My first week of theological school/seminary/whatever you want to call it is on the downslope! And, I’m still alive! So far, so good, indeed.
Cue the Monty Python and the Holy Grail “Intermission” Music…
NOTE: Just looking at my visitor stats, it seems like I get quite a readership bump when I link my posts on Facebook. So, I’m going to make a habit of that.
…and now, back to your irregularly scheduled blog post!
It’s a Wednesday afternoon, which means for the first time in my week I have time to breathe. My course load is heavily weighted toward the beginning of the week, with seven hours of class (beginning at 8:00 a.m. and ending at 9:00 p.m.) on Mondays, three on Tuesdays, and the final three spread out over the final three weekday mornings.
Classes this semester are Greek I (ἀπόστολος!!!), Theological Ethics, Old Testament Literature and History I, and History of the Christian Church. Each class will present its own unique challenges…
- Greek: I took three years of Spanish in high school, which produced in my brain just a mix of Spanglish and silly phrases… ¡Tengo un gato en mis pantalones!
- Theological Ethics: This class is on the 7000 level, and I am the only first-year in the class. I get the sense that I’m not supposed to be there, but I actually like it a lot so far.
- Old Testament: So… many… maps…
- History of the Christian Church: I thought this class would cover fairly broadly the development of the church from the many individual (and later, identified as heretical) sects of Jewish Jesus-followers to now, but judging by the syllabus and the required texts, we’re mostly covering 1800-present (Pentecostal movement, black churches, religious right, etc.). Not that that’s bad, but it’s unexpected. I hope I’m not getting shortchanged!
In addition to the classes, I now all of the sudden have access to a great resource – a fully-functional gym and wellness center. So I’m forcing myself to workout every weekday. As the blog post is titled, so far, so good (besides the soreness)… but I suppose we will see how long that lasts.
I do have a nifty little Twitter application on the right side of my blog, so you’ll be able to see what I’m tweeting about even if I don’t have the 25 minutes or so to crunch out a new blog post. This morning, my friend (and member of Rob Bell’s church!) Mike Lamson tweeted an opinion piece regarding the Glenn Beck pseudo-rally in Washington, D.C., that I found particularly edifying. I tweeted the concluding sentence from that post, but here it is in its entirety (note, I have not heard of the author before):
God, the Gospel, and Glenn Beck by Russell D. Moore of Moore to the Point
Anyway, tomorrow I have a quiz over the Greek alphabet. Time to go connect the symbols to the letter names! Thanks for reading, friends.
Robert D. Heaton, Ph.D. 
I can’t tell if I like that Beck article or not. I’m totally there with him for a while, but then he’ll drop a bomb, like lumping Islam in with abortion and nuclear weapons. I also think his flippant dismissal of liberation theology is unfortunate.
Either way, it’s got me thinking again about the idea of “Revival,” and how we as humans react to changing times. That may spark a blog post of my own. (Here’s a teaser: Revival ain’t all we need…)
Judging mostly by the author’s age and Baptist affiliation (I guess), I am willing to give him a pass on the points you mention, Andrew. I’m sure he’s got a dogma to uphold, whether personally or professionally, but the gist of his post is spot-on. It’s like Jesus is too difficult, so we settle for Glenn Beck. Wow, now there’s a thought.
But I do take value out of the fact that minds and opinions are changing as the generations allow. (This will be great until a generation of thinkers younger and more liberal/progressive/whatever than us comes along and thinks they’re on the better track.)
The necessities of revival depend on what we’re reviving and, similarly, what we’re reviving it for. If we want to (re)claim our nation as prominent in the world, salute our military heroes (“War not make one great!”), and pat each other on the back for having been born in the United States, then I guess some televised celebrity rallies will do. If we are looking to remind Christians that their faith isn’t simply a matter of belief, then it’s going to take a large dose of logic, the loosing of silly things taught in God’s name, and probably a trendy name and Twitter account. But even then, the forces of society conspire against any large-scale attempt to “revive” Christians… to the point that the likes of Glenn Beck are so attractive to the many. Maybe that’s why the kingdom is like a mustard seed.
I would venture to say that calling anything a revival dooms it from the outset, since inherent in the word is the wish to return to something that was. Maybe that would be okay if we were actually going back to Jesus, but since that’s not possible, we’d be returning to things about Jesus that probably weren’t Jesus and thoughts about God that probably aren’t God. Maybe we should call it a “rebirth,” although that’s probably too theologically “used” to pass the smell test.
Looking forward to your said blog post, Andrew. Thanks for stopping by.