Religion

"And I went to Carthage, where I found myself in the midst of a bubbling cauldron of lust." Augustine’s Confessions, Book 3.

To evade this cauldron while at Carthage, I shadowed Dan Schowalter. For four happy years I interrupted his New Testament lectures, tried my best to fail his Greek course, followed him behind the former Iron Curtain, babysat his kids, and even fell asleep once in his Heritage class. When Dan wasn't on campus, I busied myself with the leadership of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, the founding of CUMBYA… and, sadly, I splashed around a bit in Augustine’s cauldron.

Nevertheless, I did somehow graduate from Carthage in 1996 with honors and an insane amount of Religion credits, and then went on to direct Christian education at a church in Rockford, IL. This career path was short-lived as my wife, Ann, and I moved to St. Paul, MN where I earned my MDiv degree from Luther Seminary. The first of my two sons, Ambrose, was born shortly after graduation and we moved back to Wisconsin where I was Carthage’s Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion during the fall semester of 2002. My second son, Viggo, was born on Christmas Day 2003.

For the last three years I have been a technical writer, but I teach religion courses at Carthage whenever I can. I currently pay for healthcare premiums, diapers, movie tickets, and other less important things (like my mortgage) by writing documentation for GE’s latest generation of MRIs.

In my spare time when I'm not commuting two hours a day, potty training my boys, or searching under the cushions of my sofa for gas money, I study photography, work on my first book, and develop a website, ReelSpirit.com. My dream is that someday Reel Spirit enable professors and Christian educators to help students develop a better understanding of what they already believe and by critically analyzing popular films.