First Day/Week of School

I attended my first class on Tuesday. I made Ken take this picture of me before I headed off to school to record the event. You can tell from the tank top that it has been warm here in Berkeley.
I had one class on Tuesday, "Art and Technique of Exegesis", which is basically a class to teach us how to write critical and analytical papers about biblical texts. There are about 20 people in the class and almost all are first year students. The professor talked about the relevance of Social Location of the writer -not only where they live(d) but their experiences and opinions that influence the writing. Throughout the course we will take baby steps of writing a great exegetical paper. I think this class will be a nice, slow introduction back into academic life.
On Thursday, I attended my second class: "Christian Iconography". This course takes place at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology (DSPT) and is taught by a Dominican Priest with a fantastic sense of humor. Throughout the course we will learn how to identify figures, scenes, symbolism and intention in Christian art. Today we briefly talked about the difference between Devotional Art and Historic Art, the relevance of scale and different types of halos. Did you know that a square halo means the person depicted in the picture was still alive when the artwork was created? See the picture below of Bishop Theodora as an example. Just from this first day of class, I am fascinated and can't wait for next week when we will really get into the coursework.

This Monday brings the class I am most nervous about: "Situating the Bible: Contexts and Histories". I have heard there is a TON of reading and writing in this class. Since my Biblical knowledge is a little shallow, I am a little worried about how much catching up I will have to do. I am really looking forward to the material though; learning about the history that shaped the writings of the Bible. I think it will be a fascinating class. Until next week!