Do you know what you are getting yourself into?
"That's why you're learning Greek. So the theology in your Bible translation will be your own. So you can introduce your own bias into the text and not read somebody else's!" - Professor Seesengood
We were talking about theological biases in Greek class on Thursday and this line cracked me up. Another quotable moment came from Philosophy class, when the professor mentioned something like "a kinder, friendlier Nietzsche might say..." and Natalie next to me pipes up with "The Huggable Nietzsche."
I think I might just have to suck it up and take Systematic Theology with the other professor, and I have a bad feeling I'm not going to enjoy it, no matter how open my mind is. Of course, the alternative is wait to take it next year...as in, Spring 2007 (gosh that sounds like a long ways away). I'll talk to my advisor about it.
But there is some good news. I just saved a bunch...I mean, I think I have an angle now for my exegesis paper. It came to me as I was drifting off to sleep, so I got up and scribbled some notes down so I would remember my general take on Genesis 16 and 21.
More good news: I now have a way of surviving my Pointless Public Practice of Theology Precept. Beth and I will sign online -- not to talk, mind you (that's for lecture!), but to make clever side comments. I know there are four of us who are not impressed with our precept. I'm not impressed with the class in general. Last lecture, one of our deans read off statistics and bits of articles from www.pulpitandpew.duke.edu that we could have browsed through in 10 minutes had she given us the reading material ahead of time. And instead of giving us useful skills for leadership, she talked about all these problems with the church that we're miraculously supposed to ward ourselves against without knowing how to combat these issues. Please.
Leadership is something learned by experience, yes, but even the most natural-born leader needs tools, and tools are something that can be learned before implementing them. That's what most of us need. Most of us have had some sort of experience, whether it be successful or unsuccessful. We need the tools in order to improve. More experience will just serve to reinforce bad habits for those of us not self-aware enough to know what's going on. (That's the other thing this class should do...if this is about pastoral formation, they should be teaching people how to be more self-aware). Gah. This class is the most frustrating class I have ever sat through in my entire life.
*takes deep breath* Ok. Back to reality.
Last night I had a lot of fun. A few people came over for dinner, and I made creamy potato and chicken soup and a warm broccoli cheese spread for an appetizer. I learned that making a double batch of this soup is pushing the limit of my pots. I had to make some adjustments to the recipe, but it came out just fine. Kristina brought spinach bread, which was delicious, and cherry cobbler, which also was delicious. Susan brought chocolate bark, which is made from chocolate...sugar....butter....and saltine crackers. It sounds weird, and honestly, everyone thinks it's weird, but everyone also thinks it tastes so good. And it does. Taste good.
After that, we watched the movie "Bedazzled" which I thought was hysterical. We were playing Scene It, and one of the scenes from that movie came up, and so we decided that since the scene was so funny, we ought to watch the whole film. Great fun. We strong armed Ben into staying (actually, that's a lie. He willingly gave up work completely on his own...no, I'm serious! He really did...) and we had a lot of fun.
And then...I went to bed. The end.
We were talking about theological biases in Greek class on Thursday and this line cracked me up. Another quotable moment came from Philosophy class, when the professor mentioned something like "a kinder, friendlier Nietzsche might say..." and Natalie next to me pipes up with "The Huggable Nietzsche."
I think I might just have to suck it up and take Systematic Theology with the other professor, and I have a bad feeling I'm not going to enjoy it, no matter how open my mind is. Of course, the alternative is wait to take it next year...as in, Spring 2007 (gosh that sounds like a long ways away). I'll talk to my advisor about it.
But there is some good news. I just saved a bunch...I mean, I think I have an angle now for my exegesis paper. It came to me as I was drifting off to sleep, so I got up and scribbled some notes down so I would remember my general take on Genesis 16 and 21.
More good news: I now have a way of surviving my Pointless Public Practice of Theology Precept. Beth and I will sign online -- not to talk, mind you (that's for lecture!), but to make clever side comments. I know there are four of us who are not impressed with our precept. I'm not impressed with the class in general. Last lecture, one of our deans read off statistics and bits of articles from www.pulpitandpew.duke.edu that we could have browsed through in 10 minutes had she given us the reading material ahead of time. And instead of giving us useful skills for leadership, she talked about all these problems with the church that we're miraculously supposed to ward ourselves against without knowing how to combat these issues. Please.
Leadership is something learned by experience, yes, but even the most natural-born leader needs tools, and tools are something that can be learned before implementing them. That's what most of us need. Most of us have had some sort of experience, whether it be successful or unsuccessful. We need the tools in order to improve. More experience will just serve to reinforce bad habits for those of us not self-aware enough to know what's going on. (That's the other thing this class should do...if this is about pastoral formation, they should be teaching people how to be more self-aware). Gah. This class is the most frustrating class I have ever sat through in my entire life.
*takes deep breath* Ok. Back to reality.
Last night I had a lot of fun. A few people came over for dinner, and I made creamy potato and chicken soup and a warm broccoli cheese spread for an appetizer. I learned that making a double batch of this soup is pushing the limit of my pots. I had to make some adjustments to the recipe, but it came out just fine. Kristina brought spinach bread, which was delicious, and cherry cobbler, which also was delicious. Susan brought chocolate bark, which is made from chocolate...sugar....butter....and saltine crackers. It sounds weird, and honestly, everyone thinks it's weird, but everyone also thinks it tastes so good. And it does. Taste good.
After that, we watched the movie "Bedazzled" which I thought was hysterical. We were playing Scene It, and one of the scenes from that movie came up, and so we decided that since the scene was so funny, we ought to watch the whole film. Great fun. We strong armed Ben into staying (actually, that's a lie. He willingly gave up work completely on his own...no, I'm serious! He really did...) and we had a lot of fun.
And then...I went to bed. The end.