I apologize to my avid reader(s?) for not making it clear (or for that matter even alluding to) in my previous post that there would be more to come. I took for granted that anyone who knows me and my great admiration for the current Bishop of Durham could expect that there would be a lengthier post to follow my previous fuzzy pictures and short blurb.
The day began like any other day, that is, any other day where I got little to no sleep the night before, and upon waking up found a facebook wall post wishing me a Happy N.T. Wright day. I woke my cousin up who is home from ICS in Toronto and told him he had better jump in the shower toot-sweet if we were going to get to Calvin's campus in time to be the first in line.
We arrived on campus at 10 a.m. and the doors were not scheduled to open untill 11:30 for a talk that was to begin at 12:30. When we arrived there was nobody in line and the doors to the auditorium were wide open as one young lady was setting up inside. We decided it would be safe to take a bit of a walk around campus to kill some time since it was a beautiful day (not least because it was N.T. Wright day) outside, and it was approximately 174 degrees inside. After our walk we hovered outside the Fine Arts center gaging whether or not the people walking into the building were there to hear the Good Bishop or just passing through.
At around 11 the campus took on a more academic air and we decided we better line up if we (this is me talking not my Cousin Chris) were to be regognized as the #1 (and #2) N.T. Wright fans in West Mich. Immediately after Chris and I lined up a few others filled in the line behind us, untill two young men like ourselves came tumbling into the line. One of the two who I imagine fancies himself quite the wit asked the young lady who was setting up in the auditorium if she was in fact N.T. Wright. Much to my amusement no one laughed and the confused girl went along her merry way. They then inquired to those ahead of them inline, whether any of us had camped out all night. when everyone indicated that we had only been waiting a few minutes they declared that they in fact had camped out all night, but mistakenly outside the library, not the fine arts center. Much to their Chegrin I imagine no one offered them their place in line to make up for their camp ground blunder.
From my perch at the front of the line I was able to watch many intellectual pillars of the community enter and take their place in line behind me. (Mk 10:31?) Not least of whom were John Frye, Mark Ponstein, Phil West, John Booy, and THE Nicholas Wolterstorff. When the doors finally opened we ran to the front row and sat directly in front of the podium where, had N.T. Wright looked down even once (he did not) he would have been looking directly at our fine group.
The talk lasted an hour and was great, although very similar to a talk he gave last year at the Washington National Cathedral, and it was not much more than an outline to his book 'Simply Christian' that I have already read. That is not to say that I got nothing out of the talk, in fact it helped, I'm sure, that I was familiar with the material and not much of what he said went over my head. (However I was somewhat perplexed by some of his 'broad strokes' in which he lumped pantheism and panentheism into the same 'group a' which he set against the dualisms which he placed in 'group b' and then suggested that we move toward a 'group c' although group c sounded an awful lot (according to cousin Chris) like Panentheism.)
Afterward I was able to wait in line to meet the man, the legend, The Bishop. I had been preparing to tell him that and I quote "Your work has meant a lot to me." Before having him autograph my book and cordially turning down his offer for me to come back to England and study with him. However this fantasy went up in smoke as the young man directly in front of me handed the Right Reverend his book and said and I quote "Your work has meant a lot to me." My thunder stolen I pushed my book accross the table and said "could you make it out to Evan?" if you are taken back by the sheer brilliance of my inquiry N.T. Wright did not seem to be. After spelling my name for him, he handed the book back to me, smiled, and I said thank you very much, and headed home.
The book is now diplayed in a prominent position on my bookshelf where all books by N.T. Wright belong, when not in the hands of inquiring minds.
It was indeed a Happy N.T. Wright day :)