Course of Study

Just finished second day of course of study at St. Paul School of Theology. Two professors, Shelly Petz teaching Pastoral Care for Spiritual Formation and Jim Darby teaching Pastor as Interpreter of the Bible.

The campus is very nice here, and while it is said to be in an area of town that one would not want to walk alone, it really is not bad. The dorm is great; I got a surprise when I registered. I did not know that I would have on campus housing and had reserved a hotel about six miles away. But, I did have housing here and it turns out to be a suite. I have a living room with sofa, desk and shelf unit; a full kitchen with stove and refrigerator; and a bedroom with a twin bed, dressers and full closet; and a bathroom with a great shower in the morning. The campus has lots of stairs; I had heard that but really did not understand what was meant. I thought lots of stairs in the buildings, which of course there are, but there are rolling hills here where a set of 5 to 11 steps have been built into the hillside. It rather reminds me of tiers. The buildings are reddish brick construction. There are not a lot of buildings on campus: a chapel, three dorm buildings, a student center that houses a dining room, coffee shop, book store and lots of meeting and open sitting rooms for study, two buildings of classrooms, a library and a maintenance building.

Every morning I have breakfast in the dining room, for me that means primarily hooked up to the caffeine machine :-), then off to chapel for worship and communion, then to class. We also have a worship at the beginning of our class time. The two professors teach in tandem, about two hours each I would guess is the length. Then to lunch, workshops and homework before dinner. More study after dinner and papers to write. It is not a bad routine and while it is busy, it is a more relaxed pace than being at home working.

We wrote papers in advance of coming to St. Paul's and had heard that rewrites were a very good possibility. I actually did pretty well on my papers, and I am pleased with the beginnings of this academic life. That isn't to say that I have it all down; the professors were pretty lenient with their critique of the papers and I will have to buckle down on both format (especially when citing other work) and critical thinking. The papers are graded on structure, content and critical thinking, and it's in the area of critical thinking that I have the most comments. But I am pleased; it has been a long time since I have done any work like this, probably thirty years or so, except for the papers I wrote when I took a few classes the last couple of years.

I know three others from the Dakotas, renewed friendship with a woman who attended Licensing School with me (us of the Dakotas) last July, and have begun to make friends with many others. There is a distinct difference between Licensing School and St. Paul; at Licensing School, it seemed there was a lot of anxiety and nervous energy, which tends to exaggerate extrovert activity while at St. Paul, there are many who have been attending for some time and they bring about a calming environment.

It is good to be here. I miss my church family and certainly my husband, but it is good to be here.