Back to School

August 12, 2011 By 5 Comments

For many of us, return to teaching or studying has just happened, is in the process of happening, or is about to happen. And so I thought I would create an open thread on that topic. Are you teaching/studying? What are you looking forward to, or apprehensive about, in the coming semester or academic year? What are you doing that’s new or interesting?

I’ll be teaching my first year seminar course on faith, doubt and reason, my course on the Bible, and a course on Paul and his letters. I’ll post separately about some of the things I will be doing differently in those courses in this coming semester, in particular as I increasingly focus my courses on cultivating skills for finding and identifying reliable sources of information, and using the internet discerningly.

What does the new academic year have in store for you? Please share!

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  • http://thebiblicalworld.blogspot.com/ John Byron

    We don’t start classes until October, so I still have a while yet. In the mean time, I am working on a commentary on 1 & 2 Thessalonians. 

  • Guest

    I’ll be restarting studies in September.  I’m doing practical/pastoral theology based modules which I enjoy for the challenge they give me, but I do dread all the theological reflections which have to be done in ‘academic format’ – because my mind doesn’t reflect in such logical order most of the time!

  • http://twitter.com/defunctidiom Kerry

    I’m taking too many languages (Latin, Classical Hebrew, and Classical Greek) and a syntactic analysis course. I’m worried about Latin comp and getting the hang of Greek and Hebrew grammar.  I’m really looking forward to them though. I’m more looking forward to trying to get my own apartment.

    What are your thoughts on the pastoral epistles? It was really interesting last semester in my ‘Introduction to the NT’ class when we talked about the pseudoepigrapha.

  • http://www.patheos.com/community/exploringourmatrix/ James F. McGrath

    I’d definitely recommend getting some resources for modern Hebrew, like the Pimsleur course, which you can put on in your car. Because modern Hebrew was revived from classical Hebrew, there is enough overlap that the one can really help with learning the other.

    I’m inclined to think that the pastoral epistles are indeed pseudepigraphal. P. N. Harrison’ classic book The Problem of the Pastorals illustrates the differences not only in vocabulary but also style with graphs. Having just discovered that it is free on the Internet Archive, I think I’ll mention it in a blog post!

  • http://twitter.com/defunctidiom Kerry

    Oh! Now I have something to read before classes start! And I’ll look up the Hebrew resource for the bus.

    I haven’t ever heard of that book before. My mother gets irritated when I mention something that doesn’t fit her religious viewpoint, but pseudoepigrapha just fascinate me in an academic sense. Plus, we need all the books and writings from antiquity that we can get.

    Thank you for the link and info!