First lecture was a 6pm-9pm one, on the Old Testament. As with most first lectures, a bunch of time was spent on the usual administrative stuff, and going over the assessments – in my case, a 10 minute presentation (with accompanying paper), a 2000-word essay, and a two hour exam. There’s a minimum expectation of 200 pages of readings during semester, and some textbooks to get to grips with.
The lecture is held in a tutorial room that seats about 20-30 people: it looks like any other tutorial room you’ve ever been in. (Like a classroom, but with slightly newer furniture that’s the right size for adults)
Unusually, the lecture started with prayer and bible reading: the last part of Luke 24, where Jesus opens the minds of the disciples to the Old Testament. In the first lecture, we tried to cover two units: one on the Old Testament as revelation (different ways to read the ancient documents), and the second on the Old Testament as a human document (including some new-to-me insights as far as how topography and climate works in with ancient history).
Even in this first lecture, I’ve started to think a little more broadly: more on that later as my thinking progresses from overwhelmed-with-content to more settled and reflective.
I’m trying to plan out how to tackle the reading for this subject and tomorrow’s New Testament one. Tomorrow I head somewhere to buy a couple of books (somehow I already have a few of the books that are on the "recommended puchase" list.
With the volume of work that lies ahead, I think I’ll just move on from trying to complete a correspondence course exam on the Old Testament, and focus on the new tasks at hand: there will be enough to keep me busy just in staying on top of the current subjects, I think.