2nd Class....

I attended my second class last night - New Testament 1 (The Gospels). It is being taught by a woman that is just finishing her PhD...she is doing her thesis on the book of Romans and also is an expert on Roman culture and politics. She is from Switzerland and she is extremely interesting.

We are starting the class with just a deep review on Roman culture, politics, leaders, religion etc. She is trying to give us a strong basis for the entire climate of when Christianity first started and what I learned last night that was pretty thought provoking was that Christianity quite honestly fit very well within Roman culture and thought process. I always though Christianity was revolutionary to Roman thought and doctrine, but I could see why Christianity really took off with the Romans. As I learned last night that Roman religious evolution went from many different Gods to the idea (actually the philosophers helped us here) that perhaps all these Gods literally came from one God. Also, the people of Rome were hungry for a personal relationship with God that was lacking from the "many Gods" theory....the Stoics philosphy also helped propel this idea forward as people because to be self aware and self examining. All pretty fascinating.

It is interesting to me to see how different my two professors are in their approach. My NTII professor is very deep and interesting to listen to, but he is all lecture. I really dont have a sense of where this class is going or the requirements for passing because he isnt real detail oriented. He just comes in and goes and we are supposed to put 2+2 together and be prepared. Plus he is all lecture, all the time. My NT1 professor is extremely organized and I know exactly what is required each week. She has already given us all the handouts, we know when our tests are (each week) and what they are going to be on and while she lectures, she also really drives us to contribute and elaborate. Not saying one of the profs is better then the other, they are just really different.

But with both of them, there is just an insane amount of reading required. After class I spoke to my NT1 professor last night and just commented that I felt the amount of reading was counter to learning because you really cant retain all of that. She actually agreed with me and said that she is trying to streamline the reading but she felt that all academics get so used to reading and the pursuit of all knowledge that it becomes second nature to them and they forget the impact on their students and never really ask the question "are they getting the real meaning of what I am trying to say?"...I thought that was pretty astute....

I am going to read alittle bit today to get prepared for my Tuesday night class but am planning on taking some breather time today and tomorrow to just get away from it and pace myself. Dont get me wrong, it is incredibly interesting material and I am learning alot....