I've just completed my first full week as a full-time student on campus at Southern Seminary. It's been very strange. I have only one class with fellow students within 20 years of my age, and in that class there's only a couple. The guys I've most enjoyed talking to are barely older than my own sons. I've been tempted often to question what I'm doing here. Starting over is tough! But, I've had some good devotional times this week. I will need to cultivate the old Christian discipline of watching.
I'm taking more than a full load, six courses instead of the usual four, because two of them are prerequisite courses I'd like to get out of the way. I'm paying the price for goofing off my freshman year in college 33 years ago, when I took my only English Comp course and did not do well enough to avoid taking a basic writing course here at Southern. I suppose, since I took many writing-intensive courses, including English Literature, subsequent to that, with As, I could appeal that decision. But, I have read far too much poor writing over the years to think that anyone is above taking a remedial course.
I am also taking Elementary Greek, again. This is a refresher. I've had both Classical and Koine Greek in the past, but it's been so long that I don't think I could pass a placement test. I haven't thought about a Greek verb conjugation or noun declension in many years though I've used my Greek New Testament regularly, both devotionally and in preparing to teach. I've bought a number of supplemental books to make the course more interesting.
Those are my two prerequisites. I'm also taking Early Church History, Systematic Theology I, Old Testament Theology, and Personal Spiritual Disciplines. We have the choice of Grudem's text or Erickson's for Systematics. I've read through Grudem's a couple times on my own. I plan to reread it as part of this course, but I'm going to read Erickson's, too, to get a different perspective.
Of all my assignments, I am most interested in the position paper I will have to write for Systematics. We have our choice of several topics in the doctrine of scripture and the doctrine of God. We need to present, succinctly, alternate positions, on the doctrine, state our own position, and argue for it. I have already settled on my topic: God's relation to time. Does God exist within time; that is, is he everlasting? Or, does God exist outside of time; is he eternal? If he does not exist within time, how can he have meaningful, personal relations with his creation? I intend to study Paul Helm's book very closely, as well as Craig's and Hasker's.
It will be interesting to see how this semester unfolds ...
