An Apology and a Request for Help
"[The Church's proclamation must be] humble, in the awareness that the fullness of revelation in Jesus Christ has been received as a free gift (Ep 3:2), and that the messengers of the Gospel do not always fully live up to its demands (Joint Document of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the Congregation for Evangelization of Peoples, Dialogue And Proclamation: Reflection And Orientations On Interreligious Dialogue And The Proclamation Of The Gospel Of Jesus Christ, Rome, 19 May 1991, #70c)."I sincerely apologize to you for being so delinquent in getting something, anything out on my website.
This being said, I need to appeal for help from anybody who has the time and the desire to help me out in the short term. Basically, I have been writing a few works that are essentially longer than I would typically post to my website. While I am in Rome, I have access to some sources [books, articles, and libraries themselves] that I will not have access to once I return to the United States (which will probably occur in June). I have thus been researching a few topics related to these works to which (I believe) God has pointed me. The problem at the moment is that I have too many things to research in too little time. Thus, I need to narrow down the focus a good bit. This is where I can use some help.
More specifically, I have two very different types of help that I need:
1) I need questions that people have about the topics I believe I am supposed to research. The more questions I have the better. This may contrary to the idea of narrowing down my research on these topics. I assure you this is not the case, as I have far too many questions on these topics already (both written down and in my head). Your questions will help me to identify the questions most common for people other than myself. This will help me to narrow down my research to those things which will actually help people, rather than those I find most interesting personally.
If you are interested, please email me a short list or paragraph about what about religion or spirituality has typically interested you most in the past. From this, I can try to choose one or two topics I am looking at which may be most interesting to you (and for which I need questions from you).
2) I have a moderately long list of Bible passages I need to look up, but every minute I spend looking them up is a minute that I can't spend researching (using materials that only exist here in Rome). I have reason to believe that these Bible passages all are related to the topics I am researching (I believe this because the books I have been reading over here reference these Bible passages, but usually do not quote them. It is highly inefficient to have to flip for each reference knowing the library will be closing soon.) I need to be able to quickly group these passages into topics and to be sure that I have thoroughly researched the main topics they contain.
More specifically, what I would need here would be for someone to type up (or to simply cut and paste) passages into a text document or an email. I need this because I need to be able to print out these Bible passages and carry them with me to the library, because the primary library I use here does not allow me to check out materials. I do not care much which version of the Bible you use at this point.
If you can help me out with this, please email me and let me know or just leave a comment out at TomReagan.com. I will try to split the passages between whomever says they can help (and depending on how much each can help). I do not need immediate responses. (At the same time, the faster I do get responses, the more focused my research can be.)
I realize all of this is a bit unusual, but nonetheless I believe it can help me out a great deal and I have been praying to God that He will show me how to accomplish what I understand that He wants from me (which is a bit overwhelming at the moment). Here, I must add a third area of help: any and all prayers you can lend.
Thanks in advance for any ways you can help and for your continued prayers!
posted by Tom Reagan at 2:13 PM
Tom,
Can you give a list of the topics you are researching currently? Or, could you provide a list of things you are interested in then I could tell you based on what I am interested in where to research? Kind of like a survey, I could check what I would consider reading or knowing more about. then you could concentrate your effort on what your are interested in and what people would like to learn. You have a much more academic perspective than I do.
Do you find the Biblical refereces are similar? Do you find that specific topics refer to the same verses? (Same topic same verses or same topic different verses.) How vital is it to know these references now? Can you research what you have then augment your research after you return to the States? Or are these references significate to your understanding of the material?
I look forward to your answer.
I think I confused you a bit, Garshalta. I wasn't asking you to do any research for me or anything, just was requesting questions regarding a few topics I'm researching. I thought questions that people have might narrow me away from some of the "academic" stuff that isn't as helpful to people. In other words, if I know what people have questions about, I can try to narrow in. Kind of the opposite of the survey you recommended. I'll send you mail directly though with a few topics I'm looking at.
As for the Biblical references, it's the same thing. I can research that stuff in the States, but trying to figure out where to hone in on over here. The references help me to know what somewone is talking about when I'm reading something, because they often "Cf" something without giving me any clue what the reference is for. So yes, significant for understanding the material on-the-spot. It wouldn't be such a problem if I could bring the books home, but the library doesn't let me check out books over here, just look at the book in the library itself.
Thanks for the response!