German Christians Encouraged by Government Minister to Participate More in Politics

(Thanks to sometime commenter L for this story.)

Wow, has Germany come full circle?  Here’s a story about the German Education Minister encouraging German Christians to keep on engaging actively with society and politics.  “Without Christians, Germany wouldn’t be what it is.”  And lest any of you think that’s  a slam, she seems to mean post-Nazi Germany, which is a pretty impressive place (despite all my moaning).  (Besides, as a lecture in Jesus in the Gospels revealed further to me today, the Nazis were far outside the mainstream of Christianity – they were basically a cult, in so far as they were “Christian” at all, that argued that Jesus was not Jewish and called for drastic reevaluation of the Old and New Testaments along racial lines.)

The Simpsons on Grad Students

My brother just forwarded me the link to this 19-second video, and I had to post it.

Teaching is Fun

A girl came up to me after class and said: “Sorry that this is kind of off-topic, but I don’t know anything about religion.  What’s the Holy Spirit?”  What a question!  So gratifying to be asked, but hard to answer.  Here’s my rambling attempt:

• the third person of the trinity
• “I’ve heard him called the “shy” member of the trinity”
• “I’m tempted to define him as the Person that’s not God the Father or Jesus”
• told her the story of Pentecost – probably TMI
• not present in the OT, and believers back then knew God but didn’t have the Holy Spirit.  One difference that Jesus made is that Christians today have the Holy Spirit in their hearts.
• maybe it’s fair to say he’s the presence of God down here, in the “realm of becoming” (which we learned about this week).

I enjoyed this discussion section so much, which was all about the subjects lectured on by our guest lecturer, the Trinitarian Controversy (featuring Arius) and the Christological Controversy (with Cyril and Nestorius).  This lecturer, one of the new assistant profs in my department, managed to make a subject that’s always bored me seem fun and not too hard and relevant.  The students responded really well, and I had the best discussion sections this week that I’ve ever had.   I’m almost tempted to wish that I did something in the line of Judeo-Christianity or philosophy (not really) … you can have discussions about history and ANE religion, but you have to know a lot before you do so – and I’ve never succeeded in getting my undergrads to that point.

I’m realizing this semester how rewarding teaching can be when your goal isn’t to expend as little time or emotional energy as possible.  It’s so annoying when students seem sullen and unengaged, but such a shot in the arm when they respond.