You would adore ladysisyphus. She's a hoot. So's her intended, mrmoonpants, whom you would also love because not only is SHE a religion geek too, she's also a librarian in training!
I have run into ladysisyphus (or at least, seen her mentioned) a couple of times before, in various contexts. But I feel a little weird about just hopping over to someone's journal and being like "So! You look cool!" even when they clearly say it's okay.
And I'm glad you liked the quiz! I wanted to keep it light and fun, especially since I'm dropping it on my students' heads on the very first day of class. Answering 'Kobe Bryant' won't get you any points, but it'll make me laugh.
Kobe Bryant looked like the "Hey, I have no idea! That one's funny" choice.
Also, I think his was the only name I recognized. Most of my knowledge about Christianity goes out the window with the Reformation -- and most of the rest goes out with Vatican II.
You don't know her-- she did her MDiv at Drew while i worked there, and her now partner mrmoonpants was doing a PhD in Rel Stud and worked for me while I was there. They're lesbian rel stud geeks who love anime and video games. You'd love 'em. Go hang out over on that LJ, you'll see!
The context -- which was specified in an earlier post -- is that this is a pre-check for a class I'm teaching titled Ideas of the New Testament, which means I very specifically wanted to get a feel for the students' grasp on things related to the material that's going to be covered in class. The text in the lj-cut, on the other hand, was mostly my just being silly by riffing on that Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? thing. While my area of specialty is actually Christianity, I promise that had the class had a different focus, the quiz questions would've been different!
Thanks. I did understand the context of the quiz (i.e., that it was specific to the knowledge that would be helpful for this course). I was responding to what I perceived, perhaps incorrectly, as the implicit message in people's comments of "this is representative of what religion majors need to know." I am still curious about the answer to my question of whether religion majors need to know Jewish history and scholarship as well, whether or not they specialize in Christian bible.
The scores I predicted -- all of category one, half of category two, none of category three -- reflect a level of knowledge I do feel religion majors should have, but by no means do I feel that such knowledge should be the end-all and be-all of a religion major. I would expect that a religion major coming out of a program with good attention to diversity would be able to do equally well on similar quizzes on Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism (generally considered, right or wrong, the 'big five').
If you're asking me if I think a background in Hebrew Bible is necessary to understand Christian Bible, specifically, the answer is of course, and I wouldn't want a fifteen-question, three-minute quiz to imply otherwise. I can't speak for anyone else, though.
I did okay, apart from the questions re. the date of the Council of Nicea and the the Pauline Epistles. I refuse to accept the validity of the question about the gospel singer and James Dobson (although I believe I got latter of the two right).
Now, where are the questions about Gnosticism, Hermetism, theurgic Neoplatonism, and all the rest of the really interesting stuff from late Antiquity?
As per an earlier comment, if this were for a class about late antiquity, some of those concepts would likely have made an appearance. However, since it's a class about New Testament ideas in contemporary thought, I wanted to keep the scope of the questions relevant to the course -- hence the questions about two of the major figures in modern US Christianity.
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no subject
Date: 2008-12-12 12:31 am (UTC)I am such a geek, this quiz is totally making my night. It's FUN!
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Date: 2008-12-12 12:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-12 01:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-12 02:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-12 03:33 pm (UTC)And I'm glad you liked the quiz! I wanted to keep it light and fun, especially since I'm dropping it on my students' heads on the very first day of class. Answering 'Kobe Bryant' won't get you any points, but it'll make me laugh.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-13 05:32 pm (UTC)Also, I think his was the only name I recognized. Most of my knowledge about Christianity goes out the window with the Reformation -- and most of the rest goes out with Vatican II.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-12 05:36 am (UTC)Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
went to bed with their trousers on.
Mark woke up in the middle of the night-
"OooooOH my trousers are. too. Tight!"
am i smarter than a rel stud undergrad?
Date: 2008-12-12 12:40 am (UTC):)
the only ones i didn't know for sure were the ones about creepy modern conservative foundations.
and do i know this ladysisyphus? i'm trying to think who i know that i know that you know who teaches NT...
Re: am i smarter than a rel stud undergrad?
Date: 2008-12-12 02:04 am (UTC)Re: am i smarter than a rel stud undergrad?
Date: 2008-12-12 02:04 am (UTC)Re: am i smarter than a rel stud undergrad?
Date: 2008-12-12 02:59 am (UTC)MOVE ALONG
no subject
Date: 2008-12-12 01:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-12 01:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-12 02:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-12 02:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-12 02:22 am (UTC)(Let us note that LS said that the course has no prerequisites.)
no subject
Date: 2008-12-12 02:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-12 05:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-12 02:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-12 12:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-12 03:27 pm (UTC)If you're asking me if I think a background in Hebrew Bible is necessary to understand Christian Bible, specifically, the answer is of course, and I wouldn't want a fifteen-question, three-minute quiz to imply otherwise. I can't speak for anyone else, though.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-12 02:42 am (UTC)Still, that was a very fun quiz. Thanks for sharing.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-12 05:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-12 05:35 am (UTC)Now, where are the questions about Gnosticism, Hermetism, theurgic Neoplatonism, and all the rest of the really interesting stuff from late Antiquity?
no subject
Date: 2008-12-12 03:30 pm (UTC)