople armed themselves and attempted to track down the beast responsible, without success (Wikipedia).

Let’s get this straight: on February 8-9, 1855, English townspeople found peculiar tracks in the snow which continued for 100 miles. They popularly thought it to be the Devil. What they posited as the cause has something to say for intelligent design.

What Caused the Footprints?

You can probably see where this post is headed: they see prints, so they think there must be a printer. Yes, overall that’s my point. But you may object and point out that they posited a “superstitious” creature as an explanation. Ultimately, yes. But, initially can you not imagine the men of Devon arguing over whether the tracks could be that of a deer, or a field mouse, or a cow? Using what they know about tracks they would have narrowed down their options.

“Could it be a cow?”

“No, how would a cow get onto the roof?”

“What about a field mouse?

“I don’t think a little field mouse can walk for over 100 miles in one right.”

Secondly, even with positing the Devil as causing the footprints, they are still positing a being doing the tracks.

Theories Solving the Mystery

The Wikipedia article lists several proffered theories of explanation for the queer tracks:

1. Wood mice – proposed in March of that year
2. Kangaroo – proposed also in March of that year as having escaped from a private menagerie
3. Weather balloon
4. Bizarre meteorological phenomenon
5. Mass hysteria

If I say by way of argument for intelligent design, “See, the townspeople thought the tracks to be the work of a sentient being such as mice or a kangaroo,” I imagine you would object and rightly point out against intelligent design, “But the remaining explanations include non-sentient objects such as a balloon and a meteor.” Right, you are but these two latter explanations are just as superstitious has positing the Devil. A cloven-hoof balloon or meteor doesn’t square well with what we’ve observed about either of the objects.

So What that We Don’t Have an Explanation

Yeh, so what; but observe that the townspeople were immediately drawn to explanations of intelligent design: some sentient being made these tracks while going somewhere. Among the posited theories, unsurprisingly, time and random chance are not included. Picture the serious conversation wherein townspeople offered explanations and one man suggesting time and random chance.

“What about a kangaroo escaping from Mr. Smith’s private little zoo?”

“Possibly. We’ll have to ask him.”

“I think time and random chance could have produced these tracks.”

“Are you serious?”

When we observe “phenomena” such as tracks in the snow, our minds immediately begin thinking of beings that could have done such work; we don’t immediately despair and claim, “It happened randomly! There was the right mixture of natural elements and wha-bam, tracks appeared.” The townspeople are a case in point.

To be honest, sometimes I wonder how practical a seminary education is. Will I graduate from seminary and be in the same situation that I was in when I graduated from college? College degrees are a dime a dozen, the same as graduating from high school nowadays. How practical is a Masters of Divinity from a seminary then? It depends on what you want to do when you graduate I guess. I want to be a full-time minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s my ambition. Seminary equips for that “vocation.” (Formal education will never be an adequate ends in itself. It can only feed the intellectually hungry to learn on their own. Formal education equips autodidactics. Seminary equips pneumadidactics and bibliodidactics.) Still though, I can’t help getting the feeling sometimes that what I’m learning is not very practical. Read my September post, A Plea for Multi-Learnedness, for an example: the lemon crisis that changed my life. I guess it really depends though on how you define “practical.”

Anyways, check out what happened today that gives seminary practicality. Sitting in church today for a children’s nativity presentation the young girl with whom I was sitting (aged 9) turns to me and asks, “Drew, do you believe in God?” Not something I was immediately expecting considering the farcical spectacle going on at the front of the church.

“I do, Martha. Do you believe in God?”

“No.” Blank stare.

“Well, why don’t you believe in God?”

“He ain’t done nuffink for me.”

“Are you breathing right now?”

“Not very well. I’ve got a cold at the moment.”

Haha. This was going to be fun. From here, she and I had a lovely conversation about the reliability of Scripture, the historicity of Jesus, the eyewitness accounts of Jesus contained in the Gospels, intelligent design, the teleological and cosmological arguments for God, the transmission of the Bible, the law of non-contradiction and persecution (she had been laughed at by the boys at her school for going to church). Of course, in talking about these things, I didn’t use all this hifalutin language, but these are the very subjects about which we spoke. She was intelligent, asking pointed questions about the the veracity and reliability of Scripture. Nine years-old mind you! I ended by sharing the gospel with her. Martha was for whom the gospel was meant. It’s not meant to be locked up in a bricked building in Wake Forest.

