academic hat

I wanted to share with you some of my favorite papers I've written through my first year of seminary. They're obviously a little more formal than things I might normally put on a blog, but I think they're pretty accessible, and they're great examples of some of the directions I'm exploring with this whole theology thing.

First: from Old Testament 101, an ecofeminist reading of the book of Job. I was frustrated at traditional interpretations that read God as ignoring Job's concerns, and Job as just giving up. Job is the only character in the Bible who really stands up for himself—his friends tell him he must have sinned, but he knows that doesn't fit with his experience, and he says so. In my opinion, it's a great book that gets ignored too often. For your reference, the text of Job (RSV).

Next up: from Intro to Systematic Theology (with James Cone, father of Black theology), a meditation on queer theory being (racially) segregated, and ways we can move past that, called "What Does a White Mestiza Look Like?" (borrowing from Gloria Anzaldúa's writings on mestizaje).

On to the spring semester: from New Testament 101, my interpretational theory. We were asked to first socially locate ourselves and then evaluate various methods of Biblical interpretation in light of our personal perspective, all leading to a (future) articulation of our interpretational method. This is (I think) a pretty interesting look at my personal politics/theology, as well.

Last, for now: from Christian History (part 1), my examination of the Byzantine iconoclastic crisis in 726–843 and the gendered nature of the scholarship around it, called Divine Flesh. I started looking at this period around the 7th ecumenical council because I was interested in the use of art and visual imagery in the church, but was really struck by the way most scholars supported the assumption that the iconophiles (those in favor of icons) were overwhelmingly female. I was suspicious, and found enough evidence that this might not necessarily be the case; so this paper is first a historical overview, and second an admonition that critical thinking skills are always necessary, especially where gender is concerned.

Comments

[J Moore]

Yesterday, the Pope said religions other than his aren't real churches. Today, alleged Christians tried to shout down a representative from the Hindu faith tried to open the U.S. Senate session with a prayer. Some days, it seems like Christopher Hitchens is right when he says organized religion causes more trouble than it's worth. Instead of bringing us together as humans, org. religion seems to spend more time hate mongering. It is dispiriting.

[proquest digital dissertations]

Blogs are good for every one where we get lots of information for any topics nice job keep it up !!!