-^-for posterity-^-

i spend my english literature class talking about god. the last few books we covered included dante, Augustine and Milton. each of those books deals with christianity and we spend most of the class explaining the nature of god.

i have a hard time discussing the christian god in class. besides the political ramifications, i have a very hard time making the whole idea sound solid. the books we have covered early on in the semester talk a lot about greek and roman mythology. they talk about zeus and Apollo and every god in between. the students love talking about greek and roman mythology. they find it hilarious and fascinating. ‘you mean to tell me that the god’s had affairs with each other and some of them fathered half human-half god children?’

it’s hard to follow up a number of lessons talking about mythology by talking about christianity. in milton’s ‘paradise lost’, we are told that adam and eve at from a tree and that god sent them out of a perfect garden. satan ponders his fate in hell after being thrown from heaven. he says that he fell because of his pride, which god created. what kind of a god is this that would put an obvious temptation in adam and eve’s path? what kind of a god is this that would create pride in satan that would eventually lead to his eternal suffering? the students ask the same questions they asked for greek and roman mythology.

i teach in a tornado of chalk. the dust flies up and i draw pictures and make lines and write incoherently on the board. i walk from one side of the board to the other trying to tie points together. teaching about how religion has influenced western thought has only increased my movement. it has only made the cloud of chalk dust grow around me as i move. the students are sincerely interested. they want to understand what our president believes. they want to understand what the normal american believes. they do no understand christianity and i have not explained it well.