Freedom

I visited a psychologist friend today. As he delivered a lengthy lecture on Freedom, I pulled out my smartphone, and took this photo. We need to be liberated, he said, from the voices of unseen people which bind us. How would one behave, he asked, if one were fearless? OBSERVATION: I said he was overly optimistic about freedom.

Setting Up a Blog

I am mentoring a student whose life's ambition is to open a rehabilitation centre. Last week, we sat down together to get a web-log (a blog) up and running, which will chart his progress virtually from Day One, with one post a week.  This could one day serve as the foundation for a book. The blog is still very much in the rough at the moment, and will surely evolve in time. His blog is (click here): The Dawn Before the Doors Open.

Stunning Ability

When I finished high school, I had a good general knowledge -- which had been fed to a large extent by world travels. This is not the case with all of my current seminary students. The seminary provost reminds me, however, that they do have a wealth of knowledge -- just not the general knowledge that was my own. OBSERVATION: However, knowing the relative ... call it illiteracy of many of my students, and comparing this with the complexity of their first classes at seminary, their ability has been stunning. They have been managing and passing subjects that they knew nothing about.

Canal Bridge

This one's just a pretty picture. I took this photo with an ultra-wide-angle 10mm lens at Century City in Cape Town. Note how this photo takes in both the ground below and the bridge above. This bridge crosses one of Century City's canals. OBSERVATION: You may click on the photo to enlarge. It is taken with the extremely compact AstrHori 10mm F8 lens, which takes superb fisheye shots in black and white, with slight purple vignetting in colour. Its one disadvantage: with a fixed F8 aperture, it needs good light. This lens is obtainable from Amazon for Fujifilm*, Sony*, M4/3*, L-Mount*, and M-Mount* cameras, at half the price ($79) of a budget fisheye.

*This is an Amazon affiliate link. I earn a commission, at no cost to the buyer.

When a Paper Shines

Papers and theses often come to shine only after one realises a fundamental mistake. In my forthcoming paper on Christian political engagement, I proposed that Christian political engagement should not be an action, but a reaction. This didn't hold up -- among other things because action and reaction are hard to differentiate. After some hard thinking, I proposed that political engagement should not be a fixed ideal, but a relative one. Referees called this "genuinely interesting", "genuinely creative", and my paper was "well received". OBSERVATION: My late wife Mirjam made a fundamental mistake with her PhD. Once she discovered it, she had some original and valuable work on her hands.

Graduation Selfie

There aren't that many photos of me on this blog. Here is one of me in my academic regalia, attending a graduation at the end of 2025. This is taken with a fisheye lens, so that it incorporates a lot of activity in the background. OBSERVATION: The lens is available through Amazon for Fujifilm*, Sony*, Canon*, and Nikon* cameras. 

*This is an Amazon affiliate link. I earn a commission, at no cost to the buyer. 

Wedding Rehearsal

This is me, many years ago, conducting a wedding rehearsal. One finds many different moods at wedding rehearsals: joy, stress, humour, antagonism ... Sometimes the wife-to-be is clearly in charge, sometimes a bridesmaid, and sometimes the parents ... The most-asked questions concern the retinue, which in South Africa may number two to ... infinity!

Instant Damage to One's Hearing

This week, my neighbours, above my apartment, played their music -- rap music -- very loud. I pulled out my professional sound meter, and measured above 80 dB in my apartment below -- 1,000 times louder than the city limit -- and this was after it came through a concrete ceiling! I asked AI to estimate the sound level on the other side of the concrete ceiling. It estimated 130 dB, about the loudness of a gunshot -- enough to instantly and permanently damage one's hearing. OBSERVATION: I called up the complex's management. They quickly addressed the disturbance. I do wonder, What are such people thinking?

Students and AI

Oy vey. It has happened to me a few times. While I am lecturing, students are one step ahead of me on AI. I said in a lecture last night, Isn't it interesting that Christ used one word for "love" when He asked Peter whether he loved Him -- yet Peter used another word for "love" in response? A student responded, Jesus used agapaō twice and phileō once, while Peter used phileō all three times. I said I had no idea why this was. No problem, said the student. Peter had felt shy to use the word agapaō after he had denied the Lord three times. I said, How did you know that? He said, Here, on my smartphone!

Mid-Semester Exams

My Person & Work of God students wrote a mid-semester exam this week. I set this exam, and submitted a copy to the seminary. It was a thorough exam, and I was concerned that I might have set it too high. These were first year students, faced with a cartload of unfamiliar concepts -- like theodicy, ecotheology, and AI. OBSERVATION: Initial marks lay between 51% and 84%. I was pleased that they all passed. One was surprised that he did. One was disappointed that she didn't do better. However, the quality of the work, and the range of the marks, suggested that I got it about right. The photo shows students sitting end of semester exams -- a former provost on the right.