Rambling, Old School

Three Episcopal churches in the Diocese of Tennessee have seen their members leave the denomination en masse this year. The Bishop of Tennessee is John Bauerschmidt. From all accounts is personally amiable and theologically orthodox. His last name struck a chord with me and I started digging.

Back when I was in college (University of the South, 1982), I knew a Fritz Bauerschmidt. Fritz was two years behind me. He had a religious bent and was popular with the girls. He's very smart and at the time I knew him could have been a stand in for the platonic ideal of "laid back". Somehow I doubt that has changed, even though he is now married with children.

Some very quick Googling showed me that John and Fritz are in fact brothers. What I learned about Fritz has proven most intriguing. He apparently converted to Catholicism right after I graduated. He continued to be interested in religion, got his doctorate and is now an assistant professor of theology at Loyola in Baltimore.

Several of the people I knew in college have gone on to religious greatness, as it were. But of them Fritz is the only one I thought that would happen to. I never would have pegged Shannon Johnston nor Jim Mathes for being dog-collar bound. Mark Lewis, apparently, has changed little since college. I never thought of him as the priestly type, but when I heard he was, I wasn't surprised. The same holds true for David Dearman, but in a much less spectacular way.

Irregardless of my reminiscences, Fritz has apparently achieved great things in the world of Catholic theology. He has written an intro to Aquinas that is well thought of. And he has written a popular interest book entitled Why the Mystics Matter Now. As soon as I can scrape the appropriate number of shekels together, I intend to order it.

Now you might ask why am I not getting the Aquinas book? Bottom line, I already own the Summa Theologica, have read the Summa Theologica and am not convinced by the Summa Theologica. I became a nominalist in college and remain one, however lapsed and inert, to this very day.

University of the South

I'm a Sewanee alum, and so I'm pained by a decision I've made recently. The news from the mountain has not been good. The Uni continues to march in the direction of academic conformity.

I've been making anonymous donations to Sewanee over the years. I'm not longer going to donate. I'm not happy with that decision. I loved my time there. But the place is just a place. The traditions that bound me to it are being destroyed. The Honor Code has been diminished. Tripe is being taught as truth. And the school looks much the same as every other liberal arts college out there. Except for size, the courses are identical to every state university out there. If Sewanee's goal is to be a smaller version of the University of Tennessee, I'm not going to support that.

What I loved about Sewanee was that she tried, when I was there, to imbue her students with a sense of honour and uprightness. We were taught, the men at least, to be Christian gentlemen. Maybe I'm naive or still a little too starry eyed, but I feel strongly that the world needs more, not less, of that sort of thing.

Now what is being taught is immorality, a worship of the zeitgeist and expedience and the flexibility to bend with the wind. None of which is truly a positive virtue. And none of which needs any encouragement in today's world.

The founders of Sewanee would be appalled at what has become of the place. But since they're dead white men, and were racists to boot, we can safely disregard their opinions, can't we?


Feeling a little blue right now. I think I'm going to go listen to my copy of the Drowsy Chaperone.