What (and where) I’m teaching in the Fall . . .

In the Fall I will be teaching at Sioux Falls Seminary in Sioux Falls, SD. I am beyond excited for this opportunity to do something I am passionate about: communicate the beauty, complexity, and importance of the Old Testament for the life of faith. This is doubly important to me because my task will be equipping current/future pastors with this knowledge, in the hope that they too will communicate it to their communities of faith. So much of what I strive to do centers on this point: that the Old Testament matters.

I will be teaching three master’s level courses. There is a (perhaps not so) odd fascination I have with what books folk use for their classes, and so I’ve listed the books below that I plan to use for the respective classes. Still working through course requirements, paper and sermon specs, and whether I’ll even do tests or not. Really trying to think of creative activities to bring the materials from the respective courses into the church or the various students’ ministries, while still being something I can evaluate. Feel free to drop suggestions in the comments if you have them.

INTRO TO THE OLD TESTAMENT
*Birch, et. al., A Theological Introduction to the Old Testament
*Sharp, Wrestling the Word: The Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Believer
*Seibert, Disturbing Divine Behavior: Troubling Old Testament Images of God

TIOT will be the main text; I’m planning to have the students read Sharp in its entirety for the first week of class to set the tone and provide some fodder for discussion. And with Seibert, having them read, slowly, over the course of the entire semester, culminating with a critical book review of the book.

BIBLICAL HEBREW EXEGESIS
*BHS
*Scott, A Simplified Guide to BHS
*Wegner, Using Old Testament Hebrew in Preaching
*Brotzman, Old Testament Textual Criticism: A Practical Introduction

I have yet to select the texts we will be doing, but my goal is that each week we will address and read in the Hebrew a different literary genre: law, narrative, poetry, psalms, wisdom, oracle, etc. to get a sense of the language of each and the how of reading each. Students will (most likely) be asked to write a paper/sermon that uses Hebrew in a worthwhile and critical way, emphasizing something that the Hebrew has helped them see that they wouldn’t/didn’t realize previously.

TORAH: GENESIS
*Brueggemann, Genesis (Interpretation commentary)
*MacDonald, et. al., Genesis and Christian Theology

The Brueggemann book is phenomenal at getting at the theological issues while still pressing readers to think in very different and unconventional ways about very familiar texts. The MacDonald book is hot off the presses at Eerdmans, and so I am delighted to be using it, especially given its focus on the intersection of Genesis and Theology. It isn’t ideal, ultimately, because far too many of the essays focus on creation or some variation thereof, but I think each week we’ll take an essay or two and spend some time on it. I’m also planning to assign brief targeted articles each week (i.e., Fretheim on creation, Trible on Hagar, etc.). If you have suggestions, drop them in the comments.

I’m also planning with the Genesis class to a) have students consult outside of class at least two additional critical commentaries and bring those insights to the larger weekly discussions, and b) choose a single book from a list I provide of more focused studies on Genesis, and then writing a brief critical review of the book and leading the class through that brief time, as a means of broadening our horizons in Genesis. If you have a particular suggestion for a book to go on that list, drop it in the comments; I already have a list of about 10 compiled off the top of my head.

And so that’s what I’ll be doing. Extremely excited, grateful, hopeful, and prayerful!

 

My Teaching Schedule for Fall 2011

For the upcoming academic year I will be assistant professor of religion, philosophy, and classics at my alma mater Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD. In the Fall I have three courses set on the docket: two sections of REL 110 (Exploring the Christian Faith) and one section of REL 245 (After Auschwitz: The Shoah and the Christian Faith). Here are the books I’ll be using for both classes:

REL 110

Harper-Collins Study Bible

Eric Seibert, Disturbing Divine Behavior: Troubling Old Testament Images of God (9780800663445)

Green and Baker, Recovering the Scandal of the Cross (9780830815715)

Justo Gonzalez, Church History: An Essential Guide (0687016118)

Terence Fretheim, The Suffering of God: An Old Testament Perspective (0800615387)

Elie Wiesel, Night (9780374500016)

