Reflections on a New Semester

Just finished the last class of the first week of a whole new semester and I’m feeling really good about it. Not like last semester with over 350 students for the first half and ca. 90 for the second. I am NEVER teach overload courses again!

Vote for my kittie!

MY ATTITUDE TOWARDS LAST TERM.

This time around I have only two courses both with well under 20 students! HORRAY!

Nope, this semester is NOT going to play any tricks on me. I may not have the bull by the horns, but then, I don’t think I’ve got a tiger by the tail, either. I’ve almost got the mouse by the scruff of the neck, though, and that’s something!

Vote for this kitteh too!

My Hebrew Bible class seems to be a lot of fun. Some clever folks and a good atmosphere. I’m using Collins’ A Short Introduction to the Hebrew Bible for the first time.

My other course is fourth year seminar called “Myth and Religious Innovation”.I’m really excited  about it. Here’s the blurb.

This course will look at the intersection of myth and religion change, the processes of creating mythology and mythologizing history, events, power structures etc., as societies evolve. Consideration will be given to a range of myth theories and their application to a variety of mythic traditions. Case studies will be investigated from early Christian history and the colonization of Canada, and, if time permits, the so-called “cargo” movements of New Guinea. Students will research topics of their interests dealing with the impact of mythology on social change and the production of new mythological systems in response to such change with examples drawn from any culture or period in history.

I’ve got four books as required and a bunch of papers:

William G. Doty. Myth: A Handbook (Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 2004)  ISBN – 13: 9780817354374

Alan Dundes (ed) Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth ( Berkeley: University of California Press), 1984) ISBN – 13:9780520051928

Burton L. Mack, Myth and the Christian Nation: A Social Theory of Religion (Religion in Culture: Studies in Social Contest and Construction, London: Equinox, 2008) ISBN 9781 84553 373 1.

Jennifer Reid, Myth, Symbol, and the Colonial Encounter: British and Mi’kmaq in Acadia, 1700-1867 (Religions and Beliefs; Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1995)  ISBN – 13:9780776604169

Anyway, I’m going to enjoy it!