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marXian

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  1. Favorite response regarding interpretation: "Well, that might be your/their/his/her interpretation, but my Bible clearly says...." People claim they recognize the subjectivity of the canon but rationalize the objectivity of their understanding by appealing to "God's hand" in the process of canonization. It was a "human" process, but since God must have guided it, we should be able to objectively understand "the plain facts" of scripture. I think there is such a thing as a doctrine of revelation, but that's not the same as an objective, unmediated understanding of scripture. In short, those explanations you suggest are still met with a "Yeah, but..." This forum is really perfect because even here I'm misunderstood! Haha. I think my field and specific interests are sort of unique in applying what you're talking about. I don't just "study the Bible." I feel like putting it that way doesn't do it justice since Biblical Studies is an actual field--one that I do not claim. I'm interested in how people interpret the Bible. So my 30 second explanation would be just that: "I'm going to be studying how we interpret the Bible." The difference between my explanation and yours is that most non-academic people you interact with (I could be wrong about this) aren't affected by mummies on a daily, weekly, monthly, or even yearly basis. They know what mummies are because they've seen specials about King Tut on the History Channel. Hence, saying you study mummies sounds really cool! (What you're studying does sound interesting, btw.) However, because the question of interpreting the Bible hits so close to the weekly, sometimes daily, lives of most people, my experience has been (and maybe I should have been this clear in my original post) that when I tell someone "I'm going to be studying how people interpret the Bible," that almost always prompts one of three follow up questions: 1) You interpret the Bible? I just read mine and it tells me what I need to know! 2) You mean like trying to understand what the original author meant? 3) Well...how do people interpret the Bible? In response to any of these, I can honestly say that I try to keep it simple. But this is something people are genuinely interested in. They can tell if I'm bullshitting them in order to "not confuse them" or because I think they won't get it. And when it comes to this topic, that just pisses them off. Really though, they don't have the, as you said, specialized knowledge to understand the issue from my perspective, so when they push me for more (some do and some don't) and then don't get it they tend to get frustrated. That's what I was trying to get across in my first post. I have a graduate degree in another field (English), so I am well versed in simple explanations. Whenever people asked me what I was studying, I would say, "Kurt Vonnegut" or "American literature" and that would basically be it. I'm definitely with you in that I want to just enjoy people for who they are. I learned long ago when and when not to get "academic." Also the responses to Derrida are fascinating, haha. I've never studied philosophy formally; Derrida is really important (arguably) in literary criticism and has become popular in the last 20 years in biblical/theological hermeneutics as well. But certainly...it seems people either love him or think he is and always has been completely irrelevant. My interest in deconstruction was a major factor in getting accepted to Northwestern, so... still relevant in my field.
  2. Wasn't saying that I've been trying to explain Derrida to people. It's just when I start explaining that the Bible isn't something you just open and read and understand objectively, people start to get really worried. I dropped names in my post as a shorthand way of saying that. My bad. Unfortunately for me, explaining the basics (you will never understand the Bible in an absolute, totalizing way, you have a point of view from which you approach the biblical text, etc.) is what gets me into trouble in the first place. People sort of get those things, but they still don't want to let go of certainty. That's all I'm saying.
  3. I have three younger brothers. One of them (five years younger) is finishing the second year of a PhD in Electrical Engineering at USC. My field is religion/theology. I called my dad last month to tell him I'd been accepted to Northwestern with full tuition and a hefty stipend for 5 years. His response: "Who do they think you are? [2nd brothers name]?!?!?" Thanks, Dad. To be fair, he really was happy and excited--just had trouble expressing it. Also, because my field is religion, A LOT of people want to know what I'm studying specifically. When I tell them "philosophical/biblical hermeneutics, philosophy of language in theology and religion" they typically want more clarification--as if they definitely should be able to understand what it is I'm interested in simply by virtue of the fact that they go to church on Sundays. Then I start talking about Wittgenstein or Derrida and they might say something like, "Oh... so... are you still a Christian?" Sigh.
  4. Anyone have any info on Syracuse, Virginia, or Indiana-Bloomington? I've been accepted to Northwestern, but I really feel like I need to wait to see what happens with those schools. A friend of mine said he was waitlisted at Syracuse last week, but I've yet to hear anything. I've seen one acceptance on the results survey. Seen a few waitlists and acceptances for UVA as well there but no rejections for either. I've seen no posts about IU. I'm thrilled with my offer from NU; I go out there for a wine and dine weekend March 8. But I don't want to start mentally moving to Evanston if there's going to be a better offer. Patience is really tough. I'm sort of assuming at this point it's going to be a no from any school I haven't heard from yet--is that wrong though?
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