Pedagogical

My new word for the day:  Pedagogical.  I began my 8:00 AM Old Testament class today.  Thank goodness Professor/Dr. Lemone is engaging and commical.  He used the word Pedogical at least 10 times.  I broke the rules of not being on the internet to quickly google the word from my phone.  If he is using it that many times it must be an important word.  What does it mean?  Well here is a sentence it was used in loosely quoted:  "There will be great pedogical benefit for you to have the Eerdmens dictionary of the bible sitting right with your Bible."  See what you come up with readers......I want you to have to look as well.  Part of our grade from this class will come through doing 2 facebook posts a week.  How about that? 

My classes actually began yesterday with an elective I'm taking called Communalism in America.  It too was a great experience.  A funny encounter happened prior to the class as I sat outside.  I was approached by another 1st year student who asked me why I wanted to take this class.  I shared with her my desire to bring the church back to the community.  She then told me she had no idea why she was taking the class.  She went onto to tell me of her experience of researching a communal community and how she had to stop her study of them because she is just too conservative for that.  She stated for her Jesus is the only way to God and continued to talk about her conservative views.  I just sat and smiled.  She is a very nice and engaging lady full of enthusiasm.  I chuckled inside knowing that she was talking to someone whom she would probably view as quite liberal though I don't like the defining myself with such labels.  The story gets funnier.  We had to go around the class and introduce ourselves, our denominational affiliation and any experience we have had with community or what resonated with us about this course.  The very first student's response was that she had found community with the GLBT community.  Talk about polar opposites in the same class.  The class was about 1/3 white, 1/3 African American, and 1/3 international.  There were Pentecostals, Methodists, Presbyterians and catholics represented.  At break the "conservative" girl exclaimed her shock at how diverse the class was.  I shared with her that Emory's reputation for diversity is what drew me there and I was surprised she was surprised by the diversity.  It was a great exchange.  This past Sunday at Longs Chapel Chuck shared the story of the calling of both Simon and Matthew as disciples.  Simon, a zealot with little use for tax collectors and Matthew a tax collector.  Polar opposites chosen by Jesus to live life together.  Perhaps this lady is my Simon and I, her Matthew.  We shall see.  The best quote from this class by the professor was "you need to read religion and sexuality all the way through and do not skim it, a book about sex is not something you want to skim for you might miss something."    I also learned of the L'arche communities in this class and am intrigued to learn more. 

Today I also had my first history of Methodism class and history 501:  Introduction to Christian Thought.  I learned of some new resources.  Met some more people and came home with hundreds of pages of reading to do before I return on Tuesday. 

I'm home: tired and full but excited to discover the pedagogical benefits of this journey.