The Brick Testament is an interesting website.  I wonder if parental discretion is advised.  Some of the pictures are too suggestive.

I looked at several pages in our project.  The ones I’ve seen looked very interesting and thoughtful.  It shows indeed that people worked very hard to make our project come through.  I like the Archeaology page; it has a lot of visuals.  We’ve also added a few pictures in the history page. 

I also learnt a great deal from the Rhetorical and Form Criticism page.  I like the reference the unknown “Source” behind Matthew and Luke.  This page deals among other things with the “Sign of Jonah”.  Much like the sermons on Jonah that we wrote in our History page, Matthew and Luke used the Book of Jonah to advance or promote their agenda, which was to elevate Jesus.  It fits very nicely with what we did in our part of project:  the page on History.  It also supports the idea of what the purpose of a sermon is; mainly, to advance someone’s agenda.

Another interesting page was the one on Ethics.  This page was a well researched and thoughtful essay about Ethics in the Western World.  The links on the exercise at the end of the page are very creative.  I clicked on several links to find out where it would lead me, but I did not try all of them due to lack of time.

I also read the Literature page about four weeks ago.  What I like best about this page is the way it vividly retells the story of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from Paradise and the way it talks about Milton incorporating some elements of classical mythology in his work Paradise Lost.

I agree that Dan's edit is a good one; I have no qualms about the SAVAGE BUTCHERY of my writing.  (Does sarcasm work on the internet?  I hope the CAPS LOCK implies that I'm joking around...).

I added a more thoughtful and (I hope) evocative paragraph to the "Bible as a Sacred Text" section, because what we had there seemed a bit weak.  I shift to the first-person for a moment, which I think is fitting (considering the idea I am trying to get across there).  If it seems too jarring, please say so.

Oh, and I revamped the Ethics section (now there's a map of the different choice-trees!)  If you haven't already, give it a look!

Chris, thanks for writing a nice introduction to our project. 

I also decided to post my two cents worth to our introductory page.  This is the history section that Fay, Veronica and I did.  To everyone, please feel free to modify it as needed. 

I guess this is mostly in response to Davina's post... I think that a passage from the OT and a passage from the NT would be a great way to approach this, looking at the Fall and then at redemption. (For me personally, it would be interesting because I'm not very familiar with the NT and would be really interested in exploring it more.) This also opens the possibility to tie in the transdisciplinary speakers we have heard so far. Just for the past three (and I'm sure we can tie in those to come), we can look at the texts themselves, the language used in both and how it compares, contrasts, has evoloved; both the Fall story and most of the NT are really adaptable to archeological interpretation since much has been done in placing "the Garden" and I'm pretty sure most of the NT as well; and as for ethics, we can have a field day with the ideas of the Fall and redemption and how people incorporate these ideas into their own ethics, as well as how the ethics that have arisen from these ideas still shape everything from interpersonal relationships to politics.

That's my shpiel for now. Basically it is in support of choosing an OT and a NT passage to focus on, although of course we could branch out and mention other parts of the Bible in our examinations of them. Good day =) 

I really agree with the idea of deciding on a specific biblical text which we then investigate tangents relating to it.  This would give us all the opportunity to focus on an area of specific interest to us individually and/or as a small group.

I too am fairly inept technologically speaking, but am willing to learn.  However, for this project to involve any more technology than we are currently using, I would definitely need others to take the lead!

I too think this will be a lot of fun once we have decided on a specific topic.

See you Monday,

Tricia

“a study in tangents” – a fine (and concise) way to explain a text annotation project! Such a project would help us keep the biblical text(s) at the center of our investigations while at the same time providing members of the class the opportunity to contribute depending on specific research areas and interests. This kind of project has my vote!

As for the physical manifestation of our collaborative efforts, a website has been mentioned; this medium does provide a wealth of possibilities. We could have links to the annotations and to various critical essays that aim to explore specific interconnections more in-depth. Depending on which book(s) of the bible we choose as our primary text(s), we could have links to essays that investigate:

- “Historical background and contexts”

- “Literary connections” - this could include essays on thematic parallels between the biblical text and a secondary literary text(s)

- “Political or ethical implications”

- “Modern perspectives”

- “Translation and interpretations” - this could include essays that explore the biblical text in detail using a particular critical approach

This is just to name a few examples. Again the possibilities are endless!

I do have to admit that I don’t know the first thing about building a website – but hey, I’m willing to learn as much as I can. Admittedly, I have only the most rudimentary knowledge of the internet. I know how to surf, download some stuff, and check e-mail. That’s about it. And there may be other technophobes with similar concerns. But if there are those with expertise in that area – wonderful! If a website seems too intimidating or complicated, we could consider a wiki and organize our material (annotations, critical essays, cool images that will make our project aesthetically appealing) under a series of headings and sub-headings.

Let’s do try to decide in the near future (before Monday hopefully) what we want our project to look like and what we want to accomplish with it. I think coming to a consensus on these areas will help us all rest a little easier. Then we can begin to consider which biblical texts we might want to work with and figure out how we may all make our unique contribution. And, if we so decide, we can begin to think about the formation of small groups.

You know what? I’m actually looking forward to working on this.