Saturday, September 22, 2007

Procrastinating Once Again

Week number two of my second year has come and gone for me here at GCTS. I feel, however, like I've been here now for five or six weeks! For whatever reason, this second year has had a rather tumultuous beginning, far more so than last year even! But, things are settling down now. I'm finally in the groove of doing homework, classes, socializing, and everything else that comes along with a secluded, New England seminary career.

Since I've not written much here over the last few weeks, and do not have much new to tell you now, I'll tell you a bit about my new classes.

I'm taking four classes and auditing one this semester.

Modern Theology - Taught by a man just finishing his doctoral work at Oxford. He did his dissertation on Karl Barth's early theology and is very well informed about the world of modern theology. As much as I love modern theology though, I'm not loving his lectures very much. His style is not my style. He's very conversational with the material, saying (seeming to me anyway) very little worth taking notes on. It could be that I've had some training in this field, but I think it's just that he's not a very good lecturer. I wish all professors could be like Dr. Ratledge and Dr. Hustad from Crown who just load the lecture with information and let you sift through it to find what you think is the most important and demanding of contemplation. Hopefully this guy is more beneficial to other students in the class. Along with his lack of lecture skill, he is trying to cover theological evolution from the Renaissance through to the current theological trends. In my book, that is not modern theology, but post-Renaissance theology (which is more accurately a survey course than an in-depth critical approach course, like "modern theology" should be).

Contemporary Theology - Awesome! Unlike modern theology, which should span the approximate dates of 1700-1950, contemporary theology continues from approx. 1950 through until today's theological trends. Discussions revolve around process, liberation, feminist, black and contemporary Roman Catholic theologies. I listen to key contributors from each camp, including David Tracy, Harvey Cox, a former process theologian and student of John Cobb, Jr., and others. Sadly, it was a class recorded a few years ago, so I don't get to, personally, interact with these people. But it's still great to hear their perspectives straight from their mouths, even if I can't see them.

Exegesis of Revelation - Fantastic! Taught by a wonderful lecturer, who knows his stuff. I've never taken too much time to really try to figure out John's revelation, especially regarding its application for us today. So, now I'm getting a fair and balanced picture of the book, looking at each commonly held perspective and deciding for myself. And, who can complain about being able to translate an entire book of Greek for the sake of understanding?

Intermediate Greek - I love Greek, and therefore, love intermediate Greek! It's so much fun... what else can I say?

Evangelical Perspectives on Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy - I'm auditing this course, and am loving it so far. Having a relatively large amount of interaction with both (through growing up RC and living in Orthodox countries and having Orthodox friends), I feel like I have a bit of a larger basis to go on than most of the students. The professor is a dual citizen, both of the U.S. and Croatia, though he was born in Slovenia, and lived in Bosnia, Serbia, and Kosovo. He grew up Lutheran, kind of, has a father who's been in prison on numerous occasions on account of defending the gospel, has himself served on many ecumenical councils around the world, has war/near death stories like I've never heard, and is therefore, well-versed in both Catholicism and Orthodoxy. Great.

Well, if you've made it this far, I congratulate you. I didn't expect to write that much when I opened this page. Oh well. Thanks for allowing me to procrastinate!

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