Change in Plans ...??

It's been an interesting week - getting back to school, the nice cool weather (I really love a -20 degree day every now and then!). Just when I thought things were rolling along smoothly, it looks like I'll be doing a little shuffling with my schedule this semester. A couple of conflicts came up with my weekend class and understandably the instructor wasn't thrilled with me missing a few hours of class on a couple of Saturdays. (Although one absence was to give a presentation at the American Academy of Religion meeting - you'd think there'd be a little leeway for that.) I guess this is one problem with trying to cram all kinds of material into a weekend class like. I'm a little disappointed but being totally honest with myself, I don't learn as much from intensive classes like that anyway. You get so much material thrown at you that there is little or no time to really digest it before you move on to the next topic. Last fall was an exception - I was pretty well versed in a lot of the material we were covering so that made it much easier. This is one reason that the intensive diaconate programs that are offered at various UMC seminaries really don't appeal to me. (Not to mention that there are a number of high-profile studies that show I'm probably the norm [that might be a first] when it comes to learning from courses like that.)

The predicament I'm in now however, is that I may need to refocus my emphasis/major a bit. I was working towards the emphasis in Spirituality, but it may be that I need to look at changing that to Scripture; something I would have never dreamed of a while ago. I'd still like to do a thesis and was going to work towards a topic related to spirituality and how that influences our practices (or lack thereof) sustainability, but that will need to change now. Perhaps something on how scripture calls us to be sustainable? The Old Testament is really full of wonderful accounts of caring for the land. We'll see, the folks here are incredibly accomodating with things like this (note to UMC'ers, ummm, we could be a little more flexible with our programs .... ).

I'm really excited about my other courses - Pauline Letters and Luke/Acts. I'm becoming fascinated by exegesis, due in large part to reading Bard's Brushstroke. Dr. Bard has provided some very thought provoking insights into what now amounts to most of the New Testament. (You can link to it from my favorites.) Perhaps the change is happening for a reason. It's late, I'm tired. Thanks for stopping by.

Peace,
Jeff