Checking in from Salisbury

Slowly but surely, I've been settling into life at Oxford this week.  I've unpacked all my suitcases, learned the best route to walk from Blackfriars to my house, located the local grocery stores, bookshops, and churches, and even claimed my cubicle in the Blackfriars library.



My Desk at the Blackfriars Library
(in the Thomism section, of course)

On Wednesday night, the Dominicans at Blackfriars invited Nathan and me to have dinner with them in the priory.  It is a tradition for them to have small groups of students join them for a meal once a week, similar to the Dinner with Dominicans tradition at PC.  We had a lovely porkroast with rice and peas, and, more importantly, some great conversation.  I'm really looking forward to getting to know these friars better during the course of my stay.

Last night, I was able to attend the Senior Seminar at Blackfriars, which featured a talk by a visiting researcher of the Hall, Robert Vischer, who teaches at the Law School of the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis.  He gave an excellent paper on the role of conscience in civil society and the need for its protection not just for individuals but also for associations in order to preserve the particular charisms of different organizations.  Afterwards, there was some great discussion among the students and faculty present.

Apart from those events, most of my time has been spent in the library as I get ready for my first tutorial meeting, which isn't until next Saturday, but my tutor, Fr. Guy Nicholls, C.O. (a member of the Oratorians - the same religious congregeation to which Cardinal Newman himself belonged) has assigned a fair a bit of reading in preparation for our meeting.  I'm currently working my way through Dwight Culler's The Imperial Intellect before tackling Fr. Nicholls's own book on Newman's educational thought.  It's been really interesting to read about Newman's own educational background - I didn't realize until just this week that he was quite the mathemetician!

But lest you think that I would be stayingn put in Oxford after being here for only four days, think again!  This afternoon, I boarded a train to travel to Salisbury, where I will be attending a conference on Cardinal Newman tomorrow.  After arriving at the train station, I made my way to B&B, where I'm staying, which is very nice and run by a interdenominational religious group which uses the building as a retreat center but rents out the rooms for travellers when there are no retreats.  My room is quite nice, and I have an amazing view!

My room at the Alabare Guest House in Salisbury

I can see Salisbury Cathedral from my window!

After settling in there, I decided to go exploring through the city.  I had hoped to visit the Stonehenge, which was built around 3,000 BC just about 12 miles north of Salisbury.  Unfortunately, the bus service that runs between the city and Stonehenge had just closed for the day, and I didn't think I was up for a 24-mile hike.  Instead, I walked through the marketplace, which is filled with gorgeous medieval and Gothic styled architecture.

One of the main roads in the marketplace

Along the riverwalk

I also had a chance to visit Salisbury Cathedral, which is one of the great European Gothic cathedrals constructed in the thirteenth century.  I arrived in time to hear the conclusion of Anglican Evensong, which was sung by their magnificent choir school.  Salisbury Cathedral has the largest spire of all the churches in the United Kingdom, and the clock on its clocktower is said to be the oldest working clock in the world, dating back to 1386.  By the time I got to the cathedral, they had ceased giving tours or allowing visitors to climb the steeple, but I'll be back there for my conference tomorrow, and I hope to be able to climb to the top.

Salisbury Cathedral

It's really a formidable and imposing structure when you see it up close for the first time, and it is so mastefully crafted; you have to take a moment to stand in awe of it.  The entire city really stands in the shadow of this magnificent church, and it can be seen from every vantage point in Salisbury.

Tomorrow, I'll be attending a conference on the life and work of John Henry Newman at Sarum College, which is located right next to the cathedral.  There is a wide variety of speakers, both Catholic and Anglican, and I am really looking forward to hearing their papers and meeting some other folks who are interested in Newman!  I'll be returning to Oxford on Sunday afternoon, and you can expect an update soon.  Cheers!