This post is only going out to my HardCore posse. I’m just testing a YouTube embedding code that I read about to remove “related videos” and remove the external YouTube link. Let’s see if it works!
John Dominic Crossan: Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography.
ETA: It does – yay!
OK, adding another to test:
I’m nearly caught up with grading again. Always amazing how it seems to run away from me. But I stayed at work until after 5 yesterday grading tests that were beginning to smell they were so old. And I got a few other things graded today which had been molding. The trick is to now stay on top of things. (I think I should stop assigning round things since it’s harder to stay on top of round things than flat things…)
My latest DVD watching has been Into the Labyrinth. I loved this show as a kid and became a Ron Moody fan because of it. I always enjoyed the various “characters” he played in the series. It was a number of years later that I discovered that there was more than one season of the show. Thanks to the DVD set, I have begun watching season 2. Amazing to think that the visuals were even worse in season 2, but Ron still gets to dress in cool costumes, so I figure I’ll enjoy season 2. Season 3 doesn’t have him, but at least it still has Phil Church (one of the kids who help Moody’s character – and the cute one that I had a crush on as a kid). Oh, and Pamela Salem (Belor) will also be there to chew the scenery, so I’ll probably have fun with season 3.
One thing that I’ve decided is that it’s fun to watch early 80s British children’s television programming on a widescreen high def TV. Heh heh. (Almost seems a waste of all that high tech-ness, but I love the irony.)
I’ve been helping dad with some YouTube videos for Westar. So far I’ve edited two short excerpts and uploaded them, though I may have to work on the second one. The sound on it didn’t come out too well. Feel free to check out the clips. The first is of Elaine Pagels talking about the origin of Satan and the second (with the crappy sound) is Karen Armstrong talking about “what is religion?”
My superintendent had seen a neat animated clock on one of the other schools’ websites and asked if we’d be able to put a clock and/or weather thingy on our website. So I looked into finding standards compliant, handicapped accessible, ad-free (or non-obvious) solutions. And I think I got it. The clock is basically a live clock of your own PC rather than a world-time clock (those were all ad-laden that I could find). I found that Weather Underground had the least-obvious advertising weather stickie, so included that as well. (Their own page, like so many other weather pages, is chock-full o’ ads. If only the National Weather Service had widgets like that – they’re ad free.)
I’ve been busy and I hope to spend some quality time tomorrow working on college stuff. My task for tomorrow? Write about astrology and how it’s not a science. Should be fun. As per the assignment, I’m going to suggest feng shui as another example of a pseudo-science. (I love the Penn & Teller: BS episode on Feng Shui and bottled water.)
The folks and I got back from Indianapolis yesterday afternoon. Leo was pleased to see me (and had been upset that I’d left – he left 3 statements for me to that effect – yuk!) We had a nice time meeting up with Ed Beutner and Bernard Brandon Scott and another of the Westar Scholars, Perry something or other. (I’m bad with names.) Very nice fellow, Perry. Ed spoke at his church’s Sunday School, so we went there and to the service afterwards. First time I’d been in a Methodist service since I was a kid and dad was a Methodist preacher. It was, um, formal. But the church was very friendly and is an open and affirming church. I love that in a church.
Anyhoo, during the Friday and Saturday workshops, I took notes. (On my PDA – heh heh – in between solitaire games. Hey, it keeps me awake and keeps me quiet.)
Found on a bumper sticker Brandon saw: “Due to budget cuts, the light at the end of the tunnel will be turned off.”
Joke from Ed: “Did you hear the one about the dyslexic paranoid? He was always afraid he was following someone.”
Some thoughts on parables:
“We don’t learn about parables, we learn from them.” – Brandon (IIRC)
The questions you should ask about parables: “How does it sound? How does it feel? How does it fit?” – Ed
Don’t ask what a parable means – that’s a Hellenistic way of looking at an aural story telling technique.
Parables are not for children.
(And after he said that, Brandon added that he thought at church “we should entertain the children and educate the adults” but we seem to do the reverse.)
Some other thoughts:
“God is nowhere absent and everywhere hidden.” – Ed
“Constantine turned Christianity from a religion of what you do into a religion of what you believe.” – Brandon
There were a few more notes that I’d taken, but I think those above are the cream of the crop. I liked what the fellows had to say. And it’s neat hearing about parables from a strict scholar (Brandon) and from a poet who’s also a scholar (Ed). Brandon admitted that it’s hard for scholars to not look at a parable and try to figure out what it means. But for a poet like Ed, he sticks to how does it sound, how does it feel, and how does it fit.
Guess where I am right now?
Well, if you guessed “sitting in your den,” you’d usually be right. But today, I’m sitting in the lobby of the Hilton in Fort Wayne, IN. I would be sitting in our hotel room, but the 802.11b signal is so poor in the room I can get an IP addy and that’s it. No connection to the WWW. So I have a couple of hours to veg before we go out to dinner and I decided to come down to the lobby. Alas, there is cigarette smoke going on nearby and that’s annoying, but other than that, there’s nice classical music playing and no one’s around except for a few fellow geeks who are here because of some gaming convention.
