Friday, January 21, 2011
What Do I Ask?
I have a feeling other students are having this problem but I'll just stick with using myself as an example. I haven't participated a whole lot during class discussions and today I realized that it might be because I don't really know what to say. I'm not sure what to ask because (this is going to sound weird) I don't really know how I'm supposed to be thinking. When I read what is assigned in this class the questions I come up with seem like questions I would ask my mother or this pastor I study with. Similarly to how during last semester it took us a little while to get used to the Illiad, I guess I need to get used to looking at the Bible and religion from whatever angle I'm supposed to be looking at them from. The problem is I don't know what that angle is. I guess this is actually directed at Dr. Levine but I'm sure anyone in the class who understands what's going on can help me out too.
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Troy, you should ask from whatever angle that seems important to you. There is no one right or wrong way to frame a question. My job, as today, is to distinguish for you between the kinds of questions and expectations that religious expectations would bring to the text from the kinds of expectations and approaches a historian would bring to the text--and hence the different answers the different approaches would bring about. There is no right or wrong approach here--but the two approaches are different fundamentally between what they expect the words on the page to be able to answer. My goal is to make you aware of the difference in the approaches, not to pass judgment or rule on which is right or wrong. I see a question from either angle as a great opportunity to point out the (real) differences between the two approaches and the answers each yields so as to make you aware of the real differences between the two ways of reading.
ReplyDeleteTo sum up the difference, history looks for change over time, religion elides change and looks for continuities..that was at the heart of the different interpretation of the 'no other gods' phrase.
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