Check Ignition, And May God's Love Be With You

Ok, so it's not space travel, but I am leaving for England tomorrow evening. I'll be in transit all night and my flight should arrive in London late morning Tuesday. 

Though my writing so far has been concerned primarily with the American presidential election, I'm going to try to branch out a little bit. Over the next month, I still plan to offer thoughts on the presidential election, but I want to do so from an international perspective. I'll also be working on some headier (and hopefully less polemical) posts about the reading I've been doing regarding my study topic. I'll be spending the year doing research on religion and politics, specifically the intersection of modern Christianity and civic life in the United States. (Yes, I decided to study the United States while in Britain. I have my reasons.) To that end, I'm going to find time to write about some books I've read this summer, including Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality by Jack Rogers, What Jesus Meant by Garry Wills, and The Stillborn God by Mark Lilla. These are very different books - Lilla's book, especially, is more of an academic history of ideas than an extended Biblical exegesis like Rogers's book - but they both approach the modern Western schism of religion and politics (what Lilla calls "the Great Separation") with a critical eye and an invaluable appreciation of history, which is what's sorely needed right now. 

But more on that later. I have lots of packing to do. My next post will probably be from Oxford. Now I'm excited.