Apropos of nothing: I’m most of the way through The Half-Blood Prince (this is my first time through the Harry Potter series) and I finally know what a horcrux (!!!) is. I’m now contemplating how I might lock myself away, shirk all responsibilities (work, family, etc.), and read until I’m done with Deathly Hollows.

The Division of the Light from the Darkness (1924) by Paul Nash, which I stumbled upon while perusing the (incredible) Visual Commentary on Scripture, a free online resource that, according to its About page, “provides theological commentary on the Bible in dialogue with works of art. It helps its users to (re)discover the Bible in new ways through the illuminating interaction of artworks, scriptural texts, and commissioned commentaries.” You really should do yourself a favor and check it out.

Brad East, in an essay on “the ends of theological education,” describing how one end is to “induct” students into the ongoing conversation that just is Christian tradition:

Theology is a conversation, a continuing consultation (in the phrase of Robert Jenson). It runs from Adam to Eschaton, and God’s own entrance in the dialogue through Israel, Christ, and Church is the opposite of a conversation-stopper. The infinite vitality of God’s eternal Word, incarnate in Israel’s Messiah, means our talk with God and about God will have no end, either in this life or in the life to come.

The proximate end of theological education is therefore to induct students into this ongoing conversation. Theological teaching has succeeded, at least in part, when students have learned to speak Christian, at least in part.