{"id":24581,"date":"2021-08-26T06:00:19","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T10:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/?p=24581"},"modified":"2021-08-19T12:23:50","modified_gmt":"2021-08-19T16:23:50","slug":"now-it-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/now-it-begins\/","title":{"rendered":"Now It Begins . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In last few minutes of Franco Zefferelli\u2019s\u00a0Jesus of Nazareth<\/em>, Zerah pokes his head into the tomb where he observed the dead Jesus of Nazareth being buried three days earlier. Zerah is a politically astute, power-hungry Pharisee who has been an enemy of Jesus since he first heard about the roving rabbi three years earlier. Zerah is the one who manipulates Judas into betraying Jesus. Zerah is the one who convinces the Romans to put a beefed-up military presence in front of the tomb just in case Jesus\u2019 disciples try to steal the corpse and claim that Jesus has risen from the dead.\"\"<\/p>\n

Of course, the tomb is empty. As Zerah looks at the neatly folded clothes on the slab where the body had been placed, he says . . . \u201cNow it begins.\u201d Zerah knows that this is a classic \u201cthe horse has been let out of the barn\u201d or \u201cthe genie has been let out of the bottle\u201d moment. Nothing will ever be the same again. And he\u2019s right.<\/p>\n

Every August, college professors across the country find themselves moving closer and closer to a \u201cNow it begins\u201d moment. August is very quiet on campus, particularly this year as we continue to emerge from the pandemic\u2013no classes, few hosted events, few visitors other than prospective students and their parents taking tours.\u00a0 \u00a0It\u2019s all a wonderful period of solitude; but just as Louis XV reportedly commented in anticipation of the Revolution that would cost his grandson Louis XVI his head, August says to the academic \u201capr\u00e8s moi le deluge.<\/em>\u201d Before long, the floodgates will open. They\u2019re baaack . . .!<\/p>\n

Actually, they will be back on Monday, our first day of regular classes. This is great news; I\u2019m more than ready to be back in the classroom\u2013so far promised to be entirely in person with everyone wearing a mask.\u00a0 I\u2019m not one of those professors who regularly moans and complains about their students. They are the reason I am in the profession to begin with, they keep me young (at heart if not in outward appearance), and let\u2019s be practical: for an academic, a world sans\u00a0<\/em>students would be a world sans<\/em> paycheck.<\/p>\n

I got a fictional look at the dark side of academic attitudes about students, fellow faculty, administrators, and reality in general when reading Julie Schumacher\u2019s Dear Committee Members <\/em>not long ago. Billed by Amazon as \u201cA novel that puts the pissed<\/em> back in epistolary<\/em>,\u201d it follows Jason Fitger, Professor of Creative Writing at Payne University, from the beginning to the end of an academic year through the exclusive lens of letters and emails of reference and support written for current and former students, colleagues, and acquaintances from graduate school days. Billed by reviewers as \u201cfunny as hell,\u201d \u201chilarious,\u201d \u201cfun-as-heck,\u201d and \u201cfunny and lacerating,\u201d I must confess that although I smiled occasionally, I found the novel more sad than anything else. Sad because I know that the never-ending bureaucratic and pedagogical challenges of the academic life can turn someone into a jaded, sarcastic, and cynical curmudgeon like Jake Fitger (he\u2019s eight years younger than I am), and even sadder because it doesn\u2019t have to be that way.<\/p>\n

Fitger is the graduate product of what he calls the \u201cSeminar,\u201d a graduate writing program that sounds a lot like the Iowa Writers\u2019 Workshop (which produced a few of my friends and colleagues\u2014and none of them are like Fitger). After a reasonably successful first novel, followed by a couple more that fell still-born from the press, he finds himself in the final decade or so of a mediocre career at a mediocre public university in an English department whose infrastructure, both psychological and physical, is falling apart.<\/p>\n

As faculty lines are closed down and the plumbing in the men\u2019s bathroom fails, the Economics Department on the floor directly above is being treated to a complete upgrade of facilities. Fitger is the embodiment of what is actually happening across the country in more universities and colleges than I care to consider\u2014the neglect and downsizing of the humanities while departments and programs perceived as job-producers and money-makers receive the lion\u2019s share of funding and attention.<\/p>\n

I am extraordinarily fortunate and privileged to have spent the last twenty-seven years (and hopefully the next ten) at an institution that consciously attempts to swim against that tide. Accordingly, Fitger is for me the fictional embodiment of what could have happened had I not been as fortunate. I have few cynical and dedicated negative bones in my body, but some might have been created had I lived the professional life of Jason Fitger. Of course, many of the most problematic aspects of Fitger\u2019s life are self-created. He is hated across campus for various justifiable reasons, his marriage to a fellow professor on campus fell apart when she became aware of his continuing infidelities with an administrative assistant, and his affair with the administrative assistant ends when he accidentally hits the \u201cSend All\u201d button on an email intended for one individual in which he expresses his continuing sexual attraction for his ex-wife that remains strong even after five years of divorce.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know anyone on campus like Jason Fitger (although he might be lurking somewhere). But hidden like buried treasure underneath page upon page of sarcasm and nastiness, I was pleased to find occasional and brief homages to the academic life. In an email to a former colleague from the Seminar, an epistle drenched in anger, regret and bitterness, Fitger steps back for a moment.<\/p>\n

The stately academic career featuring black-robed professors striding confidently across the campus square is already fading; and, though I\u2019ve often railed against its eccentricities, I want to proclaim here that I believe our mission and our way of life to have been admirable and lovely, steeped with purpose and worth defending.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Amen to that. I only get to wear black robes a couple of times a year (including next week at covocation)\u2014although it would be sort of cool to wear them all of the time\u2014and I agree that the eccentricities of the academic process and of academics themselves can be a pain in the ass. But what a wonderful profession. It\u2019s the best thing going, not because of money, fame, or notoriety (which come to only a miniscule percentage), but because of the privilege of making a living in the midst of the most exciting environment imaginable\u2014the life of continual learning. \"VM<\/a>As I noted in my remarks at the dedication of our new humanities building almost eight years ago, the Apostle Paul\u2019s words ring true at this time of year for every academic: Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new<\/strong>. And Jason Fitger knows it, in spite of himself:<\/p>\n

There is nothing more promising or hopeful than the start of the academic cycle: another chance for self-improvement, for putting into practice what one has learned\u2014or failed to learn\u2014during the previous year.<\/strong><\/p>\n

They\u2019re baaack . . . and I\u2019ve been waiting for them. Bring it on.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In last few minutes of Franco Zefferelli\u2019s\u00a0Jesus of Nazareth, Zerah pokes his head into the tomb where he observed the dead Jesus of Nazareth being buried three days earlier. Zerah is a politically astute, power-hungry Pharisee who has been an enemy of Jesus since he first heard about the roving rabbi three years earlier. Zerah […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2938,"featured_media":12272,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,20,24,39,48,57,61,73,75,91,94],"tags":[193,289,383,388,463],"class_list":["post-24581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-change","category-creativity","category-friends","category-human-nature","category-jesus","category-literature","category-philosophy","category-politics","category-stories","category-teaching","tag-development-of-western-civilization","tag-jesus","tag-philosophy","tag-politics","tag-teaching"],"yoast_head":"\nNow It Begins . . .<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There is nothing more promising or hopeful than the start of the academic cycle: another chance for self-improvement, for putting into practice what one has learned\u2014or failed to learn\u2014during the 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