Week 1 of 10 weeks in the Attic...

Whew! I've made it through Week 1 of the seminary's "Greek Boot Camp"!

We've already had two quizzes-- the first on the Koine Greek (also known as Alexandrian dialect, common Attic or Hellenistic Greek) alphabet and English parts of speech, the second, today, on verb conjugations ("paradigms," as they're called in Greek instruction). I got a 100 on the first, waiting on the second (but I think that one should be a 100, too, or very close). We left class today with noun declensions... Holy moly! That's 4 chapters of the text book in about as many days.

The back story to my very presence in a Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod seminary Greek class would take too long to parse out, really (as colorfully unorthodox-- pun sort of intended-- as it is), but if you know me and the story, you know also that God has made all the necessary arrangements; some of the bridges I crossed were not always pleasant, and many I could not understand at the time.

Today another one of those "God things" happened again-- seriously; maybe they've been happening all along and I'm becoming more aware...

My professor (I'm hesitant to mention names in this blog for privacy reasons, but...well, read on), who I have already mentioned previously, is the next character in this Ft. Wayne chapter of my life. Today he passed out a copy of a paper he wrote that was published (every seminary professor is "published") in LOGIA (an "American Medical Journal" of Lutheran articles) in 2012 entitled Teaching Greek at the Seminary. I read it at lunch (there's actually a quiz on it next week). For me it was an epiphany! If you'd like a closer look at what I'm going through (and why), please read it (it's somewhat verbiforous, to use one of his classroom words...) (I caught "nugatory" the other day...). Here's the intro:

I have had the privilege of leaching beginning Greek at Concordia Theological Seminary since fall 2006 — most often, though not always, to men who have not studied Greek before, and quite often have not studied a foreign language before. Compared to undergraduate Greek learners, seminary students are more highly motivated to learn and typically do everything within their powers to learn and master Greek. Many students have given up earlier careers in lucrative professions, sold houses, cars, or entire businesses (sometimes at a loss) to come to seminary, and will now subsist at a lower standard of living than previously. Now they are here, with all their strengths and weaknesses, and the only thing standing between them and formal theological study is the ten-week Greek class.

The entire situation is fraught with danger. For example, what if the student sells his house in good faith, moves with his wife and family to Fort Wayne, tries to begin a new life here —but just cannot learn Greek? This has happened...

He regularly cracks me up in class, but he's as serious about teaching Greek as I was about teaching Russian; however, he has a slightly different ulterior motive as relates to the vocation of ministry.

He's also famous (or, perhaps, infamous) around campus for another published article called A Lutheran Goes to Rome about a trip he made to Rome some years ago to study Latin where it was spoken. He regaled us in class this morning with an abridged tale of a Catholic monk he studied under while he was there... No matter how much of either article you read, you have to meet him face to face for full effect.

I'm really enjoying studying Greek, but, brother, the professor moves at a frequency only dogs can hear!

Anyway. It's Friday! No Greek until Sunday, just like my DLI days when I was learning Russian... Tonight we're headed downtown to see the Ft. Wayne Tincaps do battle with the Bowling Green Hot Rods-- a little Single A baseball action to decompress! Sunday I'll pick up where I left off; we were promised another quiz (this time noun declensions) on Monday...

It's Friday!! Go Tincaps!!