About Me

My theological interest has grown from my Christian faith, being convinced that the teaching and claims of Jesus of Nazareth are true, and only in him can we receive forgiveness and life to the full (John 10:10). The same disposition of seeking rigorous and thorough understanding that was instilled through my scientific and engineering education has led me to seek robust and critical engagement with the Bible and theology. While both the Bible and theology are fascinating areas of study and learning in their own right, my desire is not simply to know about the Bible, but through it to know God and enjoy him forever. Fides quaerens intellectum.¹

• I love studying the biblical languages – Post-Classical Greek² and Biblical Hebrew (I haven't yet learned Aramaic) – and I would love to study some other ancient languages in the future.
• I am especially interested in biblical studies and the pursuit of the original purpose and meaning of the biblical texts, employing a wide variety of linguistic, historical, cultural, literary and theological disciplines. I particularly enjoy considering how later biblical authors use earlier Scriptures, both within the Hebrew Bible itself and in the New Testament's use of the Old Testament (in Hebrew and the Septuagint).
• I enjoy reading biblical and systematic theology, and some favourite thinkers include Augustine (354–420), John Calvin (1509–1564) and Herman Bavinck (1854–1921), as well as the English Baptists and the (English) Puritans.

My engineering background focused on electronic and information engineering, particularly machine learning and control theory. More generally I am interested in computers and problem solving through mathematical and probabilistic methods.

• I enjoy programming, and especially like Python for getting things done. I began programming through microcontrollers in assembly, and from there have worked up through C++ to higher level languages such as Python. I like the approach of functional programming in Lisp (I've dabbled in Haskell). I've recently been exploring web development using JavaScript and the React framework. I'm cutting my teeth in Go, and I'm thinking of finding a project to learn Rust (a passing fad, or a powerful frontier? Time will tell).
• I'm interested in machine learning and its use for improving and optimising systems. My masters thesis investigated the use of Gaussian processes for developing optimal control systems.
• I love the Emacs text editor and its Lisp-environment approach, allowing for extensive adaptability, modification and extensibility. See my Emacs configuration on Github. And yes, I'm one of those helpless Emacs users who gradually adopted Org mode and now uses it for everything (including this webpage).
• I am also a big fan of LaTeX, and have written various classes and packages for my own use.

I also enjoy various other things, in no particular order:

• Walking with my family in the fields and woods near where we live
• Coffee
• Learning new things
• Playing the guitar
• Reading as widely as I can
• Watching light and gentle TV shows with my wife, especially Parks and Rec and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. We're currently watching Bob's Burgers.
• Fountain pens