Scholarly Religion

One of the courses I am taking this semester is Studies in Hebrew Scriptures.  It's an online class (just like my 3 other classes), and I figured it would be an interesting class to take in order to fill my upper-division elective requirement. From what I can tell, there are 14 students in the class.  Of that 14, 10 have proclaimed to be born-again Christians who seem to be approaching this course as "bible study for credit".

I attend a large public university; and without a doubt, such institutions will always have a religious Christian contingency. WVU would probably have a higher than average amount. Just by looking at the roster of religious clubs on campus will attest to that. But I have had little (no?) interaction with that side of the collegiate populace. When I was on campus and in Hillel, religion seemed to be not so important to us. The majority of the members were Conservative, and I was Reform -- but there were no theological discussions about why we were what we were. We had a very abbrieviated service on Friday night and holiday parties, and that was it. We focused on the fact that we were all Jewish and hung out and that was that.

The course only began on Monday, so there have only been 2 days of introductions and discussions.  Already I see a stark contrast in how religious Christians (like my classmates) and religious Jews talk about G-d. First of all, they use the word "love" a lot ("I love the L-rd"; "Ilove reading the Bible", etc.). I also notice that they refer the Creator also as a person -- as a friend -- or maybe even a lover, by saying things like, "He has stood by me through thick and thin" or "Jesus has turned my life around". I find this very interesting. And I also realize that there are a great many Jews who feel this way (in fact, Chassidus is centered on a "feeling" relationship with G-d). Yet it is still very different...and I can't quite put my finger on exactly what it is. My cursory conclusion is these particular religious Christians (no one revealed their denomination...but I'm pretty confident they are all Protestant) see G-d (and Jesus, at his right-hand side in heaven I guess) as the puppetmaster who is controlling the world. Whereas Jews take on a personal responsibility for maintaining the proper order of the world by doing their part of maintaining their covenant with G-d.

The following is from the class syllabus:

In this course the student will be able to:

1. Recognize and identify important people and events throughout Israel’s ancient history. 
2. Understand the historical, cultural, and religious settings behind the Hebrew Scriptures. 
3. Analyze the impact major events and people had on the life and faith of Israel.
4. Develop a deeper understanding of at least one Old Testament book. 
5. Evaluate how various theological concepts have shaped Israel, her existence, and her thought.
6. Compare, contrast, and critique ideas through collaborative learning.

Here you can see that in theory, someone should be able to objectively approach the course material to accomplish these goals.  Yet I get the feeling that this focus on the "Old Testament" may conjure up some discussions that will invariably lead the "...this is what I believe..." sort of discussions. We'll have to see.