April 27, 2013
I arrived at Cambridge University yesterday afternoon, was assigned a desk at Tyndale Theological Library and jumped right into my research on The Seven Deadly Sins (the series for this fall).
Where to start? This morning, while walking across campus, I nearly collided with Lord Rowan Williams, who, until two months ago was the Archbishop of Canterbury. He recently accepted the presidency of Magdalene College (one of the schools that make up Cambridge) and was pushing a shopping cart across campus to raise money for the local food bank. We chatted for a few minutes about his new job, his upcoming writing projects, etc.
Tonight I’m grabbing dinner at The Eagle and Child, the famous pub where – in February of ‘53 – Francis Crick interrupted his fellow patrons to announce that he and James Watson had”discovered the secret of life” (the double helix structure of DNA.) This Eagle and Child is not to be confused with “the Eagle and Child” – also known as “the Bird and the Baby” – where CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien met to discuss /critique each other’s writing projects – e.g., The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, ScrewTape Letters, etc.. That Eagle and Child is at Oxford. But, Lewis ended up at Magdalene College at Cambridge, and I’ll be attending a lecture on Lewis by Alister McGrath on Tuesday.
My nine days here will go by way too fast. And I will likely leave here knowing more about Envy – one of the seven deadly sins – than I care to.