My thoughts on the class so far are better than I thought they would be. One thing I would definitely have to say is thank God the teacher has a sense of humor, or else the class would be really difficult to make it through. I am a Christian and I do attend church usually on a weekly basis. However, I am not really all that interested in analyzing and critiquing the Bible. (I hope that doesn’t make me a bad person.) Even with this said, I am going to work hard in this class so that I can make a good grade, and hopefully I will take away more than what I bargained for.
My expectations of this class are to learn more about the background of the Bible and become a better writer. Although I am not very pleased with the fact that we have to blog 1000 words a week, I know that it will help me with my writing, which is certainly something I can use some help with. Also, by learning the background of the Bible, I believe that it will help me to understand better the things I learn about in Church. The only reason I am taking this course is because it is a part of the core curriculum at Xavier University. If this class was not a requirement, I would definitely not add it to my schedule. Nevertheless, I do want to make the best of this class and be happy at the end of the semester that I took it.
I attended a Catholic high school and there I was required to take four years of Religion. But I still do not have a very strong background in the Bible. I do believe the Bible should be a crucial part of every Christian’s life because this is how God communicates to us. I think Biblical Studies enhances Christians’ understanding of the Bible, but I do not think that it should be a requirement for all Christians. However, Biblical Studies can absolutely be helpful to some.
For a professional vacation, I would like to go somewhere that would advance me in my studies. Because my major is Chemistry (Pre-Pharmacy), I do not think this class has anything to do with this. If I was a Theology major, this class would unquestionably have something to do with my professional vacation. I could go to Jerusalem or somewhere in that vicinity to learn more about my interest of studies.
I can definitely follow the course commitments. I vow to not be one of the students who don’t show up to class when it rains. I will buy an umbrella and make use of it. Although it is very hard for me to wake up in the morning, I will make every effort to make it to class on time. It is also very important that I do so because I don’t want to be marked absent and get an FE in the class. I do realize that you try to make the class interesting and I definitely thank you for that because Theology really isn’t the most exciting class offered at Xavier University. Last but not least, I will not cheat or plagiarize because I am aware of the seriousness of those offenses.
586 BCE is a key event in the Bible because it was the year when the Babylonians laid siege to the city of Judah. This event is described in the book Lamentations, which is also known as the “sad book”, of the Bible. The author of Lamentations is supposedly Jeremiah (the weeping prophet). In this book, Jerusalem was first a very popular city, and then it became a vassal (or a lower nation) and became very lonely. It was split into two parts: Israel (the northern part) and Judah (the southern part). Israel only lasted until 722 BCE, while Judah lasted until 586 BCE. Judah’s lot was bitter, which predicted bad fortune. Everyone believed that Yahweh, the God of ancient Israel, made Judah suffer because of all the bad things that was happening there. In 586 BCE, this bad fortune finally caught up with Judah. The Babylonians attacked the city and tortured the people for days. It was said that the people in Sodom were better of than the people in Judah because God destroyed it in one day, however, Judah’s people had done so much bad, God really had it out for them so He made them suffer. People were starving. The women were so hungry that they were eating their children.
While there are many specific parallels to the horrific scenes described in Lamentations and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, the main parallel that sticks out to me is the fact that people suffered for a really long time. When the Babylonians attacked Judah, the attack did not just last for one day. It was a long, carried out process. Even though Hurricane Katrina happened in one day, its effects are still present two years later. Many people are still living in trailers; many have not been able to return home. People had to completely uproot their lives and move away from what they called home for all their lives. A second parallel is the fact that many people starved for days. In Lamentations, the Babylonians didn’t allow the people of Judah to eat. In New Orleans, people could not eat because there was no food. Homes were flooded so they could not really wade through water to get home and cook a meal. A third parallel, and probably the most significant, is that many, many people died. The deaths of all these people could have been avoided in both situations. In Judah, if the Babylonians were not such cruel people, they could have spared all of those peoples’ lives. In New Orleans, if the government would have responded in a quicker fashion, many people would not have starved to death and died from other causes that could very much have been prevented.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 at 7:55 pm and is filed under Week 01: Background. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.