N.T. Wright, Simply Christian (9780061920622)

Terence Fretheim, About the Bible: Short Answers to Big Questions (9780806657677)

REL 245

Charlotte Delbo, Auschwitz and After (9780300070576)

Michael Berenbaum, The World Must Know (9780801883583)

Elie Wiesel, The Trial of God (0805210539)

Edward Feld, The Spirit of Renewal: Finding Faith After the Holocaust (9781879045408)

Simon Wiesenthal, The Sunflower (expanded paperback edition, 0805210601)

Deborah Lipstadt, The Eichmann Trial (9780805242607)

Arthur Hertzberg, Jews: The Character and Essence of a People (0060638354)

Tod Linafelt, A Shadow of Glory: Reading the New Testament After the Holocaust (0415937949)

So, what do you think?

Update on my teaching status for the Spring semester

Many of you know I am currently adjuncting at my undergraduate institution, Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD. Teaching there has been one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had. I will be teaching there again in the Spring semester.

I will also, however, be adjuncting at Dakota Wesleyan University in my hometown of Mitchell, SD. The course I am teaching is entitled Understanding the Old Testament; it is a freshman/sophomore introduction to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. I am tremendously excited to be teaching an Old Testament intro at last! It was a joy trying to figure out what books to use.  Here is what I arrived at (all are required for the course):

New Oxford Annotated Bible, with Apocrypha (4th edition)

 

Terence E. Fretheim, The Pentateuch (Interpreting Bible Texts)

 

Richard J. Clifford, The Wisdom Literature (Interpreting Bible Texts)

 

Jack Lundbom, The Hebrew Prophets: An Introduction

 

Eric A. Seibert, Disturbing Divine Behavior: Troubling Old Testament Images of God

 

Elie Wiesel, Night

Big Update on My Status for the Fall

Some of you already know this, but I am glad to share the news with everyone.  I have accepted a one year adjunct position at my undergraduate institution, Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD.  I will still be on the job hunt, however, so be very afraid (ha!).  The offer very much came out of the blue, and this has very much become a leap of faith for my family and I.  We appreciate your prayers that our house sells quickly and that we are blessed both professionally and financially.  We need it!

At Augie, I will be teaching a course entitled Exploring the Christian Faith.  I am still constructing the syllabus for the course, but am thankful for the amount of leeway offered for how one images and constructs the course.  I am framing the course around the question “who is God?”, a seemingly innocuous enough question until one actually reads the biblical text.  As such, we will be reading a number of volumes, and biblical texts, that will present different ways of handling God, and by connection then addressing the important questions of who are we and how do we read this thing called the Bible. 

Here are the books I have selected for the course:

*Elie Wiesel, Night (I plan to start the course with this book to get questions swirling)
*Terry Fretheim, The Suffering of God
*Eric Seibert, Disturbing Divine Behavior
*Walter Brueggemann, Divine Presence Amid Violence
*Justo Gonzalez, Church History: An Essential Guide
*Joel Green, Reclaiming the Scandal of the Cross
*N.T. Wright, Simply Christian

It will be a fun semester, and I am looking forward to being home.  Quite fascinating . . . it will be exactly ten years ago to the semester that I took this course myself at Augustana.  By the man who is now my dear friend and chair of the department there, Murray Haar.  I can’t wait!

A Student’s Evaluation of my Teaching

Last semester, as many of you know, I was teacher of record for a course, Introduction to Christian Scriptures, at Baylor University.  There was an enrollment of 60 undergrad; all but one were freshmen.  I have reflected already HERE , HERE, HERE, and HERE on my teaching.  In hindsight, now, with the semester behind me, I can honestly say that it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my professional career!  I thoroughly enjoyed my students, and it seems they did me as well.  It was a good class . . . they were always willing to engage, press, and investigate things deeply (sometimes when we were pressed for time . . . . but their genuine interest is a teacher’s dream!).  This may sound sappy, but I actually miss them.  I never realized how emotionally invested one can get with a class and students.  All in all, I feel quite good about this experience; teaching is intuitive to me.  Two Baylor faculty members who observed my class also said the same. 