I get frustrated at seminary often. Will I have a “proper” job when I graduate? Is it even worth it? Do I even care about having a “proper” job? (I just want to provide for my wife and future family.) Is the stuff I’m learning practical? Today it was worth it: being able to share the firm foundation that has been laid for our faith in his excellent word that speaks of Jesus coming to rescue us. As Dr. Lanier reminded us in Greek this past summer “Do it for Jesus!” I add, “and do it for Martha.” Study for the nine year old that wonders about God and asks questions that most adults push out of mind. Jesus loves this little child and desires to have a relationship with her. That I can play a part in that gives me tears.

Yesterday in Bath I saw and heard a toddler drop the f-bomb.

Salisbury Cathedral was, for me, a thin place. What is a thin place? This is a concept that I just learned of this evening at Emily’s (my wife’s) parents’ home fellowship Christmas party from a Newscastle medical student named Ellie. She asked if I had heard of whom the British refer to as Tom Wright (we Americans call him by his academic nom de plume, N. T. Wright). “Yep. He’s a bit of a controversial figure, isn’t he?” “Oh, he is? I’ve just heard his talk on the resurrection and thought it was fantastic.” The Bishop of Durham, however, wasn’t really our topic of conversation so much as he supplied the words for us to talk about Christian spirituality at certain locales, places which Ellie pointed out Wright refers to as “thin places.” Thin places are places at which the separation of earthly and spiritual is “thin.”

I was sharing with her how this past week I’ve visited Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral in the same afternoon. Some friends in American hyped up Stonehenge to me as a spiritual place where one encounters a certain amount of spiritual energy. Sorry to report that I found it rather unimpressive as a spiritual monument, but loved it nonetheless. Spiritual energy? Nope, just cold wind, runny nose, and tourists. After leaving the millenia-old enigmatic stones, we headed some ten miles south to Salisbury to see the towering spire of Salisbury Cathedral demonstrating its title as the tallest spire in the United Kingdom. This place was thin. Not to sound too dramatic but walking around inside I very nearly cried. Here stood an Ebenezer, a connexion through 750 years to the Medieval church. Our common connection: faith in Christ. This building placed my hand in the hand of the Medieval church. Me, a scrawny white American kid from West Virginia connected to the Christians of 13th century Wiltshire County England. It was too much. They loved Jesus. I love Jesus. The stones at Stonehenge, though impressive, diminish to a whisper at the sound of the glory of God sounding from the Gothic architecture of Salisbury.

(My pictures of Salisbury)

[HT: Ellie, David Bole, Carmen Andres]

Hillsong London Christmas 2007 from Drew Maust on Vimeo.

Your love O Lord is like the oceans
Deeper than endless seas
Your faithfulness is like the mountains
And Your Word never fails

Glory to God
Let every heart sing
Glory to God
In the highest

Leaving on Wednesday (12/12), we’re heading to England over Christmas and New Years. We’ll be back just in time (the day before) to start our respective schools on January 7th. J-term Hebrew I, here I come.

I didn’t post a weekly review for last week because we were on Fall break, which isn’t to imply that I did no learning during this week off, but that it was a week off! Today I’ve got a bunch of miscellanies for you since I had something due in each of my four classes this week, exam or paper or otherwise. Garn.

• Evangelical Textual Criticism has quickly become one of my most read blogs since hearing an interview with two contributors, Simon Gathercole (Cambridge) and Peter Williams (Aberdeen), on the new perspective of Paul. It’s a team blog so there are regular updates by a multifarious group of scholars. “A forum for people with knowledge of the Bible in its original languages to discuss its manuscripts and textual history from the perspective of historic evangelical theology.”
• Lots of freely downloadable Christian hip hop can be found at the Sphere of Hip Hop. You’ll definitely want to hear how “Jesus did walk with the ladies.” Intrigued?
• We’ve booked our flights to go back to England over Christmas. I have a mental list of things to try to remember to do: get a peak at Codex Sinaiticus, visit Bunhill to see the graves of Johns Owen, Bunyan and Gill and Isaac Watts…(Can you say supererogatory acts?), and my list is still growing. Of course spending time with the extremely jovial and congenial Hayes family is top priority. =)
• I took two semesterin of German in college and now it’s time to shift into Retention Phase. Thank you, http://ergebung.wordpress.com, a theological German blog. Klingt mir gut!
• That’s it. I’ve got a paper to write.