Category Archives: Teaching & Learning

SBL Forum: Teaching, Text Criticism, and Texts

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The latest SBL Forum is online and has a number of interesting articles. Stephen Carlson (of hypotyposeis fame) has a preview of his coming SBL presentation on “Archaic Mark” (MS 2427), while Stefan C. Reif introduces some newly discovered Genizah texts. Another announcement in this month’s forum is that the online journal TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism is now an official SBL publication.

What especially caught my eye in this month’s forum was an article by fellow Canadian and friend Tim McLay. Tim wrote a piece entitled “The Goal of Teaching Biblical and Religious Studies in the Context of an Undergraduate Education.” In this article Tim first deals with the goal of an undergraduate education, which he argues is first and foremost “to learn to think critically and to articulate one’s ideas better in oral and written form.” His second and related claim is that “the content of teaching is irrelevant.” While I have a knee-jerk reaction to Tim’s second claim, in the context of his article I can appreciate his point — especially when you think of it in light of his rhetorical question: “How often are we concerned to finish our lecture rather than entertain a question?” While I am not terribly content driven (witness the fact that I used to have a hard time getting out of the Pentateuch in my OT Literature class!), I do feel that a certain amount of content is necessary for the introductory courses. Nevertheless, Tim’s point is well taken as a reminder to be flexible in the classroom.

Perhaps my more substantial objection is to his first point. Isn’t a liberal arts education more than just critical thinking? Don’t get me wrong — the development of critical thinking skills is a crucial component of a liberal arts education — I just think that a liberal arts education should be so much more. What do you think?


The Return of the Gods to Western Culture

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passionate_intellect_sm.jpgLast week Taylor University College hosted Dr. Jens Zimmermann from Trinity Western University as our speaker for our annual Faith & Culture Conference. The theme of this year’s conference was “Incarnational Humanism and the Christian University.” Most of the lectures touched on some aspect of what it means to be a student at a Christian university — many of his thoughts on this subject may be found in his just-published book (with Norman Klassen), The Passionate Intellect: Incarnational Humanism and the Future of University Education (Baker Academic, 2006; Buy from Amazon.ca | Buy from Amazon.com). I would highly recommend this book for students and professors — and not only those at Christian liberal arts universities.

The Thursday night public lecture was on the topic of religion and culture after secularism. In his lecture, entitled “Return of the gods? Faith and Intellectual Culture after Secularism,” Dr. Zimmermann tried to map out some of the concerns about culture currently shared by Christian and non-Christian thinkers and was a parade example of how Christians should think about culture.

In a nutshell, his lecture explored the demise of secularism and the resurgence of spirituality in Western culture. This resurgence is not uniform, nor is it in many cases associated with institutional religion. Rather, it is diverse and frequently appears under the label “spiritualityâ€? in a — sometimes deliberate — attempt to distinguish them from traditional, institutionalized religions. The question that Dr. Zimmerman raised is “What are we to make of this cultural development? More specifically he tackled the basic question of what the supposed exhaustion of secularism and the seemingly related return of religion into the public sphere, even into the very ivory towers of academia, actually means. In the first part of his presentation he described several causes for the demise of secularism and the resurgence of religion. He then tried to formulate a response from a religious, i.e., a broadly Christian perspective; this response is more a reflection on what is at stake in this current cultural development than it is a solution to the tensions we currently experience.

If this summary has piqued your interest, you may download and listen to the lecture for free. Just check out the Taylor Public Lecture Series on Religion & Culture web page here.


Dr. Seuss Learns Greek

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My previous post, “Abbott and Costello Learn Hebrew,” seems to have been a hit, so I thought I would post a reading that I use when I teach Koine Greek. This has its origins in my days as a student at Regent College in Vancouver, B.C. I can’t recall who originally wrote it, but I have had a copy that I have edited through the years.

Feel free to use it with attribution (“Got this from Tyler Williams who got it from someone at Regent College”!). If I find out who wrote the original I will post it. Enjoy.

Dr. Seuss Learns Greek

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Do you like to study Greek?

I do not like to study Greek
Whoever does becomes a geek.

Will you study here? or there?

I will not study here or there
I will not study anywhere.

Would you study in your room?

Not in my room
Not in a tomb
Not here or there
Not anywhere
I do not want to study Greek
I do not want to be a geek.

Would you study at a table?
Would you, would you, if you’re able?

I will not study at a table,
I will not study, though I’m able
I do not like that Greek you see
At college or at seminary
I do not want to study Greek
I do not want to be a geek.

Would you study in the rain?
Would you like to use your brain?

Not in the rain
Not with my brain
Stop please stop
Don’t ask again

Would you, could you on term break?
Do it for the gospel’s sake?

I will not do it on term break
Not even for the gospel’s sake
I do not like to memorize
Those funny letters hurt my eyes
Not in the rain
Not with my brain
Not at a table
Though I’m able
Not in my room
Not in a tomb
Not here or there
Not anywhere
I do not want to study Greek
I do not want to be a geek.

You may like it, you will see
Try studying Greek in a tree.

I would not, could not in a tree
Not on term break
Quit bugging me!
What?! Use my brain?
Not at a table
Though I’m able
Not in my room
Not in a tomb
Not here or there
Not anywhere
I do not want to study Greek
I do not want to be a geek.

