This is simply a right time -- ��I

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Date Posted: 16:48:15 07/24/10 Sat
Author: EC
Subject: This is simply a right time

After doing a 5-week and 2-week intensive classes overlap in last week, it's just simply fantastic being out of town for this weekend. Well, I still brought with me a stack of journal articles and 3-4 books. Yet, it's good to change a scene for studying and, indeed, have a cooler-but-still-sunny weather.

Instead of complaining how crazy my summer was/is/will be, I have decided that I should share with you all what I have learned in two of my intensive classes. They actually are pretty good classes. The first one is Pentateuch whereas the second one is World Religions.

Pentateuch - from Genesis to Deuteronomy, by Goldingay (a prestigious OT theologian). He urges that we should be aware of how much we have been reading INTO the Bible instead of reading FROM the Bible. It's not about good and bad. Indeed, God's words become alive when they are applicable and it's crucial to interpret and apply them in a sensible way in order to guide our way of life. Yet, we lose the chance of being shaped by the Bible. The prof. is also very keen on what exactly the Bible says. He always proclaim himself as "a guy who just simply does what the Bible said and advocates on some feminist interpretation".

O yes, another fascinating lesson is feminist interpretation. It's just simply broaden my horizon in understanding some of the familiar stories. Genesis 2 and 3 have always been used as a passage to talk about equality or hierarchy between male and female. Feminist exegesis does a fabulous job in challenging one to re-read what exact it means by the Scripture. I strongly encourage you all to further explore the feminist interpretation. You don't have to agree with all of them but I can guarantee that you will benefit by reading them

World Religions - Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. Needless to say, it's imperative to know about different religious languages and concepts in order to allow constructive dialogue with people adopting different religions. I never realize that there are many similarities between Hinduism and Buddhism (well, I only have this class for 5 days in which had been spending 4 days on Hinduism and 1 day on Buddhism). Hinduism, as the oldest religion among three, laid a foundation for later religions, including Christianity. The class also stimulates me to have many self-reflection. I try to step into other people's shoes to understand how difficult it will be for them to adopt new concepts and narratives, just as I do with theirs. How difficult it will be for them to no treat the Scripture just as another legendary, just as the first impression that I have with all of their stories. Think about the story of creation in Genesis 1. In what way do you believe that it is a historical account, a poem, or a mixed of both?

One of the statement from my professor actually stay with me. He said," yes, you can tell the good news in cross-cultural setting if that's what God asks you to do. However, God also chooses people in different cultures in order to allow the gospels being adapted for people in different contexts." There is a tension of how much we have to respect/adapt the culture and religious languages and how much we have to insist/introduce new concepts/ideas about Christianity. It's not easy and it takes time. Yet, the challenges of opening dialogue between religions or between different believers also witness the transformation power of the Holy Spirit.

Already, these are so far what I have received from the two intensive classes. Indeed, after typing out what I have learned, I feel better about spending so many hours of doing reading and writing papers and giving up some social hours (well, you all know that's very tough for me). Now it's time to get back to my paper on "The Vision and Reality of Marriage in Torah" (after reading some of the materials, I feel like it's a bit ironic to write this paper before getting married as you may know that the married couple in Pentateuch indeed revealed how bad a marriage can be and how broken people can be in a family setting). Hope I can share with you all more after I am done with the paper.

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