I'm taking a few courses on campus this summer, in between interning at Jacob's Well and flying back and forth to Red Lodge to keep an eye on Bridge Creek. I actually had my first class last weekend: Media & Technology in Religious Education. I was glad to have a chance to finally take a class from Mary Hess. She's been a fresh voice for some time at Luther and though she's a Roman Catholic, she holds her own in this very Lutheran setting. I find myself drawn to the non-Lutheran faculty I've encountered and I wonder if they are held to a higher standard of theological rigor and teaching ability than their Lutheran colleagues. Either way, it must be a difficult setting to be non-Lutheran.The 12 hours of class time last weekend condensed 18 hours of material over 1.5 days. I was impressed with the collection of resources that Mary drew upon in her presentations and did a great job facilitating the discussions from a fairly diverse student body. In particular, I was impressed with thoughts on the power of social media in Here Comes Everybody, a book by NYU Professor Clay Shirky. It should be no surprise that one of the assignments for this class is to do some blogging and I'll be posting a few comments about Shirky's book as well as thoughts on the other topics the class covered.
So congratulations dear readers, Mary has gotten me back to work on my blog. You can blame her for all that is to come in the days ahead.
Happy to be a "nudge" to get you blogging again!
ReplyDeletePeter,
ReplyDeleteIt was great to share that class experience with all of you. I just wanted to echo your thoughts on our educational opportunities being enhanced by differing theological perspectives. I too appreciated Mary's perspective as well as many of the other professors and students at Luther. Being a Methodist myself it was a very intentional deisioin on my part to attend a school outside of my own denominational affiliations. I think our faith journey is enriched when we take a moment to appreciate the other perspective and to listen to the other voice. Thanks again for the class time together, and I hope that this renewed journey in blogging finds you well.