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sigerson...I exaggerate. Right now, my commitments seem manageable--pleasantly busy, even! I have the eerie feeling that the momentum will pick up soon, and it'll be back to supercrazy, but it's a nice interlude.
What does the spring semester hold for me?
**A survey of American religious history from 1865-1970. Aside from focusing on the period of time that we never quite got to in highschool history class (anybody else remember getting to Reconstruction right about May?), it's taught by a very good historian with a great lecture style. We likes him. Paper projects will involve using newspaper archives extensively. I think Dad would be proud.
**A seminar in Comparative Religious Ethics; specifically, the topic of vulnerability. There was a good deal of discussion in seminar, and the prof is very good at illuminating difficult concepts. Chuang Tzu and rabbis are on the way.
**A conference course on religion and common morality--i.e., is there one? what efforts have been made to think about common morality, morality that can be shared between different religions or religions and secularity, etc. A better title would be 'religion and relativism.'
It's a little odd taking two ethics courses. Ethics courses tend to frustrate me because they seem so divorced from actual practice; how often do we really act on principle and not just retroactively justify the act? (No, that's not rhetorical--I really do want to know.) But ethics are part of what I want to study, even in practice rather than philosophy, and that means I need to understand this field and learn to speak and read its language. As a side note, I do like MacIntyre a lot. We disagree sharply in a couple of places, and I need to argue out some points, but he's got a wonderful way of leading you through an argument.
**An introduction to the Qur'an. I know so little about this text--I've read all of three suras, and have no idea how it's read/not read, used/interpreted/appealed to in Muslim communities and by Muslim and nonMuslim scholars. This will be intriguing.
**Especially when paired with the Intro to the New Testament course that I'm auditing.
It seems that a lot of this semester is "filling gaps in my education"--kind of making up for not majoring in religion in college. Overview of last century American religious history, overview of two sacred texts, and learning to understand and theorize in ethics. All areas that I lack right now. It's going to be an exciting semester.
The wedding invitations are on their way to us; we'll be mailing them out next week, I think. Unfortunately, they're not on the web anywhere, so I can't show you how pretty they look. They made Mom cry.
We're trying to figure out what kind of (mis)information to provide to friends and family. Heh. Heh, heh, heh.
The quilt event is this Sunday; we'll be generating design ideas that I'll then work into a coherent single quilt design. There will be over thirty people there, including maybe a press guy.
...OMG 30 PEOPLE AND A PRESS GUY HOLY CRAP.
In summary, this isn't the semester of "The Vanishing Girl" anymore. I feel pretty happy, with alternate OMG QUILT and AAA PHD moments. This also means that if anyone's in the Cambridge area and wants to meet for lunch, coffee, or breakfast some day, we should get together.
What does the spring semester hold for me?
**A survey of American religious history from 1865-1970. Aside from focusing on the period of time that we never quite got to in highschool history class (anybody else remember getting to Reconstruction right about May?), it's taught by a very good historian with a great lecture style. We likes him. Paper projects will involve using newspaper archives extensively. I think Dad would be proud.
**A seminar in Comparative Religious Ethics; specifically, the topic of vulnerability. There was a good deal of discussion in seminar, and the prof is very good at illuminating difficult concepts. Chuang Tzu and rabbis are on the way.
**A conference course on religion and common morality--i.e., is there one? what efforts have been made to think about common morality, morality that can be shared between different religions or religions and secularity, etc. A better title would be 'religion and relativism.'
It's a little odd taking two ethics courses. Ethics courses tend to frustrate me because they seem so divorced from actual practice; how often do we really act on principle and not just retroactively justify the act? (No, that's not rhetorical--I really do want to know.) But ethics are part of what I want to study, even in practice rather than philosophy, and that means I need to understand this field and learn to speak and read its language. As a side note, I do like MacIntyre a lot. We disagree sharply in a couple of places, and I need to argue out some points, but he's got a wonderful way of leading you through an argument.
**An introduction to the Qur'an. I know so little about this text--I've read all of three suras, and have no idea how it's read/not read, used/interpreted/appealed to in Muslim communities and by Muslim and nonMuslim scholars. This will be intriguing.
**Especially when paired with the Intro to the New Testament course that I'm auditing.
It seems that a lot of this semester is "filling gaps in my education"--kind of making up for not majoring in religion in college. Overview of last century American religious history, overview of two sacred texts, and learning to understand and theorize in ethics. All areas that I lack right now. It's going to be an exciting semester.
The wedding invitations are on their way to us; we'll be mailing them out next week, I think. Unfortunately, they're not on the web anywhere, so I can't show you how pretty they look. They made Mom cry.
We're trying to figure out what kind of (mis)information to provide to friends and family. Heh. Heh, heh, heh.
The quilt event is this Sunday; we'll be generating design ideas that I'll then work into a coherent single quilt design. There will be over thirty people there, including maybe a press guy.
...OMG 30 PEOPLE AND A PRESS GUY HOLY CRAP.
In summary, this isn't the semester of "The Vanishing Girl" anymore. I feel pretty happy, with alternate OMG QUILT and AAA PHD moments. This also means that if anyone's in the Cambridge area and wants to meet for lunch, coffee, or breakfast some day, we should get together.
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Date: 2007-02-09 03:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-09 12:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-09 01:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-09 03:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-09 12:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-09 04:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-09 12:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-09 04:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-09 05:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-09 12:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-09 05:33 am (UTC)We both know I'll never make it to your wedding (well there is that tax return coming...), but I would send you a lovely card if you sent me a pretty invitation. And I can't wait to see the pictures!
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Date: 2007-02-09 08:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-09 12:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-09 03:25 pm (UTC)The religious history survey sounds great.
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Date: 2007-02-09 03:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-09 03:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-09 03:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-09 08:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-13 06:17 pm (UTC)I think principles often do inform how we act; that they don't always determine how we act; that they look and sound different in the moment than on paper or in discussion (and cannot be encapsulated by situational ethics); that we reevaluate them a lot, especially but nor merely in hindsight; and that we don't always acknowledge or understand how we get them.
They all sound like fun courses, actually.