The final senior paper post

I spent a good portion of this semester working on my senior paper and finally turned in the final draft on Friday. It went through several drafts and I worked closely with an academic adviser to clean and tighten it up. The title of the paper is Toward a Postmodern Youth Ministry: An Examination of Postmodern Youth Culture in Conversation with the Emerging Church.

I am presenting a distilled version of the paper this Tuesday, May 1 at the Research Symposium for Senior Recognition Day here at school. If you’re a student at Luther and you’re interested, it’s at 10:10 in the King room on the second floor of the Union.

I’ve also uploaded the paper and would love to hear some feedback. You can download it here (PDF, 197kb). It is seventeen pages total, but just think of it as reading a chapter in a book. If you read it, you can leave me feedback via commenting on this post.

Bargain books

Every year Luther’s library has a “spring cleaning” sale in which they sell tons of books for extremely cheap prices. I have purchased a couple of books in past years, and this afternoon I bought three books for a whopping $1.50. Here’s what I found:

  • God and Reason: An Invitation to Philosophical Theology (Second Edition) by Ed. L. Miller: I thought this would be a good introduction to some themes and ideas of which I don’t yet have an understanding of (e.g., ontology). I’ve been interested in philosophical theology since I took the senior religion seminar last spring and this should be an edifying read.
  • Christ and Culture by Richard Niebuhr: This book, published in 1951, is probably Richard Niebuhr’s best known work. It’s been referenced in several books I’ve read and I have heard about it before so when I saw it I had to buy it (for only $0.25, to boot). Richard is the younger brother of Reinhold Niebuhr, another theologian who had tremendous influence in the life and theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
  • Christus Victor: An Historical Study of the Three Main Types of the Idea of Atonement by Gustav Aulén: This one was just serendipity. As it turns out, Christus Victor has been on my Amazon Wishlist for a while, because I’ve always wanted a better understanding of the different views of the atonement. The book is a translation of lectures given by Aulén in 1930, and the hardcover version I bought from the library was printed in 1951. The above link goes to the Amazon page for a paperback version printed in 2003. Must be pretty good if they’re keeping it in print.
  • I’ve got a lot of reading to do.

    Senior paper progress via Twitter

    I haven’t updated much in the last week, but I have a good excuse. I’ve been working on my senior paper – in fact, I am working on it now, taking a quick break to write this post.

    Yesterday I put the finishing touches on the outline of the paper, which ended up being about six full pages, single-spaced. My goal today is to write all 15+ double-spaced pages of the paper and submit it as a rough draft. As of this posting, I have six pages and 1557 words written.

    Here’s the cool thing. I am updating my Twitter page with my progress as I go. If you’re really bored, check it out here and follow my progress. While you’re at it, sign up for Twitter and friend me… it’s pretty much the coolest Web 2.0 app since flickr.