I have aged slowly and have come to a certain vintage by my own unique process. As I share that process here, perhaps you who read my words will find encouragement for your own quest, perhaps even some guidance. What I do not want you to find is an answer. Your quest is your own, as mine is my own, and your answers need to be yours, not mine. This is a journey, not a destination.

More than 40 years ago I had tried to be a Methodist minister, only to discover that I was not ready to practice that profession. I felt "called" but not prepared, even after three years of seminary education. I was not defrocked, just unsuited. Then synchronicity happened, another job was offered, and I moved into a rewarding career of religious counseling, then university teaching and administration.

What with career, family, further study, and a few geographical and housing moves, it wasn't until retirement approached that I became aware of issues that had remained unresolved from the long ago time when I had left the ministry. My church odyssey had stop-overs among the Methodists, American Baptists, United Church of Christ, Unitarians, then a time of recovering from all of those, and, once again, a home in a United Methodist church. That seemed the setting in which those old issues could be addressed, though that church home was to be no more permanent than the others had been.

Chief among the issues to be explored was the rather basic question: Who and/or what is God? The one most specific thing I had remembered from my seminary education was Dr. Glenn E. Olds defining God as "that which is supremely significant and ultimately real." But what did that mean for me, especially in this world of scientific and psychological sophistication?

In retirement, I began to write my "Theological Musings" and to circulate them to friends. Their responses helped me to think and re-think and to produce the next version of "Musings," and so the process continues. The "Musings" are presented here just as I wrote them, with a few comments inserted for transitional purposes.

Here, then, is my continuing journey. Please know that responses are invited. Use the "hot button" for e-mail, or send to austin.4 @osu.edu.