But, perhaps the true litmus test is what one’s students have to say, especially anonymously.  Now, I will be receiving student evaluations in the coming weeks, and I am quite eager and excited to see them.  There is, however,  an unofficial website associated with Baylor that allows students to post evaluations of professors.  I wanted to share one (the only one there so far) one of my students posted about me:

A young, funny, an extremely intelligent teacher, Anderson is one of my favorite teachers I have had in all 13 years of schooling. However, his work load is one that will cause migraines for even the most diligent students. Whether you want to or not, you will learn in this class. His tests make sure of that. The average for the first test was a 64. Each day are reading assignments from the textbook (usually 5-25 pages), NOAB (3-10 pages), and the bible (3-30 chapters). As you will soon find out, unless this is your only class you are taking, it is nearly impossible to complete all of these for each class. What I learned to do is to definitely read the textbook pages, ignore the NOAB pages, read SparkNotes of the bible passages, and take notes as if your life depended on it. Good luck! 

The latter part is of course subjective, but I will admit my course was not a cakewalk.  Nor do I think it should be.  I said at the beginning, and often, the refrain “this is college, this is different than highschool.”  But if I am going to be critiqued on anything, requiring my students to work is something that doesn’t bother me!  (N.B. I don’t relish the fact this student opted for sparknotes on the biblical text.  I intentionally cut the reading assignments down and chose a reasonable textbook so that the majority of their time would be spent in the text; I will hope and trust this is an isolated incident!  But even as we think back to when we were all students . . . remember, we all practiced “academic triage,” choosing what is and is not important and adjusting accordingly). The first few lines of this evaluation, however, were tremendously rewarding.  In my initial outing as teacher of record, for this student I have already earned the accolade of being one of her/his favorite teachers they’ve ever had.  If you ask me, that’s pretty cool.  I feel good about this; quite good.  And I look forward to receiving my official Baylor evals soon.

Hope you all are well!

Best Hebrew Grammars (and Why?)

As I anticipate (hopefully!) moving into an academic post in the next year, I have begun to think about questions on textbooks.  One area that I think presents a perpetual problem is finding a Hebrew grammar that is adequate.  That, my friends, is where you come in . . . what grammar(s) do you find best, and why?  What makes them accesible and manageable for beginning students?  And, also important, what makes them manageable as something around which an intro course can be structured?

I learned Hebrew from Pratico & Van Pelt’s grammar (published by Zondervan), which I actually don’t mind too terribly much.  The organization at least makes sense to me, though I know it is not without its problems.  Seow is of course a big name, but I am not a fan of his organization; it doesn’t make much sense to me.  Nancy deClaisse-Walford has written a grammar, but I am not too familiar with it.  Kelly has a grammar out.  And most recently Brian Webster’s volume published by Cambridge has gotten some positive attention, I think namely because of the accompanying interactive cd-rom.

So, what grammar is best, and why?  What will work best in intro courses?  I am interested in the opinions of all . . . students who have used a grammar with much (or little) success, and the same for experienced professors (Heard, Mariottini, Bibb, Williams, etc.).

On Being Videotaped While Teaching . . .

Today, as part of Baylor’s teaching/pedagogy colloquy for new teachers of record, my class session was recorded.  I was pleased that the camera turned out not to be much of a bother to me or those in my class.  There was, though, the initial question from a student: “why is there a camera in the classroom?”  I responded, “Ashton Kutcher will be coming in later.  This has been one big, prolonged episode of Punk’d . . . I really have no academic biblical training, and I really know nothing about the Bible.”  The students got a kick out of that.

In the coming days I will receive a copy of this to watch and reflect upon various aspects of how I teach.  I don’t relish watching or hearing myself (who does?), but it will be a helpful exercise.  The topic today was the gospel of John, and I do think it was a good session overall.  Very fine engagement from the class, and a solid way to wrap up the gospels.  Perhaps, if I feel good about it upon review, I’ll post up some (or all) of it.

On Teaching the Book of Job: How Do You Answer These Questions . . . ?

