Showing posts with label Professors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Professors. Show all posts
Monday, July 14, 2008
Marcus Borg to speak at my school in November
Marcus Borg will be speaking at my (new) school, East Carolina University, on Tuesday, November 18th at 7pm. Students can attend for free, the general public can attend for only 10 dollars. I recently got a chance to hear William G. Dever last spring and there was hardly anyone here - so this may be a good chance to get to see Borg in smaller setting. Here's the website from the school.
Friday, September 7, 2007
This is why I love this guy
Dr. Black has written an article on his blog concerning two of my favorite things in New Testament/Early Christian studies: The Synoptic Problem and the Fathers! Could I ask for anything more? I think Dr. Black is touching on an issue that carries over into all NT studies (as I've stated before), that the Fathers are important for the study of the NT.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Being counted off for my own ideas?!
I just got out of my 1,2, 3 John and James final. As we passed in our exam, we got our papers back that we turned in a few weeks ago. I was pretty proud of myself on this paper because I knew I had done a good job, and more importantly, this was the first time when I could say, "All translations mine unless otherwise indicated."
My professor's grader was apparently not as enthused as I was about my new-found ability to translate Greek. He actually counted against me for doing it, writing off to the side: "It's dangerous to use your own translation when other scholars have their own translations. It will only weaken your argument." For one, how does using my own translation weaken arguments I make in the paper? No offense, but I think it's only when I'm not "kissing the bride through the veil" that I can truly begin to do exegesis. I picked up on the theological nuances of the passage I did, I think, because I translated it myself. And just who should I use? The two texts we used in class were Expositor's Bible Commentary and New American Commentary and their translations differ.
Secondly, I had some ideas in the paper that were my own. I've been studying at Southeastern for 3 years now, I figure it's high-time I start making statements that I didn't steal from someone else (I always footnote, I don't actually steal). Again, the grader tried to knock me for this. "Where's your source?" Perhaps it's all original. You might be looking at gold, buddy.....not likely, but still! At what point can students begin to give ideas that are their own? At what point am I allowed to branch out from what the commentaries say and maybe give my own two cents? I noted what I thought was a chiastic structure of 1 John 1:8-10. I've taken a class on Psalms and on Hermeneutics...if I can't identify a chiastic structure by now, it's time to pack it up.
I'm glad to say that the professor went back and regraded my paper, even making some notes about the notes the grader had made (on the translation, note, for instance, the professor wrote, "Still, this is a good translation.") and restored my grade from a 92 to a 97.
My professor's grader was apparently not as enthused as I was about my new-found ability to translate Greek. He actually counted against me for doing it, writing off to the side: "It's dangerous to use your own translation when other scholars have their own translations. It will only weaken your argument." For one, how does using my own translation weaken arguments I make in the paper? No offense, but I think it's only when I'm not "kissing the bride through the veil" that I can truly begin to do exegesis. I picked up on the theological nuances of the passage I did, I think, because I translated it myself. And just who should I use? The two texts we used in class were Expositor's Bible Commentary and New American Commentary and their translations differ.
Secondly, I had some ideas in the paper that were my own. I've been studying at Southeastern for 3 years now, I figure it's high-time I start making statements that I didn't steal from someone else (I always footnote, I don't actually steal). Again, the grader tried to knock me for this. "Where's your source?" Perhaps it's all original. You might be looking at gold, buddy.....not likely, but still! At what point can students begin to give ideas that are their own? At what point am I allowed to branch out from what the commentaries say and maybe give my own two cents? I noted what I thought was a chiastic structure of 1 John 1:8-10. I've taken a class on Psalms and on Hermeneutics...if I can't identify a chiastic structure by now, it's time to pack it up.
I'm glad to say that the professor went back and regraded my paper, even making some notes about the notes the grader had made (on the translation, note, for instance, the professor wrote, "Still, this is a good translation.") and restored my grade from a 92 to a 97.
