Class in the Chapel

When we were talking about the ideas of free will and if god really does have a set plan for all of us i realized that that is one of my fundamental issues with christianity. I have found myself slowly becoming more and more interested in christianity but i keep wondering about the whole role of god. I mean so many people believe that either god has plans for everyone or than he doesnt and that we have free will but god watches over us. I sorta like both those ideas but i want something more concrete almost. I just want to know what really is the deal with god? Does he have a plan for us all or is it more a rough draft and we are the ones the edit it to make the final version and when we die and supposedly go to heaven is it then that god gives us a grade on our final life draft? Just some things i have been pondering.

Monday's Class

I really enjoyed the visiting professor that came on monday. I thought that he gave a lot of new information about that bible that I wasnt really informed about. I thought it was especially cool when he showed us the images of the remains of different manuscripts. It made me a lot more interested in the restoration of these different texts. When he mentioned that some of the texts were omitted from the bible during the time of constantine was also very interesting, I had no idea that the texts that were included were decided by a small group of men that constantine had chosen. I now wonder if christianity would be very different if the texts that were omitted has been included in the text.

Writing Style

I have found that the writing style of the New Testament is very different than that of the Old Testament, I don't know if anyone else has found this to be true? It keep feeling as though I'm reading a contemporary story instead of an extremely old text. This could be attributed to the translation of the text but it just seems to flow differently than the old testament. The old testament read slightly slower and kept having a genealogical element to it that the new testament does not have. Does the mean that the teachings of Jesus valued less one's family history than the Jews did? I have found that that main family references are that Jesus is the son of God and thats about it. Does the difference in writing style have anything to do with trying to stray away from the Jewish text and to try and differentiate it? Or is it just the time that it was written in and this is the style?

Sura 4:1

I really enjoyed our conversation class today about the different meanings of the arabic words that are part of the sura. It is clear that in the quran the authors incorporate feminine word meanings as there way of including women in the quran. I think because this way of incorporating women in to the quran makes it harder to clearly see a womans role and it can be interpreted as women are not included at all, which is clearly not the truth.

Shouldnt Grandma get to study the torah too?

In the last week as we read about the roles of women in both the bible and jewish culture I found it slightly disturbing that there is such a disparity between men and women when it comes to learning about torah. Stereotypes of judaism are always about the role of the jewish mother. She nags you, feeds you too much, never likes your boyfriend (unless he is from a good jewish family), uses the mothers guilt, is nosey. These are all stereotypes of jewish mothers that I have heard, however the role of the mother in the family life of jews seems to be very important if there are so many stereotypes about them. I have found that generally something does not get a stereotype if it does not make a lasting impression, well it seems to me that women of the jewish faith have left an impression

I was stunned during the scene in the film that we watched when all the women were praying at the wall in Jerusalem and men were protesting them and yelling for them to leave. I would think that these men would want the women that they value so much to be able to have the same experience as they do with the torah. It seems as if it is a selfish thing one is doing to deny women the right to study the torah, did these men ever think that they may have been getting the analysis wrong all these years? And that a woman may shine some new light on the study? Rejecting women and separating them during certain services and studies only perpetuates old world sexism and male hierarchy. I mean if a man loves his bubbie so much wouldn't he want her to be able to connect with the torah as he has?

The Ten Commandments and Laws

After reading the ten commandments and the other laws that are given in the torah, to me it is much like a reading a handbook for a lifestyle than anything else. Many of the laws are about creating a "meal" so to speak so that it is holy in the eyes of God, as well as rules about governing ones self with others. These laws seem like guidelines as to how to be holy in the eyes of God and make ones self like him (which in the end is the ultimate goal I guess). However, the thing about these laws is that they can be very hard to follow at times. I mean when you are growing up its hard to not want to disrespect your parents (its a natural tendency I think for most), it also seems like the laws are challenges for the israelites to see if they can really live up to the image of God. The laws may seem simple but when you look closely at ones day to day life, I think that it would be really hard to constantly follow the ten commandments!