Last week I lectured on Job.  After the lecture, I posed the following questions to the class; we didn’t get past the first one.  It was a lively discussion, and my goal was to press the students to think beyond easy assumptions that “God only does the good” and really wrestle with the questions Job himself seems to be asking.  It is a book, I believe, that does not–indeed, should not–give way to easy conclusions or oversimplification.

1) Who is in the right?  Job?  God?  Why?

2) What does the book of Job reveal about God?

3) What “wisdom” is being communicated in Job?  How does this book fit into the wisdom literature of the Hebrew Bible?

4) Why do you think Job is in the canon?

How would you respond to any/all of these questions?  And yes, dear reader, I will offer my responses . . . in due time.

Where is the Mitigation in the Tower of Babel Story (Gen 11)?

A few weeks ago in my Intro to Scriptures class we covered the Primeval History.  Perhaps the most traditional view has been to articulate the overriding theme of this opening section of Genesis as being an ‘avalanche of sin’ (was that Augustine?).  I remain unconvinced that sin is at the fore in Gen 1-11.  The text very much seems to me to exhibit a deep interest in the grace or mercy of God.

The metanarrative I was proposing argued that there is a recurring pattern throughout Gen 1-11, one typified by disobedience followed by mercy/grace/mitigation.  The rough outline was as follows:

Creation: Initial Harmony (Gen 1-2)
Eden: Harmony Disrupted (Gen 3)
     -serpent as trickster
     -disobedience – eating from the tree
     -breakdown in relationships
          Mitigation: a divine seamstress (3:21)
Cain and Abel: God’s Unexplained Preference (Gen 4)
     -Cain kills Abel
     -Cursing the ground
     -Cain becomes a fugitive and wanderer
          Mitigation: mark of protection for Cain, vengeance assured (4:15
          Additional Mitigation: Adam’s genealogy (Gen 5; cf. Gen 1:28 –    humanity is fulfilling the Bible’s first commandment to “be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth”)
The Flood: Reversal of Creation (Gen 6-9)
     -“sons of God” and “daughters of men” (6:1-4)
     -utter wickedness of humanity
          Mitigation: “Noah found favor in the sight of YHWH” (6:8; cf. 7:1-3)
          Tempered Mitigation?: “All flesh died that moved on the earth . . . ”
               *revocation of curse on ground (8:21)
               *divine repentance? “Never again will I . . . ”
               *renewed commandment: Gen 9:1 – “be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth” (cf. 1:28)
Tower of Babel (Gen 11)
     -“let us make a name for ourselves” (11:5)
     -fear of being scattered
     –hubris – human attempt to be like the gods (cf. Eden)

AND MOVING FORWARD . . . . “Now Sarai was barren, she had no child” (11:30; cf. 1:28 and 9:1)
          Mitigation: ?????

Where is the mitigation for the Babel story?  Does the Primeval History end on a negative note?  I don’t think so.  Where, then, is the mitigation, you might ask?  Right here:

MITIGATION: “And God said to Abram . . . ” (Gen 12:1).

The mitigation for the Babel story is the ancestral promise in Gen 12:1-3.  This argument was popularized by seminal OT scholar Gerhard von Rad, who saw Gen 12:1-3 as an independent composition (attributed to J) serving not as the beginning to the ancestral narratives but as the conclusion to the Primeval History.  The ancestral promise bridges the two, joining the narrative together.

Strikingly, the narratives are connected in two other ways:
1) elleh toledot Terah (11:27) – the toledot of Abraham’s father, Terah, introduces Abraham in Gen 11, as well as his wife Sarai.
2) YHWH’s speech to Abraham, stating “I will make your name great” (12:2), cf. “let us make a name for ourselves” in 11:5.

So, after many false starts and restarts in the Primeval History, YHWH starts again, this time selecting a particular family, a particular people, in whom all the world would indeed be blessed (12:3).  It is a matter of universality through particularity.

So, what do you think?

