Denmark calling with course information

Hej alle, har i haft en god sommer?

Soon we'll upload a welcoming message for the new student, but right now we have some good news coming from the theological faculty in København, which could be interesting for both new and old student!

Firstly, Martin Ehrensvärd, coordinator in Denmark, would like to pass on the following message:

"You see, I’m giving a course in Classical Syriac this fall. Syriac is an Aramaic dialect and thus relatively closely related to Hebrew and Arabic. A vast amount of early Christian literature is written in Syriac. The course will start from scratch but will proceed quickly as it presupposes that students have earlier experience with one or more Semitic languages. There will be one Skype-based lesson pr week."

An AULA-page for the course should by now have been created and I assume that the course will head off in the week of September 1st. Who's up for the challenge?`

Moreover, Martin also asked Thomas Hoffmann, professor in Copenhagen, about his upcoming course "The Qur'an and the Bible", which is an interaction course. See here the nice Youtube clip that they made!



/PD

Looking back on Oslo

Happy new year and a sincere apology from the writer of this blog - it's almost two months since the last update. The only apologiy that I can bring in is a Thesis Colloquium that had to be written and some travelling all over Europe. Oh yeah, and Christmas, maybe. Stupid apologies. Hereby I give the New Year Intention to write at least two blogs every month. (Some help of other students would be much appreciated in this, hinthint.)

So, what to start with? It turned out that my camera still had quite some pictures left from the time in Oslo, the last days of November. After our visit to Minhaj Ul Qumran our week was far from over.

Thursday we were 'off' - except from 6 hours of classes. Eric and me made a little tour through Oslo.

Oslo Harbour. Time: 15.05 CET.

Friday afternoon brought a visit to another mosque: the Bosnian mosque. We were present at the the Friday prayer. Here 5 of the 7 women in the 4th cycle prior to the prayer. Photo: Zejian Zeng.

After the prayer we talked with Imam Faruk Terzic. We felt very welcome and learned a lot! 

From Islam to Judaism - Friday night we were invited at the house of our teacher Gunnar and his family for a sabbath meal! A very special experience to witness 'theoretical knowledge' in practice, a chance to pick up the Hebrew that I had all forgotton and, not in the least, a night with great food and good conversations. 

On Saturday morning, we also visited a synagogue, but we couldn't make pictures there. Instead a few from the trip that Eric, me and Rasuole made in the afternoon. We took the the subway up for 20 minutes and suddenly we had left Oslo behind and were in the middle of nature. A great end to a great seminar.

/PD

Hello from Oslo - part 1

 We - at least most of us - made it to the Norwegian capital and today (well, actually 'yesterday') we had our first lectures in the Contemporary course. Among others our professor for Judaism showed a small part of the Hanukkah ritual, as today is the start of the Jewish feast - never a dull moment in RRE classes!

The evening brought a visit to Minhaj Ul Quran, an Islamic center here in Oslo. Our very own student Nasir gave us a tour through the center and we were treated to a yummy (and spicy) dinner. A great night! Now the light is going out in the girls' hostel room - tomorrow we'll study Christianity and (more) Islam. Good night! 

A modern proverb on the wall.

Our guide Nasir

The Imam of the center at the lovely dinner.

RRE students in dialogue with the Imam

Nasir presenting a book by the founder of the Minhaj Ul Quran - a fatwa condemning suicide bombings and terrorism

/PD

Info of interest, from Lund

While we are in the Swedish mood, here is something that might interest you:


Open Lecture at CTR, Lund:

Tueday , 3 April, at 18.15 in Room 118 at Centre for Theology and Religious Studies,

Ingmar Karlsson, former diplomat (e.g. consul general in Istanbul 2001-2008), research fellow and honorary doctor of divinity at Lund University, will give the second lecture in the series of lectures on Border Crossing between Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The lecture is entitled "Alhambra - A Model for 'the European House?", and will be about the coexistence of Judaism, Christianity and Islam in Spain in the Middle Ages, but also about the fascinating and less known Arabic heritage in European culture. A lecture you cannot miss!

The lecture is followed be free refreshments sponsored by Centre for Theology and Religious Studies.

Five questions to the professor

At each RREuniversity there are at least one person responsible for RRE and in personal contact with the students of that specific university. They also teach courses in the program. But in addition, there are several professors who belongs to one of the six RREuniversities and who have been asked to teach a course or parts of a course. We decided to ask professor Riem Spielhaus from Copenhagen University how she finds the RREprogram.


1. Please state your name,age, university and connection to the RREprogram


My name is Riem Spielhaus and I am researcher at the Centre for European Islamic Thought at Kopenhagen University. My research centre is located at the Theological Faculty that invited us to contribute to the RREprogram.


2. What is your area of expertise? and which courses do you teach in the RREprogram?


This and last year I taught the part on Islam within the course Emergence of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In my daily life I do research on Muslims in Europe and currently am working on a project that critically looks at the many opinion surveys that have been produced about Muslims in Europe in the last ten years.


3. How do you find the this way of teaching, which is not regular university courses but also not distance learning?


I find teaching a distance learning course a bit less personal. One simply does not have the same opportunities to meet students like on campus. But it is amazing how a strong relationship can grow in a short semester with those students that are engaged in our chats and ask me questions via email. Even though I don't necessarily have a picture of the students, by reading all the written texts of them in short essays, chat comments, summaries they upload and the final essay I seem do get a full image of him or her anyway. The other thing I enjoy is that professors in this program interact really closely. I have learned a lot from both students and other professors about the other religious roots.


4. What do you expect from your students?


Without expecting that, I think in order to survive such a distance learning course you have to have a lot of motivation and sincerety. And this is what sometimes really astonishes me with our students. For me, seeing professors in the seminar or lecture used to be one of the biggest motivations to engage with knowledge. So I really admire everybody who can find this motivation in her or himself. What I do expect beyond that especially in this program is a willingness to question and relativize own roots and traditions. That does not mean students have to change or even distance themselves from their faith or religious convictions, but to learn to take a similare perspective to other and the own religion. Only then we can compare or contrast these religions. I think this in detail can be quite challenging, already because we know so much more about the religion we grew up with and with which were taught to see and interpret the world. And I hope we can organize an event to discuss questions of 'objectivity,' an issue that we did not have time enough for in the Emergency course. Apart from that many students really need to work on their academic writing skills. This will make things a lot easier.


5. If you could have any superhuman power, what would it be and why?


I have to pass that one. Let me stick with my humanity. Or maybe: the ability to be at two places at the same time? Though this would totally mess up my schedule. Probably I should just learn to enjoy every moment and not ask for more.