tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post9066754221553439856..comments2024-03-15T01:11:32.832-07:00Comments on Bardiac: GraceBardiachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11846065504793800266noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-60314305867051588622012-12-30T19:42:38.149-08:002012-12-30T19:42:38.149-08:00Skype us in :)Skype us in :)Susanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09716705206734059708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-31454117184643159922012-12-30T18:17:01.609-08:002012-12-30T18:17:01.609-08:00I wish I had you two in the classroom to explain s...I wish I had you two in the classroom to explain so much that I don't know about religion!Bardiachttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11846065504793800266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-34548726353522132692012-12-30T13:12:37.379-08:002012-12-30T13:12:37.379-08:00The other thing about the medieval western church ...The other thing about the medieval western church is that it's the Roman church, not the Catholic Church -- as a historian, I try to teach my students that what we think of as Catholicism is created by the Council of Trent, as a reaction to the Reformation. So I try *not* to use the term "Catholic" for the medieval church. <br /><br />It's also amazingly difficult to get them to understand that doctrine and practice are different, and that there is wide regional variation in practice...Susanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09716705206734059708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-91656599109821834732012-12-30T07:14:32.879-08:002012-12-30T07:14:32.879-08:00There are different flavors of Christians, as well...There are different flavors of Christians, as well. I get most kinds at LRU. The Prods are willing to accept (medieval) Catholicism as Different; the Cat-lickers think they know about their own religion when they have No Clue about pre-Vatican II versions; everyone needs constant reminding that the Middle Ages were Before the Reformation, with all that that implies; the occasional Jew or Muslim is way, way, way better at grasping the ramifications of medieval Catholicism. My goal is to get students to think about what it was like to read and write the literature from within the belief system, since there is a huge tendency for everyone to create the medieval Church as a very foreign and monolithic Other, while refraining from revealing my own beliefs. It's a balancing act. As usual, it makes me wish I were a historian and could just teach a course on the medieval Church. Students who think they know something about medieval religion are the worst: their ideas usually come straight from the Da Vinci Code or similar. And, finally, English majors usually never expected to have to think in the ways that pseudology majors expect to. At least at LRU, I suspect that English is a default major for a lot of people with no particular talents who figure that they can at least read and lit crit is a lot of handwavy bullshit anyway.Dame Eleanor Hullhttp://dameeleanorhull.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-88341920438665875112012-12-29T18:28:29.346-08:002012-12-29T18:28:29.346-08:00Dr. K - Bardiac says it well. I too have mostly Ch...Dr. K - Bardiac says it well. I too have mostly Christian (actually mostly Catholic) students. It's hard for me to teach these things without sounding like I'm both advocating the position and am a true believer, and I'm not. Fie upon this quiet life!https://www.blogger.com/profile/12047096700049201873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-80795904133442965572012-12-29T18:01:59.027-08:002012-12-29T18:01:59.027-08:00I think for me the difficulty has to do with the f...I think for me the difficulty has to do with the fact that most of my students identify as Christians. So there's a fair bit of negotiation to get them to understand an older Christian viewpoint without advocating. Something like that.Bardiachttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11846065504793800266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-10390639086925016072012-12-29T17:22:21.741-08:002012-12-29T17:22:21.741-08:00Interesting post. I'm a little surprised to h...Interesting post. I'm a little surprised to hear that it's such a struggle to teach religiously inflected literature from outside that belief system — we pseudologists need to do that on a constant basis. (Although I admit that epics and major works of fiction are a fundamentally different type of literature from pseudological texts.) Is the problem mostly one of getting the students to understand a different worldview driving the plot, or of being sympathetic to the author and his characters without feeling like you're betraying your own beliefs?Dr. Kosharyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07777054788430587906noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-3064081402836457252012-12-29T13:02:16.867-08:002012-12-29T13:02:16.867-08:00Thanks, Dame Eleanor! I don't know it, but I ...Thanks, Dame Eleanor! I don't know it, but I put in a request!Bardiachttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11846065504793800266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-64292998690435679682012-12-29T12:51:09.710-08:002012-12-29T12:51:09.710-08:00Do you know Jill Mann's essay on teaching Chau...Do you know Jill Mann's essay on teaching Chaucer as an atheist? It's in SAC 17 (1995).Dame Eleanor Hullhttp://dameeleanorhull.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-36281430554127526402012-12-29T11:55:30.425-08:002012-12-29T11:55:30.425-08:00YES! I really like the way Kolve put the teaching-...YES! I really like the way Kolve put the teaching-Christian-literature dilemma. I struggled with that a lot this semester in humanities, while teaching Beowulf and The Inferno in particular. I have had less trouble with God in Shakespeare for some reason. I guess it's because I think of Shakespeare as more secular than other people do -- like, he just uses the oaths and such because it's part of the culture, not because he believes in them. But that's just me being secular, and I have nothing to back me up on it. Fie upon this quiet life!https://www.blogger.com/profile/12047096700049201873noreply@blogger.com