How I Teach: Some Nuts and Bolts Pedagogy from a Learning Teacher

In the comments section to THIS POST, my buddy Pat McCullough from kata ta biblia asked the following:

So, what makes you a fun teacher? I’d love to hear some more about nuts and bolts pedagogy.

A very fine question.  I by no means claim to be an expert on pedagogy, but I will admit to having had great success and joy in the classroom.  I responded to Patrick’s question in the comments section to that post, but I thought I would also raise that response to its own post here, to offer it both the possibility of a wider audience, and to allow others who are experienced teachers (Bryan Bibb, Chris Heard, Chris Brady, Mark Goodacre, etc.) to weigh in and offer their views.

Here is my response to Patrick’s question:

Good question.  I’m not entirely sure; it just seems natural and comfortable to me.  I’m not beyond having fun.  Religion is a very visceral topic . . . it is far more important to a person than math, science, etc. . . so I think being able to have fun with it is a key.

To offer a more concrete answer, though, here are some things that come to mind when I reflect on my teaching thus far (some obvious, some perhaps not so obvious).

1) Learn your students’ names.  And use them.  Greet them by name when they walk in the room.  Talk with them before class.  It is incredible how far this goes.  It is tremendously important.

2) Have a sense of humor.  This, to me, is tremendously important.  Levity is a vital part of my teaching.  I want it to be fun, yet helpful.  In the blogging world you wouldn’t know this, but I’m actually quite quick and sharp-witted, so I like to interject various bits of humor into the class, and a bit of improv.  The students seem to find me funny, which is always a plus.  The potential downside to this is if you are genuinely not funny; then this could cost you points!  But I do think jokes, levity are important vectors to my success at teaching.

3) Set high expectations, and hold to them.  Yes, my students find me hilarious.  They also, though, know I am a serious scholar (I must be one because I did the unthinkable . . . . I said the textbook was “wrong” about something!!).  My syllabus is tremendously explicit as to my expectations.  My class will be work.  It will not be easy.  But it will be fair.  And I am glad to be helpful along the way.  I also see my course, since it is composed of 98% freshmen, as an exercise preparing them for the next four years of college and beyond.  If I cut them too much slack I am doing them a disservice.  But again, be fair—impossibly unattainable goals are counter-productive.  For instance, I give quizzes.  POP quizzes.  On any given day they can have a reading quiz.  This keeps them honest with the reading.  It shows I expect they will do the reading.  Similarly, they are doing three brief writing assignments.  I have specific expectations I have outlined clearly there.  So set high expectations.  You will have students who will certain students who will readily meet the challenge, and a great many who will work assiduously towards that goal as well.  This is college; it should be a challenge.

4) Make your expectations CLEAR.  Clarity will only help you out, and your students.

5) In the classroom, don’t lecture from a script.  I do not use lecture notes.  I use powerpoint (though I dislike it very much), but it is helpful to me.  It serves largely as my notes, giving me a prompt upon which I can then expand.  Just think about how tiring it can be to listen to papers at SBL sometimes.  Now imagine undergrads doing that.  So be a dynamic lecturer as best you can.

6) Be mobile in the classroom.  Don’t stand in one spot the whole time.  I’m all over the place when I teach.  Up front, on the side, approaching individual students as they ask questions.  I’m everywhere.  I think it adds something to the class.

7) Let the students realize you are a real person.  This may seem a bit odd to say, but make sure they know a bit about you.  The first day of class this semester I spent half the class covering the syllabus then another half doing an introduction to me.  I included some pictures of me growing up (along with a funny, made up narrative to go along with them), as well as a picture of my wife and son, my time at Duke, a picture of the famous Corn Palace from my home town, etc. 

8 ) Be approachable and welcoming outside of class as well.  Always reply to student emails, promptly, and with respect and proper email form you would expect (though not always get) from them.  And if a student schedules an office visit, be open and helpful.  I try to come out from behind the desk and sit across from them; it balances things out and I think contributes to the comfort.

I am certain there are more, but these are things that are coming to me right now.  So, what do you think?  Surprises?  Clarifications?  Insights?  Additions?  I look forward to hearing them!