My folks and I, however, have come to the Big City of Fort Wayne (well, it’s bigger than I expected) in order to attend a Jesus Seminar on the Road (JSoR). This is my first JSoR, though my parents have been attending them since 2000 or so. We’ve got Bernard Brandon Scott and Daryl Schmidt as our scholars for this JSoR, which happen to be the same two scholars that mom and dad saw at their first JSoR. Who’da thunk that 5 years later, dad would be chairing his own Seminar for Westar? He was even introduced before lunch as the leader of the Church Leaders Seminar and got to pass out his business card to a few folks.
We left Ohio yesterday after dad and I returned from our technology meeting at El Sombrero restaurant. We picked mom up, and our luggage (and I fed Leo for 2 days – poor kitty has surely eaten all his food by now), and headed off to Fort Wayne. We dumped our stuff in our room, then headed off find supper. We walked to a Tasty King Gyro near the hotel and I had a gyro with feta, plus fries and lemonade. Very yummy. After supper, it was off to the Unitarian Universalist church which is hosting this JSoR.
Last night was Brandon’s night to shine. He discussed how the Jesus Seminar works and talked some of first century Christianity and who (or what) was likely to be the founder of Christianity. Daryl helped out during the question/answer session. And I enjoyed listening to the critical historical views that both discussed. For several people in the audience, much of what they said was new (and radical). For me, having listened to dad’s sermons of late, it was just neat to see other perspectives. I’m used to radical thinking about the Bible in general and Jesus specifically, so I wasn’t surprised by anything either scholar said.
After the discussion, we returned to our room and I played around on my laptop (unconnected to the ‘Net, but still functional for playing around with the school website). I discovered that with Dreamweaver, I can have nested Templates. Yay! I’ll be able to have the high school and elementary pages based upon the main district site, but with added stuff. That makes me happy. 🙂 (What’s so nice about templates in Dreamweaver is, if you update the template, it updates every page based upon the update!)
This morning, we headed off to McDonald’s for breakfast (Egg McMuffin for me – yum!) and then on to the UU church. This church, BTW, is very modern. It’s based upon a hyperbolic parabaloid and was built in the ’50s. (Actually, it’s two hyperbolic paraboloids – one for the sanctuary, one for the meeting hall.) They have some beautiful leather artwork on the walls depicting several religious cultures, and a huge piece with the UU Chalice. Father’s taken some photos, so maybe I’ll post some pictures later.
The morning workshop was put on by both Daryl and Brandon and covered the scholarly take on Jesus and his words and actions in the first century. Again, I’d heard a lot of this before from dad’s work with Westar, but I liked what they had to say. They take a somewhat scientific approach to the data available to them (which, frankly, isn’t a lot) which includes all of the original texts from the canon and also the noncanon texts from the period. They’ve retranslated everything as slowly as they can, doing their best to keep the context of the time in mind. Scholars would then present papers on the various snippets they translated, and the Seminar would then vote on how likely it was that this was valid. I like the peer review process that they take. And they allow that what they have is changeable should the data change.
For lunch, we found an Arby’s not too far from the church and I had a Market Fresh Sandwich (love that bread) with chicken salad in it (with apples, grapes, and pecans – yum!) I also had their fries, which aren’t all that great, but they were edible and that’s what mattered.
The afternoon session was the most free flowing of their sessions and often relied upon the questions asked. Brandon mentioned his take on the Kingdom of God, which Jesus often alluded to, as being a “Safe Place” when all were gathered together. When one sat at the table with Jesus, one was safe. Lepers, tax collectors, women, etc. Brandon likened it to a church community that he attends, which is mostly gay and lesbian. When they are gathered at the church, they can be themselves. They are safe in the Kingdom of God. When they leave, not so much. 🙁 It’s a take on the concept I’d not thought of before, but I like the idea.
Anyhoo, tonight the folks and I are going to supper with the two scholars, the Westar associate who set this up, and the UU minister and his wife. We found the restaurant before coming back to the hotel (while it was still light) and it’s pretty easy to get to and get back from. Good, that means I can have an amaretto sour or two. (The folks will probably have wine. Oh, and judiang I’m hoping to ask Daryl if he knows of a US equivalent to Granello. The folks say he’s something of a wine expert among the Fellows of the Westar Institute.)
While driving around today, the folks and I were struck by just how beautiful the trees are. This was the PERFECT fall weekend to come to Fort Wayne. For a “big city” they have lots of small town feel to it. And many MANY trees. We’ve really enjoyed the trip so far, and dinner tonight and Brandon preaching tomorrow, should complete the enjoyable weekend. (And then I come home to a hungry cat and laundry which needs doing – heh).