Yesterday I attended the funeral of my friend Steve Webb. Steve was one of the first people I met in Indianapolis who didn't teach at Butler University. He taught at Wabash College for a long time, and then more recently at CTS. The funeral included numerous tributes from students of his, as well as from a range of representatives of religious traditions with which he had some connection.
Steve loved to argue – and if I had had more friends of my own who were also good friends with Steve, I might have worried less about the fact that he and I had argued quite intensely over the topic of Intelligent Design at one point. After someone at the funeral said that Steve, having sought after knowledge and truth his whole life, was now at rest in the presence of the source of all knowledge, another speaker suggested that that would be hell for Steve, and so he imagines Jesus holding some things back.
I won't offer comments on the theology of either view. Not now. If someone finds comfort in the idea that a person who struggled has now ceased to do so, I am fine with that. And if someone finds greater comfort from the fact that, for human beings, even eternal life need not mean that we ever stop having things to learn and discover, I am fine with that.
The struggle of life and death, of learning and understanding and realizing as a result how much more there is to learn, goes on. It is the show that never ends.
Yesterday the news also broke that Keith Emerson had died. As a keyboardist, Emerson was an inspiration. I was going to share something that displayed his incredible virtuosity, but this song's deep emotion seems more fitting for the occasion.
Here are some links to some of Steve's many books.
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