The Essay-to-Blog Challenge

This year, I will relate each essay I write to ordinary, everyday faith

The “Essay-to-Blog” challenge will be one way in which I will endeavour to continually relate my studies in academic theology to everyday faith. Why am I doing this? Because I firmly believe that my theological studies can not and ought not be constrained to the boundaries of the library or lecture hall. As I have said elsewhere, I hope that my time reading theology at university will affect my engagement with the world around me.

You may be wondering what exact form this challenge shall take. In short, for every academic essay I write, I will also offer an accompanying blog post. On some occasions, the content will be very similar. I may simply ‘tone down’ the academic style and make it more readable for the person less familiar with the jargon that invariably results from writing in such a manner. On other occasions, I may offer a complementary view point to the one offered in the essay. For example, I may explore a particular line of thought that I otherwise did not have time for in the essay. Whatever the case, the posts will not all be identical. The length, form and style will vary according to the content.

For those who would like to know what is coming in advance, these are a couple recent essay topics from Michaelmas term. They are taken from my Old Testament and New Testament modules respectively.

• Can People of Faith Emulate the Character Job? Job’s Characterisation Through Silence and Speech.
• Evaluate Rudolf Bultmann’s Commentary on John 1:1–18.

Lastly, for those who might be interested, you can read my original essay on Job here. I publish it alongside this new post outline my writing challenge.