New Year's Resolutions 2017

It's that time again.

Looking Back
1. As usual I didn't reach all of last year's resolutions. I'm still working on those two academic books I wanted to finish. I still haven't published any more of my theology in a nutshell series. I put the Fitbit back on last week. :-)

2. I did finish my "Theology in a Nutshell" series in the summer. If you want to know my perspectives on a topic in theology as a Wesleyan, this is your go-to site. Still planning to self-publish the rest of the series.

3. Books I read this year:

• Probably the most impactful book I read this year was Jonathan Haidt's Books The Righteous Mind. I suspect there will be more posts applying his insights this year to politics and religion. 
• Since I ended up as Interim Dean of the School of Theology and Ministry this fall, I dabbled in some leadership books in the summer. In particular, I blogged through Jim Collins' Great by Choice and Sticky Teams by Larry Osborne.
• Until the fall hit, I was reading through a book someone gave me called How I Changed My Mind about Evolution.  
• I read some science this year too. I read some of The Road to Reality, some of The Fabric of the Cosmos, most of A Most Incomprehensible Thing.

4. Last year at this time, I had just started a "Seminary in a Nutshell" series. I did half of the first subject by mid-March ("The Person and Calling of a Minister.") I need to go back and finish the second half of that one, "The Contexts of a Minister."

I'm now almost done with the second subject in that series, "The Pastor as Leader." I'll probably move from it to "Biblical, Theological, and Historical Foundations" next. [1]

5. On May 4, I started a "General Education in a Nutshell" series. I finished a mini-course in philosophy by July 27. I'm now most of the way through a series on world history. Then I'm over half-way through a combined math and science series on Fridays. Plan to self-publish all of these too.

6. I'm very close to finishing the editing of my reflections on the first years of Wesley Seminary so that I can self-publish those: Six Years a Dean: Reflections on the Founding of Wesley Seminary.

Looking Forward
Pretty much the same goals as every year.

7. Read some stuff.

• I'm in the middle of Der Fuehrer on Tuesdays and hope to finish it by summer. 
• I hope to translate a sentence or two a day of Gadamer's Truth and Method and then post the translation here about a paragraph at a time. You'll understand why so slow.
• This spring I'm scheduled to skim The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East and Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. I may post some summaries.

I might rotate around a little in some of the same old same old:

• Paul and the Gift, by John Barclay
• Paul and His Recent Interpreters by N. T. Wright
• Framing Paul by Doug Campbell
• The Culture Map by Erin Meyer
• Paul's New Perspective by Woody Anderson
• The Mind of the Spirit by Craig Keener

8. Write some stuff.

• I'm nearly done with a book I've been writing for several years now: A New Perspective on Hebrews. I'm in the last chapter. Very, very late.
• Supposed to be finishing up a method of Bible study book too. About a year late. Have an interesting angle, at least to me. 
• Other books have been sitting in my "to do" box for over a decade--writing up the Greek approach I used this year, "Four Jewish Afterlife Traditions," "Salvation in the Making." I suppose there's some universe where I'm at a research university teaching two courses a semester without worrying about fundamentalists.
• All the self-publishing projects mentioned above: the rest of the theology stuff, the philosophy in a nutshell stuff. When they're done--the Pastor as Leader stuff, the world history stuff, the science and math in a nutshell stuff, the "Person and Context of the Pastor" stuff
• Novel? Every year I tell myself I will finish one of some sixty novels I've started. My current goal is a short one called, "The First Day," which I mentioned here. I've also started one again on Paul on Mondays.

9. Fitbit, Run, and Diet.
I'll leave it at that.

10. Schenck App
Since the summer, I've been dabbling in coding. We'll see. :-)

11. Bucket List
For the last decade I've been slowly working my way through some math and science books. Usual unreasonable page goals (708, 383, 209).

See you next year, d.v.

[1] Here's the working outline for the next series:
1. The Law
2. The Prophets
3. The Writings
4. NT Context
5. Mark and the Historical Jesus
6. Acts
7. Paul’s Writings
8. The Synoptic Gospels
9. The Later Writings of the New Testament
10. Johannine Literature
21. Summary of First Century Church History
22. Ante-Nicene Period
11. The Doctrine of God
12. The Doctrine of Creation
23. The Age of Nicaea
13. The Doctrine of Christ
24. The Trail of Augustine
14. The Doctrines of Sin and Salvation
25. East versus West
26. The Roman Catholic Church
27. The Protestant Reformation
15. The Doctrine of the Church and the Sacraments
28. European Multiplication and Colonization
16. Doctrine of the Holy Spirit
29. The Roots of American Christianity
17. The Doctrine of Eschatology
18. The Doctrine of Revelation
19. Contemporary Theologies
30. The State of the Church
20. Christian Ethics Today