Challenging Coursework for Spring Semester!

If at least one of these doesn't whet your intellectual appetite, the only hope left for you is law school.

INTRODUCTION TO PREACHING AND WORSHIP, PART II:
Janet Walton, Barabara Lundblad, Troy Messenger.
The second semester of a GREAT course, which pursues an integrated approach to liturgy and preaching. The course is intense (twice a week at 8AM), and the small size makes for a strong sense of community among the class. Easily ranks with HBC (A. Kass), Legal Reasoning (D. Hutchinson), Soc (D.S. Allen), War and Peace (E. Wasiolek), Niebuhr (F. Gamwell), Plato and Descartes (L. Kass), or Photons to Consciousness (E. Schwartz) as a life-changing, intellectually formative experience.

DIETRICH BONHOEFFER:
Larry Rasmussen.
"Which Bonhoeffer did you come to meet?" Rasmussen asks at the outset of his last course before retirement. "Bonhoeffer the Poet? the Patriot? the Pastor? the Plotter? the Partner?" Who, indeed. I'm finding that I like Bonhoeffer more AND less the more I learn about him and read his works. Rasmussen's insight into Bonhoeffer's ethical system is matched only but fully by his passion for teaching.

INTRODUCTION TO ISLAM:
Asma Sayeed, visiting fellow from Princeton University
A VERY important topic for everyone to be studying, but especially in the context of religious communities. The instructor's strong background is at times frustrated by the general nature of the course, but Sayeed is pedagogically sound in knowing that her first task is to clear up the immense misconsceptions that even graduate students in the US have.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE:
Brigitte Kahl with Davina Lopez
A far cry from the frustrations of last semester's Introduction to New Testament, the course is my first close-reading one at Union. I feel back in my UofC / Fundamentals stride, and I'm really digging Luke. Best thoughts so far during class: Luke's creation of "counterspace" and "countertime," particularly his connection of the wilderness and the womb as "counterspaces" for Jesus' ministry. It's a true gift to have this class in the season of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.

DEPTH PSYCHOLOGY AND THEOLOGY:
Ann Belford Ulanov.
Just as massive as the title sounds, this course stretches across so many disciplines and schools that one needs a little academic therapy after each Monday night session. The course's central concern is breaking down the barrier of two systems that each purport and attempt to make sense of the most basic human self-understanding. "What is a religious experience? What is psychic reality? How do the two relate? Are they in fact separate?"