Snippets from Seminary Classes

Let me record a few snippets from seminary classes so that I'll have them in the future.  I like these small snippets; often at the time, I hardly think they're worth preserving, and later I'm so glad that I've captured them.

--I am trying to keep my long term projects in mind as I work my way through the weekly assignments.  In an after-class consult, I said to my New Testament professor:  "My English major brain is in conflict with my Theology student brain.  My English major brain already has a thesis that she's hoping to prove, while my Theology student brain knows the importance of waiting to see what the text reveals to us."  After talking to her, I feel like I'm on a good track and that my two brains can work together.

--In Queer Theology, I am trying so hard not to yammer on and on about what life was like in the days before they were born.  In class, I said that I had seen Paris Is Burning when it first came out, and then amended my statement to acknowledge that I was in the Charleston, SC area so it would have taken awhile to get there.  Later a student talked about having it on as background noise on Netflix, maybe for some sort of Queer History month kind of programming.  Later, I talked about how it's important to remember that this film was made in a time when we didn't all have quality cameras in our pockets by way of our phones.  Camera equipment was expensive and film itself was expensive.  Not just anyone could make a documentary of their own lives, which is why it often took an outsider with access to resources to get it done.

--Last night's Women and the Preaching Life contained a great conversation about the need to help people's imaginations, to help them envision the better life that God calls us to create.  We also talked about calls in general.  So many of my professors are so open about their own call processes, about the twists and turns, and I am grateful for that information.

--In Church History, we've gotten to the Protestant Reformation in England.  I often forget/overlook how the motivations of both Mary and Elizabeth were impacted by the succession question. If the country was not Catholic, Mary was illegitimate; similarly, if the country became Catholic, Elizabeth’s right to the throne was imperiled.