Update
May 3, 2002
Still stressed, but my stress time has an expected end now. I have three papers still due, in varying stages of completeness: one I just have to write one more section, edit, and turn in. This was a pretty standard summary of a book, look at a couple of rites, and some observations and recommendations (the recommendations are what I haven't done yet). It was supposed to be 10-15 pages; I'm at 11 so far. The next paper I'm a little over 2 pages into. It's supposed to be 10 pages and is an exegesis of one section of Karl Rahner's book The Trinity. This task is anything but straightforward - Rahner is one of the most prolific and influential modern theologians, but he's also very difficult to read, and the section I decided to write on is especially dense. It relies on a lot of philosophy and theology I've never read, but I used a paper of Rahner's for my midterm paper, and the professor said I had a good "feel" for it, so I should go ahead and do this anyway if I was interested in it. The third paper I haven't started, and it's due Tuesday. It's supposed to be 12-15 pages. It's for Sacramental Theology, my favorite class this semester, which is a doctoral seminar. I'm going to write on different theologians' ideas about symbolic mediation and sacramentality, pose some important questions and considerations that come up when looking at their ideas, and then give the paper as a presentation in the master's colloquium next spring with my professor, Nathan Mitchell. I'm looking forward to that, but this paper is really hurting me for time, because I don't want to shortchange it at the end.
That's all for now. I can hardly think about anything but papers. Congrats to all those graduating!