Osler's Razor

Over just the next twenty days, I will be giving talks in various places on each of the following topics (in addition to my usual classes):

Federal clemency
The history of crack
The role of victim witnesses in criminal law
Civil discourse
The role of ritual in faith life
American Violet
Abortion

Only one is at St. Thomas; of the others, four are at other universities and two are at churches.

Looking at this list, I think a fair criticism might be that I lack focus. In short, how can I be an expert on anything, if I am addressing so many different things?

I think it is true that I am not a real expert in any of these, at least beyond the first two. Two of them (civil discourse and ritual and faith life) are topics that I have hardly exemplified, in fact. So, where do I get off talking about these things?

The lame answer is that I was asked to speak on each topic by a school or group, and said "yes." Still, can I have anything to offer?

I hope so, and have been pondering this. In the end, maybe when I speak about these things that are outside my core field, the best I have to offer are my own failures as a cautionary tale and the posing of good questions. The latter of these, especially, should not be under-rated.

Those who have read this space in the past know that at the core of Christianity I see a message of humility. It's telling the way that Jesus treated the learned "experts" of his time-- consistently, when we see Christ showing genuine contempt for someone, it was for them. When I read that, I realize that I should approach the things I talk about with a sense of humility, and the honest acknowledgement that there is probably more knowledge in the audience about my topic than I have brought with me. I certainly don't know more about abortion than the women in my audience; I don't know more about civil discourse than the laypeople and clergy I will address; I don't know more about racism than the African-American people who will be in the audience when I talk about American Violet; and I don't know more about ritual than the Catholic audience I will address about that topic.

Still, perhaps I will ask the right question, and that might just be as good as it gets.