Once I am done with today's seminary classes, I will have completed my third week of the semester. It feels like I've been enrolled in Spring 2023 semester much longer. Let me record a few thoughts.
--As always, I do wonder if I could get almost the same intellectual growth if I just read the books on my own. But I also have weekly writing assignments in most classes that force me to engage with the books in a different way than just reading. Sure, I could do that on my own. But I'm happy to report that interacting with my classmates, whether in class or on discussion boards, also helps me learn. I have insights that I'm convinced I would not have had without that interaction.
--Could I have found that interaction outside of graduate classes? Theoretically yes. In practical terms, no. In the non-seminary world, it's hard to find people with similar interests, with reading time, who will make time for deep discussion of books on a weekly basis.
--I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about incarnation, God taking on human flesh, which is not a common trait across religions. I had been reading Queer Theory and Queer Theology, and the texts we have been reading want to celebrate bodies and sex and carnal pleasure and fluidity. We've come across startling ideas, like God as Divine Orgy (a metaphor used to describe both the Trinity and the relationships that this Trinitarian God has with creation).
--But so far, we haven't read any Queer Theory or Queer Theology that wrestles with the ways that aging impacts our theory, thoughts, and theology. Does it exist? Perhaps we haven't read it because everyone in the class is much younger. Perhaps we haven't read it because it doesn't exist.
--What if we've gotten incarnation all wrong? What if God didn't take on human flesh to show us how to be a human or to redeem us, but for some other reason that has been lost to us through the ages?
--And now I'm wondering if there's a theology of aging (regardless of gender, sexual desire, relationship status) that I don't know about.
On to other subjects:
--I went back and looked at the birth narratives of both Luke and Matthew. I'm struck by the fact that Matthew has the Divine plan revealed in dreams, while Luke has angels, both individual appearances by Gabriel and the angel choir that appears to shepherds.
--In last night's Luke class, we talked about the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. Our professor pointed us to a text for class that I had read, but I had missed the importance of a nugget as I read quickly to get ready for class. Jesus is on earth, not all powerful, but hemmed in by rules established by God--and here I am back at Trinitarian theory, wondering how/if that conversation happened. And then I thought about that eternal question; why does God allow bad stuff to happen? Maybe there are rules that God has to obey. And if there are rules that God must obey, for whatever reasons, can we really say that God is all powerful?
--I have become comfortable with the idea that God is not all powerful, for whatever reason. But I know that I will meet people who are not comfortable with that idea, and I wonder if presenting it as a rules-based universe that limits what God is allowed to do--would that idea be easier?
--During our visit to the mosque, one of the leaders of the mosque talked about the separate worship space for women. It's a space without walls, but it is behind the men. The leader explained that the placement was out of respect. They don't want men looking at the women as they bend and kneel. They don't want women to feel exposed. My younger self might have been outraged by this approach. My older self wishes I had more space where I didn't feel exposed as a woman or as a human.
--In our Women in the Preaching Life, we began with a ceremony. Our teacher made an altar out of a table: with a cloth, a statue, some candles, and a bowl of small rocks. We went around the room describing a woman (or two or three or more) who had been important in helping us discern our call to the preaching life. Many of us talked about our mothers. But we also talked about teachers. And a few of us talked about a fellow worshipper who made time to listen. It reminded me never to doubt that there are many ways to be a force for good in the world. We took a rock to remind us of the people who have believed in us.
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