- My professor was named Dr. Adolf Hansen. Based on name alone, I envisioned this tall, martially grey-haired, angry professor with an extreme German accent. "Zee loss??!! Zee grief?!! You must all get over zeeze things, you puny little people!!" In fact, Dr. Hansen is a dear, dear white-haired gentleman, with a huge heart for people, inside and outside of the classroom. Although we probably disagreed on some doctrinal matters (such as whether the Gospels reflect what Jesus actually said - he was a NT scholar for much of his life), his life reflected Christ in a big way. He inspired me with his stories of how he cares for people and witnesses to his neighbors. AND he doesn't believe God will automatically save all people (a doctrinal bonus for a non-evangelical) , although he says, "but God wants to save all people... and He might!"
- In terms of gender, I was in the majority in the classroom - an unusual event in my seminary experience. When I mentioned this fact with a wry smile on the first day we met, the entire class laughed for about a minute. Apparently evangelicals have a reputation. :)
- Speaking of which, it was very interesting being one of the few evangelicals in the class. In a small group discussion, I tried to express my vague discomfort with an article that talked about C.S. Lewis' spirituality without talking about God, and my partner told me that she was coming from a different place: she believed, "Jews, Muslims, Christians [I can't remember if she went further than that] - we all worship the same God. And I work in healing energy - healing energy, healing prayer - it's all the same thing, just different words." It reminded me how very insulated I am at TEDS... and it frightened me that I wasn't sure exactly what to say. So, I just listened.
- Dr. Hansen's teaching style was very different from what I've encountered in most classes at TEDS. Rather than lecturing from on high the entire class period, he used a combination of lecture, dicussion of readings, personal reflection, video, and other interactive exercises... and although I received less pure content and took far fewer notes than I usually do in classes, I think the material from the class sunk into my mind far more quickly than in most classes. So wait... lecture isn't the only (or even the best?!!) way to teach a class...
- At the same time, one of my favorite class period at GETS was a lecture of sorts. A guest speaker from Garrett, Dr. Pamela Lightsley, spoke to us for about an hour and a half one afternoon on the topic of African-American grief, and she was absolutely fascinating! As an African-American woman who is ordained as a deacon in the Methodist church (I think - don't quote me on that one... might be the AME), she has seen a heck of a lot, particularly since she ministers a great deal on the South Side. Imagine conducting a funeral for someone who died in a gang fight, so that the police have to come to the funeral just to make sure things don't explode into further violence...
- I have to say, it was awesome being in a class at GETS around the time of Obama's inauguration. I'm not saying that Obama is the hope of the world (it seems to me that we already have a Savior), but there's no doubt that his election is a historic moment for our country. Dr. Hansen was involved in pushing for civil rights and greater justice for African-Americans throughout his career, so hearing his excitement about how far things have come, as well as the reflections of the two African-American students in the class, made me very thankful for the progress made in our country over the past fifty years. We're not out of the woods by any means, but for now, I'll celebrate the moment!
- As you might imagine, a course on "Loss and Grief" brings up all sorts of things in a person who enters into the material. Several students in the class had pretty heart-breaking stories that they shared with the class - in fact, having a safe place to share their stories seemed to actually help a few students move forward in their grief processes. Personally, the class showed me that I've got a few things of my own to grieve - which is good to realize, but pretty darn scary. In fact, I suspect that I've only begun to learn how to grieve...
- ... for everyone grieves differently! Throw out the old 5-step model of grief (developed by Kübler-Ross, BY the way), and usher in the newer, more flexible models of grief. As in so many other areas of study and practice, thanatology is moving away from "one-size-fits-all," somewhat prescriptive models (oh-so-modern!) and toward personal, culturally-sensitive, descriptive, non-judgmental models (hello postmodernism!). I think this trend is a positive correction of reductionistic models for the most part, and even the new models emphasize that disfunctional ways to grieve exist - but treating "complicated grief" must be done on a case-by-case basis. In other words, since each person grieves in his or her own unique way, influenced by factors such as culture, gender, age, other experiences of loss, and personality, determining what is "healthy" grief and what is "unhealthy" grief cannot be done out of context. Whew! Less guilt to attach to non-moral issues! For the guilt-stricken (which is all of us at one time or another), this is good news!
