Patrick J. Craig, Jr.

HELLO...
I used to write these things in third person, but that seems so silly now. I'm orginally from Alabama where, among other things, I was raised by caring, loving, hardworking, and thoroughly admirable parents, teachers, and friends. One thing that was not a part of this environment, though, was thorough consideration of the complexities and questions connected with the Christian faith that served as the glue and assumed backdrop of daily life there.

EDUCATION...
I received my B.A. in Religion (with honors) from Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC. Upon my arrival, I was unprepared for an experience that many college students before me, as well as many since have had; namely, my world of belief was thrown into question. For me, the unfolding of self began with Robert Bolaño’s By Night in Chile -- a novel that deals with Pinochet-era Chile during which over 30,000 people were murdered, tortured, or disappeared. The way that Bolaño presented the existence and impact of evil posed a strong challenge to my previously deterministic Christian worldview.

I found myself asking, "Where is God amidst such evil?"
Moreover I wanted to know, "Where are God's people?"

This set me off on a path of thinking harder and asking more quetions about the nature of God and the role that religion plays both in society and in individual lives. I still conisder myself on the path of trying to construct my own answers to these questions.

Given these things, I am particularly interested in the intersectuion of liturgy, theology, and ethics. My undergraduate honors thesis, Can Public Ethics Be Christian? An Examination of 21st Century Ecclessial/Political Discourse, was directed by Dr. A.K. Anderson.

I currently reside in Durham, NC where I am a graduate student at Duke University Divinity School and a candidate for ordination in the United Methodist Church.

INTERESTS...
The songwriting of Josh Garrels and Austin Crane.
The fiction writing of Flannery O'Connor and Fyodor Dostoevsky.
The screenwriting and directing of Krzysztof Kieslowski and Ingmar Bergman.