Take Greek this term
Without apology
Drop Systematic Theology

Perhaps for you, but not for me
Greek isn’t practical, you see
I’d rather learn to fix transmissions
I’m a candidate for missions

Would you take it in the summer?
Six weeks of verbs won’t make you dumber
You might like the paradigms
Repeating lists five thousand times

I would not, could not in the summer
For six whole weeks–what a bummer!
I will not drop another class
My GPA!! I might not pass
I will not study Greek at all
Not in summer, not in fall

You don’t like Greek
That’s what I’m hearing

You won’t get lost!
That’s what I’m fearing!

Could you not learn three small words?

Not three
Not two
Not even one
Too much pain
Not much gain
Against my grain

Do you think Greek is for the birds?

Not for birds, perhaps for nerds
I will not learn it
It ain’t fun
Not three, not two
Not even one
I will not study Greek at all
Not in summer, not in fall
I’d rather take Christology
Or Gypsy Numerology
Not in the rain
Not with my brain
I will not study in a tree
Get off my case and let me be!
Not at a table
Though I’m able
Not in my room
Not in a tomb
Not here or there, not anywhere
I do not want to study Greek
I do not want to be a geek.

You do not like it, so you say
Try it, try it, and you may
Try it and you may, I say

O.K., if you will let me be
I will try it, watch and see
Λεγω, λεγεις, λεγει, λεγομεν
I can’t do this stuff — Amen!

Say it again
Forget “amen”
You will do better
If you say each letter

Λεγετε, λεγει, λεγεις, λεγω
I think I’ve got it!
Do you think so?

Now you’ve got it!
You’re on your way
A Bible scholar
Some future day
Without a dollar
And hair all grey
If you pass Greek intro
To Greek exegesis you will go
And if you really want some fun
You can take Greek until you’re done
Then it’s Hebrew
I will teach you

Λεγετε, λεγω, λεγεις, λεγει
Those few verbs and I’m on my way
Learning Greek is so much fun
Barely started, and I’m almost done
Now I’ll learn those paradigms
Repeat vocab a million times
Cards on a ring
Will be my thing
In the summer, in the fall
I’ll do it any time at all
I’ll switch Greek for other classes
No one hits a geek with glasses
I will study in a tree
Now I know Greek is for me
I will do a PhD
I will study on term break
Greek will be a piece of cake
I will study in the rain
Let conjugations fill my brain
I will study at a table
Learn the aorist since I’m able
I will study in my room
Morning, night and afternoon
I will study here and there
I will study EVERYwhere
I do so love to study Greek
I will be a first class geek!


Beloit’s Mindset List – How About One for Canadians?

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Beloit College in the USA publishes a “Mindset List” at the begining of every academic year that claims to look “at the cultural touchstones that have shaped the lives of today’s first-year students.” This year’s list may be found here. Even better, take a look at Chris Heard’s commentary on the list here.

The list is (naturally) very American.  It would be interesting to compose a list that would fit the Canadian context, eh?  Any takers? Suggestions?


Teaching Classical Hebrew

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I will be teaching Introduction to Classical Hebrew again this year. I have almost ten years experience teaching Hebrew and I can say that I still love teaching it! For my introductory course am going to use Kittel’s text, which is now in its second edition:

Biblical Hebrew: Text and Workbook, Second Edition.
Bonnie Pedrotti Kittel, Vicki Hoffer, Rebecca Wright
New Haven: Yale, 2005. Buy from Amazon.ca | Buy from Amazon.com

While I have a number of issues with this text, including the fact that the second edition is only a negligible improvement over the first (if even that), I still find it the best for introducing undergrads to the language of the Hebrew Bible. I like its inductive approach, though I do augment it with a series of more deductive handouts to give students the “big picture” before the text actually provides it. I have developed a number of resources for teaching introductory Hebrew with Kittel and most of them are available on my “Resources for Kittel” page. I also have a discussion of introductory Hebrew grammars available here.

In regards to Classical Hebrew grammars, Joe Cathay has a good blog post where he surveys some Hebrew grammars. I pretty much agree with Joe, though I have never found LaSor that helpful. I’m also not sure that when it comes to grammars there are only “basic” and “advanced.” While there is some truth to the notion that learning Hebrew is an “either/or” proposition, I see an important role for intermediate grammars.

Intermediate grammars are helpful for students to make the jump from the basic understanding of the language gained in a one-year introductory course to being able to understand the discussions in GKC, Joüon and Muraoka, or Waltke & O’Connor. There are two different types of intermediate grammars: those that focus on developing reading ability with some attention to matters of morphology and syntax (I would put Ben Zvi’s grammar in this category); and those that provide a summary discussion of the advanced grammars (I would put Arnold and Choi, Williams, and van der Merwe in this category). While the taxonomy of “introductory – intermediate – advanced” may not be ideal, I still prefer it to Joe’s (too) two broad categories of “basic – advanced.”

You can see my discussion of intermediate and advanced Hebrew grammars on my “Annotated Bibliography for Mastering Biblical Hebrew” page.

Finally, Michael Bird over at Euangelion posted on teaching resources. In regards to Hebrew one article (among many) that I found quite helpful in my thinking about how to teach Classical Hebrew is an article by David W. Baker called “Studying the Original Texts: Effective Learning and Teaching of Biblical Hebrew” in Make the Old Testament Live: From Curriculum to Classroom, edited by Richard S. Hess and Gordon J. Wenham (Eerdmans, 1998; Buy from Amazon.ca | Buy from Amazon.com).

All my online Biblical Hebrew resources may be found here.