Wow, September. It went by.

Mongolia

I spent the first two weeks of the month over in Mongolia. It was a busy trip, though perhaps a little less busy socially than my last one in April. I taught a small Masters’ class, taking them through selected portions of Luke’s gospel in Greek. Overall it went quite well. My Mongolian is definitely getting worse, and this was frustrating for me at times, to not be able to express myself as fluently as I’d like or as I’d previously been able. I also had occasion to preach three times, and was able to join in the celebration of the seminary’s 20th anniversary. A good time all round. I was sick for 10 days though.

Thesis

Since my return I have settled directly into a steady work-focus. Each day I set aside the first portion of the day to directly working on the thesis, and in the last two weeks, that means I’ve written 6653 words of what I think will be chapter 3. Right now it’s labelled chapter 6. I’ve been analysing every scriptural reference that Basil makes in Against Eunomius (284 of them), under three major types, and so far I’ve completed one of those three sub-types (the smallest one, roughly 15% of references). However, I’d say it’s on track and going well. I should have most of Basil completed by the end of the year, leaving Hilary for the start of next year, and scheduled to complete on time.

Patristic Readers

Not much progress here, though in the last two weeks I’ve begun to set aside some time to move my current texts forward. Hopeful (as always), that this month can finally sort out the cover and move volume one to print.

Other

Not too much else going on project-wise. I’ve scaled back a little bit of my tutoring, which is helping focus on the thesis. I’ve got two journal articles I’m working up over the next month or so. I’d like to get back to some other fun things like a Greek Reader, but these things take time and leisure and most of my leisure is spent either in the gym so I don’t go crazy in the office, or trying to master French and German before my candidacy finishes so that I don’t seem like an ignorant PhD graduate who only reads English literature.