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Well, I’ve registered for my first semester of M.Div: game on.
Classes haven’t started yet and I’m already playing hooky. Since Alicia just got back from an extended trip to Alaska, so I ditched a half-day of orientation to spend time with her. (I also ditched RiffTrax Live!, which shows just how much Alicia means to me!) This time is important, especially since I’m going to get to spend a lot less time with her starting next week.
My classes for the semester are:
- OLDTEST 11. Introduction to Old Testament Interpretation. (Stephen Chapman) The first half of a two-semester course that serves as an introduction to the literature, history, and religion of ancient Israel with emphasis on exegetical methodology.
- OLDTEST 2A. Hebrew Reading. (Instructor TBA.) A noncredit course for ”reading maintenance” in Hebrew texts and to improve language skills.
- CHURHST 13. Early and Medieval Christianity. (J. Warren Smith) A survey of the history of Christianity from its beginnings through the fifteenth century.
- OLDTEST 207. Hebrew Prose Narrative. (Ellen Davis, who was highly recommended by my Hebrew prof last year and pretty much every student I talked to.) Focus on the grammar, syntax, and prose style of classical Hebrew composition; a comparative reading of modern and precritical Jewish and Christian commentary. Readings spanning the spectrum from the early Hebrew prose of Genesis and I and II Samuel to the late compositions of Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah.
- SPIRIT 22. Introduction to Christian Spirituality. (Lauren Winner, who has a nifty personal site, too) An introduction to spirituality, spiritual formation, and the development of a personal spiritual discipline. [Which is kinda why I went to an M.Div program in the first place! -RCF.]
In addition, there’s the “Spiritual Formation” groups, where small groups share their spiritual journeys and discuss the difficulties and spiritual growth through the first year of seminary. It’s funny that some middlers and seniors love the spiritual formation groups and some middlers and seniors hate them. I’m keeping an open mind: we’ll see how it rolls. More info here.
All in all, it should be a pretty awesome semester. The following courses seriously tempted me, but I decided against them for one reason or another.
- CHURMIN 120. The Holy Spirit and Ministry. (William Turner) Christian ministry is utterly dependent on the Holy Spirit. This course explores the work of the Spirit in the practice of ministry.
- XTIANTHE 180. Learning Theology with C.S. Lewis. (Reinhard Hütter) In this course the students will encounter a broad and representative range of C.S. Lewis’ works. By the way of close reading, reflection, and discussion, the students will begin to think through central topics of Chrsitian theology and ethics. The goal of this course is to offer students the opportunity to being to think theologically. The hope is that thereby students will be enabled to encounter, reflect upon, and respond to various situations in their ministry beginning already with their field education placement.
- HISTREL 31A. Introduction to Judaism: Investigations into the Jewish Life Cycle: A Time to be Born; A Time to Die. (Rabbi Steven Sager) This course will give particular attention to the liturgical and ritual responses to life and death. The studies of rite and liturgy will lead to investigations of the underlying Jewish theological and philosophical claims, as well as the psychological attitudes that inform rejoicing and grieving.
My guess is that every semester is going to be dealing with the same kind of issue: too much cool stuff to pick from. That’s why you come to a place like Duke, right?
The M.Div schedule here at Duke is pretty tight the first couple of years: you only get one general elective course each semester. The non-elective courses are kinda obvious ones that an M.Div student really should take ASAP (you can see the schedule here), and the limited elective courses are pretty cool, but it still feels a bit tight.
With my one general elective, I pretty much had to go for “Hebrew Prose Narrative”, since my current academic trajectory seems to be deep into the old testament. That just left the choice of the Church Ministry Limited Elective, which meant “Holy Spirit and Ministry”, “Xian Spirituality”, or “C.S. Lewis”. C.S. Lewis was vaguely tempting in that it’s really fascinating to deeply explore one particular person’s understanding of God, but lots of other people wanted to take that one really badly, so I stepped aside. That left “Holy Spirit and Ministry” and “Xian Spirituality”, which was settled by the rapport I felt with the “Xian Spirituality” professor: she gave a lecture during orientation, and it became very clear to me that she was someone who I wanted to learn from.
Next year is pretty tight, too: it’ll be Greek for my general electives. “Intro to Christian Theology” and “American Christianity” in the Fall, “Christian Ethics” and “Intro to Preaching” in the Spring. Only mystery will be the New Testament Exegesis and World Christianity limited electives.
Things open up my senior year. One of the two semesters will have my CPE (“Clincial Pastoral Education”: serving as a chaplain in a hospital), which counts as 2 courses. That leaves four slots open for electives. Going to have to spend them wisely.
All in all, I’m really excited to be finally getting underway. It seems like it’s been a long time in coming.
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