RE215 Christianity in USA and Australia

After six years slowly doing an external studies BA part-time at the University of Queensland, external studies ended and I became an internal student to finish my degree. Just as I had been fortunate enough to be just outside Brisbane to qualify as external, I was fortunate to be not too far out such that I could attend classes now that external studies had ceased to be. It has just struck me how the concept of needing to be outside a city to do external studies seems odd now, when so many people study online due to time factors rather than distance.

I chose this course with Dr Ian Gillman who had supervised my last external course. So from 4-6pm on Wednesdays in first semester 1992, I left General Practice behind and attended actual lectures again with actual other students. The timing suggests a shift from external study to evening classes. I have no recollection when the tutorials were held.

He let us choose to have 2 assignments for assessment, rather than an exam, along with a mark for tutorial participation. The texts were Ahlstrom’s “The Religious History of the American People” and Breward’s “Australia – ‘The Most Godless Place Under Heaven’?” I still have both books and have since picked up some of the recommended reference books he suggested over the years.

The loss of external studies meant the excellent lecture notes and study guides were replaced by notes and actual participation. There was a fair bit a material given to us at the tutorials. I found this all very interesting, especially the American section. I always though the Great Awakening would have made a good board game.