Chapter 3

Journal entry #1. Date: September 24

First thoughts: It seems patently obvious that we should read the great books of the world. They’ve shaped our world, and to understand it, and ourselves, we should understand the books.

On the other hand, I’ve been reading these, and while there’s a lot there, it just becomes a great din after a while, with a hundred persuasive voices arguing different things. Even the writers of the great books don’t agree about the place of great books! Augustine calls them the spoil of Egypt, a golden glimmer of idols. But even he and the other early Christian writers quote extensively from their predecessors.

All of the people here seem so antithetical to the great books, they just want to read their Bibles, pull proof texts, and worry about what God’s will for their life is. As if God had a particular plan for anyobdy’s life; why would He? If He did, then we couldn’t have free will. If we did have free will, then we would end up thwarting His plan, which could imply that we’re more powerful than God. And if He did have a plan, why wouldn’t He make it clear, so that you’d at least know what you were supposed to do? The way they tell it, God has a plan for you, but He won’t ever tell you what it is, but if you don’t follow the plan, then He’ll be angry and your life will have been wasted. So either God is like a bad girlfriend who expects you to be a mind-reader, or He just doesn’t give a rat’s ass about what you do with your life, so as long as you don’t break any major rules and you’re not completely useless to society, you’re probably ok.

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“Suddenly discovering your inner beatnik or did you just get a writing assignment?” I looked up to see, who else, Angie standing by my table. She’s apparently just finished eating, and had a cup fo ice cream in her hand.

“Yeah, writing assignment, just trying to get some thoughts down. Culture and Christianity, all that jazz.” I put down my pencil and nodded toward her cup. “What flavors do they have today?”

“Um….the regulars, chocolate, vanilla, sherbet…there’s some of that really awesome mint chocolate chip, but I think I got the last of the peach ice cream. I give you fair warning, though,” wrinkling her nose, she continued, “there’s that really gross blue bubble gum stuff that all the girls seem to like so the ice cream scooper is all covered with this sticky blue slime.”

“Well, that’s the hazard of the hard scoop ice cream. There’s just no accounting for some people’s taste.”

“Yeah, true enough. Heh. What did the cannibal say when he ate the clown?…This tastes funny!!” She collapsed in laughter; I smiled a bit, but was a little confused as to how a discussion of bubble gum ice cream had lead to a cannibal joke.

“Um, Angie dear, that joke was old even when we were in third grade. And…what the heck? How did you get to that from bubble gum ice cream??”

“Heh heh heh…Well, you mentioned people’s taste, and that made me think of, you know, what people would taste like, and that of course lead to the cannibal joke…And yeah, it’s an old joke, but it’s still funny. Not as funny as a good elephant joke, but hey…”

“Oh no, no elephant jokes, not while I’m trying to eat. And aren’t you going to be late for work?

She sighed. “Yeah, if I don’t hurry up. Catch you later. And beware the blue bubble gum.”

I had a class that afternoon, but made a point to go by the library in the evening to get a few books for the journal project. I didn’t intend to do much research for it—I figured my general research would suffice for most of it. But it wouldn’t hurt to get a few modern opinions on the subject. Fortunately, the library had a whole section vaguely concerned with the relationship between religion and culture. I got the three that seemed most promising and went to check them out. When I got to the desk, Angie was busy with another patron and an upperclassman I’d never met processed my books. As he slapped the “return by” date stamps on the books, he said, “Hey, my name is Ryan. I haven’t really seen you are before, so I’m guessing you’re a freshman, right? I nodded, and made some vaguely affirmative sound. “Cool, man. I’m a junior. Psych major. Hey, have you found a church yet?”

“Um…no, not yet. I guess I’ve been too busy to find one. I’m not sure which kind of church I’m looking for, anway. I grew up Baptist, but I’m fairly sure I’m not a Baptist. Maybe a non-denominational church, if I can find one that’s not too charismatic.”

“There are a lot of good churches around, so I’m sure you’ll find one. If you want, you’re welcome to come with me this week, I’ve got an open space in my car.”

“Well…I’m not sure about this week, but maybe sometime, sure.”

“Great! Well, my last name’s Trent, so you can find me on the school network. Just let me know anytime you want to go.”

“Sure, thanks!”

“Here’s your books. Oh, right! Here’s a flyer for the church fair on Wednesday, when all the local churches come to the campus, so see if there are any students looking for a church. It’s great way to find out about the local churches and find transportation.”

“Ok, thanks, I’ll try to make it!”