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Christian Servants
To Josh
Peace
Stanley Hauerwas
Yep, that's what the inside cover of my copy of "Unleashing the Scripture : Freeing the Bible from Captivity to America" has on it now. After last night's God Talk roundtable discussion, Dr. Hauerwas was generous enough to sign my copy of his book. What really made me excited is what he said and how he said it. Instead of "Yeah sure" or "Why not", he said with genuine enthusiasm "I'd love to!" It really impressed me that Dr. Hauerwas, who is such a big dog in the theological world, was genuinely excited that I'm reading his book and wanted to sign it.
I told him I'm a student at Southeastern and he asked me if I was interested in coming to Duke Divinity. I told him I actually have a meeting this month with Dr. Joel Marcus to discuss the Ph.D in New Testament at Duke. Again, he seemed delighted. I told him that I also thought of applying to the Div school as well and just seeing where God leads me.
Overall, Duke has impressed me leaps and bounds. Whereas it's sometimes played up as the ultimate evil by Southeasterners (professors and students alike) for being "liberal", their faculty has been nothing but amazingly Christ-like in my experience. For example, I emailed Dr. Mark Goodacre after reading his book "The Case Against Q" and asked him if he'd like to have coffee one day and discuss his book (among other things). Much to my surprise, within a few days he emailed me back and agreed. Dr. Marcus was equally amicable when I asked him (after his debate with Gary Habermas from Liberty on the resurrection) to lunch. The unfortunate thing is, I've been turned down without a reason by two Southeastern professors when I requested to take them to lunch (my treat, as is my policy when having lunch with professors). Mind you, they aren't all like that. We have some great professors here (Dr. Brad Reynolds, Dr. C. Ivan Spencer, and Dr. Tracy Mckenzie, amongst others, are shining examples of how professors should be). I just think it's sad that sometimes my school writes off servants of Christ, truly Christlike men, as "liberal" when they themselves can't seem to follow the life that Jesus told us to live.
Peace
Stanley Hauerwas
Yep, that's what the inside cover of my copy of "Unleashing the Scripture : Freeing the Bible from Captivity to America" has on it now. After last night's God Talk roundtable discussion, Dr. Hauerwas was generous enough to sign my copy of his book. What really made me excited is what he said and how he said it. Instead of "Yeah sure" or "Why not", he said with genuine enthusiasm "I'd love to!" It really impressed me that Dr. Hauerwas, who is such a big dog in the theological world, was genuinely excited that I'm reading his book and wanted to sign it.
I told him I'm a student at Southeastern and he asked me if I was interested in coming to Duke Divinity. I told him I actually have a meeting this month with Dr. Joel Marcus to discuss the Ph.D in New Testament at Duke. Again, he seemed delighted. I told him that I also thought of applying to the Div school as well and just seeing where God leads me.
Overall, Duke has impressed me leaps and bounds. Whereas it's sometimes played up as the ultimate evil by Southeasterners (professors and students alike) for being "liberal", their faculty has been nothing but amazingly Christ-like in my experience. For example, I emailed Dr. Mark Goodacre after reading his book "The Case Against Q" and asked him if he'd like to have coffee one day and discuss his book (among other things). Much to my surprise, within a few days he emailed me back and agreed. Dr. Marcus was equally amicable when I asked him (after his debate with Gary Habermas from Liberty on the resurrection) to lunch. The unfortunate thing is, I've been turned down without a reason by two Southeastern professors when I requested to take them to lunch (my treat, as is my policy when having lunch with professors). Mind you, they aren't all like that. We have some great professors here (Dr. Brad Reynolds, Dr. C. Ivan Spencer, and Dr. Tracy Mckenzie, amongst others, are shining examples of how professors should be). I just think it's sad that sometimes my school writes off servants of Christ, truly Christlike men, as "liberal" when they themselves can't seem to follow the life that Jesus told us to live.
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