There is a fundamental problem when great work is rated at 90%. I believe Dr. Sunquist caps his generosity at that number. Then if you prove you are actually smarter than he is you get a 95% and if you present your work on a stone tablet without chisel marks you might go up as high as 99%.
I'm just back from his final. I'm not happy. Of course this blog isn't about my emotional state, it's on the spiritual level. I'd have to say in that department I'm doing well. My last 15 minutes of studying for this "exam" was spend singing "It Is Well" and "The Old Rugged Cross" making peace with my impending doom.
And doom came. We were given three questions to prepare for and told we'd be answering one of them. He played it up like there was going to be a hat and his secretary would pick a question from it. Instead he hands us all three and says YOU PICK. OR, PICK TWO. Sounds like a deal right? Ever hear of a steal at twice the price? I'm not sure what that really means, but I think it applies here. This just means the standard goes EVEN HIGHER since you are theoretically going to write on your strongest subject. Here are the questions (keep in mind they are to be answered as though you were a pastor speaking to a congregant):
1 - Reverend, I understand that the reason we have the Bible we have today and the theology we have from the early church is because certain documents were silenced by Constantine and Church leaders. Is this true?
2 - Reverend, Christianity is so different in the world today and there are so many different ways of worshipping, of praying, even of believing. What holds it all together and why is there so much variety?
3 - Reverend, how did Christianity spread so rapidly in the first millennium?
So here's what I do. I take the first two and I present the second as a theoretical follow-up question to the first.
In the midst of all the studying of this stuff with people who really know how to do this kind of studying it became evident to me that each of the questions potentially covered every shred of data we learned in the class. Now you have to cast a pretty wide net to get it all in there, but you can do it, especially if you're the kind of pastor given to ramble and not really interact in a conversation (i.e. the kind of pastor no one wants who ends up teaching in a seminary). So to me linking the two questions is entirely reasonable. A lot of folks who know anything about Constantine are very suspicious of him so that's a reasonable conversation starter. The truth of it is that there is little evidence to suggest documents were silenced; the canon was there before Constantine and was intact afterward. (This the same canon that brought upon the Reformation, so if someone tried to censor it in favor of centralized political-religious authority, they screwed up.) Once you've established Constantine did little more than set a date for Easter and establish Christendom if you continue to talk about formation of theology through to the year 1453, then you can't possibly think you're still answering this person’s question. But it's reasonable to assume they'd have another question and why not think that question would be more open ended.
The second question need only be formatted into a statement and it becomes a dictionary definition of Christianity. It is at once unified and diverse. It is the whole pilgrim / indigenizing thing from the first day in the lecture which carried on as a theme for the whole class. What does the church do? defines a center and boundaries. How does it do it? through looking at scriptures and testing the boundaries. That's very simple, but there are thousands of legitimate ways you can keep talking about it: contextualization, political influences, false prophets, on and on.
I closed out my joint essay with exactly what I'd say to a kid who asked me those questions. I structured it politely but it was as much to say, "Jesus is God AND Man, faith is diverse AND unified, in this world your home is everywhere AND nowhere. If you don't like those answers, ask a historian, not a pastor." So if his attitude on the grading slab is likened to the Basketball court he'll appreciate the elbow to the ribs, if not I'll get a red X and a note that says I was supposed to be a historian AND a pastor (ha!). Either way I can't imagine better than a B- in that class.
FWIW, the Gospel's final quiz was simple yesterday. And I actually am getting a decent amount of sleep. Greek tomorrow should be difficult but as expected and then all I have to do is write two papers only one of which is legitimate, the other is just fluff times 10 pages.
Turns out the worse part of finals week has been the idiots at the phone company. (Someone should explain to this Iowan that there is no such thing as a local call in a metropolitan area. The pizza place that I can walk to costs 6 cents a minute to call on my “unlimited local calling” plan.)
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I'm just back from his final. I'm not happy. Of course this blog isn't about my emotional state, it's on the spiritual level. I'd have to say in that department I'm doing well. My last 15 minutes of studying for this "exam" was spend singing "It Is Well" and "The Old Rugged Cross" making peace with my impending doom.
And doom came. We were given three questions to prepare for and told we'd be answering one of them. He played it up like there was going to be a hat and his secretary would pick a question from it. Instead he hands us all three and says YOU PICK. OR, PICK TWO. Sounds like a deal right? Ever hear of a steal at twice the price? I'm not sure what that really means, but I think it applies here. This just means the standard goes EVEN HIGHER since you are theoretically going to write on your strongest subject. Here are the questions (keep in mind they are to be answered as though you were a pastor speaking to a congregant):
1 - Reverend, I understand that the reason we have the Bible we have today and the theology we have from the early church is because certain documents were silenced by Constantine and Church leaders. Is this true?
2 - Reverend, Christianity is so different in the world today and there are so many different ways of worshipping, of praying, even of believing. What holds it all together and why is there so much variety?
3 - Reverend, how did Christianity spread so rapidly in the first millennium?
So here's what I do. I take the first two and I present the second as a theoretical follow-up question to the first.
In the midst of all the studying of this stuff with people who really know how to do this kind of studying it became evident to me that each of the questions potentially covered every shred of data we learned in the class. Now you have to cast a pretty wide net to get it all in there, but you can do it, especially if you're the kind of pastor given to ramble and not really interact in a conversation (i.e. the kind of pastor no one wants who ends up teaching in a seminary). So to me linking the two questions is entirely reasonable. A lot of folks who know anything about Constantine are very suspicious of him so that's a reasonable conversation starter. The truth of it is that there is little evidence to suggest documents were silenced; the canon was there before Constantine and was intact afterward. (This the same canon that brought upon the Reformation, so if someone tried to censor it in favor of centralized political-religious authority, they screwed up.) Once you've established Constantine did little more than set a date for Easter and establish Christendom if you continue to talk about formation of theology through to the year 1453, then you can't possibly think you're still answering this person’s question. But it's reasonable to assume they'd have another question and why not think that question would be more open ended.
The second question need only be formatted into a statement and it becomes a dictionary definition of Christianity. It is at once unified and diverse. It is the whole pilgrim / indigenizing thing from the first day in the lecture which carried on as a theme for the whole class. What does the church do? defines a center and boundaries. How does it do it? through looking at scriptures and testing the boundaries. That's very simple, but there are thousands of legitimate ways you can keep talking about it: contextualization, political influences, false prophets, on and on.
I closed out my joint essay with exactly what I'd say to a kid who asked me those questions. I structured it politely but it was as much to say, "Jesus is God AND Man, faith is diverse AND unified, in this world your home is everywhere AND nowhere. If you don't like those answers, ask a historian, not a pastor." So if his attitude on the grading slab is likened to the Basketball court he'll appreciate the elbow to the ribs, if not I'll get a red X and a note that says I was supposed to be a historian AND a pastor (ha!). Either way I can't imagine better than a B- in that class.
FWIW, the Gospel's final quiz was simple yesterday. And I actually am getting a decent amount of sleep. Greek tomorrow should be difficult but as expected and then all I have to do is write two papers only one of which is legitimate, the other is just fluff times 10 pages.
Turns out the worse part of finals week has been the idiots at the phone company. (Someone should explain to this Iowan that there is no such thing as a local call in a metropolitan area. The pizza place that I can walk to costs 6 cents a minute to call on my “unlimited local calling” plan.)
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