2008 Woodie Awards
God denied tenure, low TCEs cited
Father Lou DelFra
Issue date: 4/3/08 Section: Viewpoint
We're approaching the time when students get the chance to evaluate their professors. This has me wondering whether, after Judgment Day, we get to fill out TCEs on God? I'd be happy to complete one, but only if God swears to abide by the current anonymity and no-grade-change policies.
Not that I'd have anything particularly damning to say. In fact, I'd give God high scores on "The instructor is well-prepared," though, granted, omniscience gives God a leg up here, and "The instructor welcomes contact with students outside of Church." But I'm still thinking about how God would rate on a few of the other criteria ...
"When asked questions, the instructor satisfies the students." Yikes. Question: "Teacher, where do you live?" Answer: "Come and see." Poetic, yes, but hardly satisfactory. In fact, I'm not sure He ever did answer that one. Furthermore, while some of God's communiqués seem disproportionately over-the-top (see parting of the Red Sea, the Incarnation, etc), He also, in these post-Biblical days, seems to skip office hours with alarming regularity - maybe He already got tenure?
Scripturally, during these 50 days of Easter, we are immersed in the heart-stirring narratives of the Resurrection - Mary Magdalene at the tomb, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, Doubting Thomas. This should be a prime opportunity for God to answer the big questions clearly. For example, there is no greater human question than death - what lies on the other side of our deaths? If God can answer this one, perhaps we can forgive the obscurity with which He responds to many of our smaller inquiries.
God has great material to work with here. He resurrected his son from the dead. High score on "The class material stimulates creative thinking." If God is more powerful than death, then all kinds of horizons open up. If death is our question, the resurrection is a definitive, and admittedly quite welcome, answer.
The difficulty is that, in the days following the Resurrection, the disciples are plagued by a striking amount of ambiguity, fear, and doubt. And, furthermore, Jesus' words and actions often seem to feed that ambiguity, more than clarify it.
Not that I'd have anything particularly damning to say. In fact, I'd give God high scores on "The instructor is well-prepared," though, granted, omniscience gives God a leg up here, and "The instructor welcomes contact with students outside of Church." But I'm still thinking about how God would rate on a few of the other criteria ...
"When asked questions, the instructor satisfies the students." Yikes. Question: "Teacher, where do you live?" Answer: "Come and see." Poetic, yes, but hardly satisfactory. In fact, I'm not sure He ever did answer that one. Furthermore, while some of God's communiqués seem disproportionately over-the-top (see parting of the Red Sea, the Incarnation, etc), He also, in these post-Biblical days, seems to skip office hours with alarming regularity - maybe He already got tenure?
Scripturally, during these 50 days of Easter, we are immersed in the heart-stirring narratives of the Resurrection - Mary Magdalene at the tomb, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, Doubting Thomas. This should be a prime opportunity for God to answer the big questions clearly. For example, there is no greater human question than death - what lies on the other side of our deaths? If God can answer this one, perhaps we can forgive the obscurity with which He responds to many of our smaller inquiries.
God has great material to work with here. He resurrected his son from the dead. High score on "The class material stimulates creative thinking." If God is more powerful than death, then all kinds of horizons open up. If death is our question, the resurrection is a definitive, and admittedly quite welcome, answer.
The difficulty is that, in the days following the Resurrection, the disciples are plagued by a striking amount of ambiguity, fear, and doubt. And, furthermore, Jesus' words and actions often seem to feed that ambiguity, more than clarify it.