Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Why not make nap hour after Coffee hour?

Student: That's something this school lacks - a nap room.

An apple a day keeps the reading managable.

Student 1: Someone terrible once told me you have to choose the things you fall behind in.
Student 2: It's true! It's for your health.

Overheard at: YDS hallway

Monday, October 29, 2007

An empty room at YDS can only mean the rapture

Student: I smoked once. I think that's why I missed the rapture. I mean, c'mon, where is everyone?

Overheard at: Coffee Hour

CSharp lets loose

(Regarding the work and popular reviews of Robert Alter)

Carolyn Sharp: I did, once, actually receive a paper from a student who 'exegeted' what her grandmother had said about the relevant passage. It's not a prudent approach! Unless your grandmother is, you know, Gerhard von Rad. And even then, this assignment is about your interpretation of the passage, so Grandma von Rad would still need to be peripheral to your argument.

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Carolyn Sharp: Time to get a mocha and calm down about the dismissively reductionist approach to the Bible that we see so often in popular culture. And just in case you'd be tempted to say I never taught you anything worthwhile: the best mocha lattes in New Haven are at Koffee on Audubon Street. There. That's something you can cling to when all the world seems to be awash in postmodern relativism.

Overheard at: Old Testament

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Lara speaks

Jamie Lara: Churches love to collect stuff. Just go to any Episcopalian church.

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Jaime Lara (on the Sacred Spaces conference): We now have 700 registered participants.... For a conference on mosques, churches and temples, hello!

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Jamie Lara: These saints, they didn't have an MDiv or MAR, and they got into heaven.

Overheard at: Iconography

A better summary than Wikipedia

Student: It seems when things are good, the Israelites ignore God and when things are bad, they say, "Oh, God, help us out."
Carolyn Sharp: There's the book of Judges right there!

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Spare time well spent

Student: My dad called last night and asked what I was doing and I said, 'Oh, you know, not much, just thinking about the cultural production of whiteness.'

Overheard at: Political Economy of Misery

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Greco-Roman philosophy meets Wall Street meets Haight-Asbury

Jeremy Hultin: Cynics were hippies in an age of Augustinian yuppies.

Overheard at: NT

Thursday, October 18, 2007

God better not send me spam

Student: If you can't find God in e-mail, then I'm screwed, because that's where I spend all my time.

Overheard at: Commuter Lounge

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Student: I swear I saw Boaz in line at the post office yesterday!

Thursday, October 11, 2007

The Karls don't go down THAT easy

Systematic student: I'm just going to have her explain the theologies of Barth and Rahner briefly, in 15 minutes or so.

Overheard at: Reading week

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Another reason to wipe out depression

Student: What if we were able to completely wipe out depression?
Jan Holton: We wouldn't have any more country music.

Overheard at: Pastoral Care: Suffering and Depression
Student: I always thought if I weren't Jewish I'd be Bahá'í... or Lutheran.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

In the words of Ben Folds, it's hard being male, middle class and white

Student: I wake up every morning and ask myself, "Why am I so normative?"