The Never Ending Arts Degree

The second essay topic was thus:

Protestant- Roman Catholic relationships were marked by deep antagonism until the 1960’s.” Discuss this claim with respect to Australia.

I suggested that the antagonism was from the clergy and church leaders with much cooperation and respect between the laity of each church.

This is the marked copy with his generous comments.

RE215 – Australia

I got a 7 (out of 7) rating overall for the subject.

The essay topic I chose was:

Investigate the truth of the claim that “revivalism” has been at one time both the most invigorating and the most disruptive force in American Protestantism.

I suggested it was more disruptive than invigorating.

I couldn’t find the essay I submitted but this is late draft with a few corrections. I also have a word count written in with each hundred words noted. Such was the world before automated word counts.

RE215 – America

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.

Just for fun I’m posting the exam with the notes I made during the ten minute perusal.

RE113 Exam

I did well enough for a 6 (out of 7) for the whole subject.

This assignment was to choose a prominent Christian thinker and analyse “the theological concerns and attitudes and conclusions of the author surveyed, together with a brief consideration of these concerns … for people today.

I chose Marsilius of Padua.

The lecturer helpfully noted:

Marsilius [AD1275-1342], a radical critic of much of the teaching and institutional  forms of the church of his day, and in many ways a herald for the secular, pluralist society of own day.

I probably picked him because he sounded a bit of a ratbag – my favourite sort of Christian thinker.

RE113 Marsilius of Padua

The first assignment offered a choice of three areas to report on our reading of primary sources.

I chose:

Identify and discuss the significant agreements and differences between the creed on Nicea and those who sought to modify this … What do these reveal about the course of the debate in the fourth century.

Rather than wrangle OCR, the print out is OK as a pdf image including comments from the lecturer. I was happy enough with the feedback, although he rightly pointed out an over reliance on secondary sources.

RE113 Nicea

I did this subject in second semester 1991 and it was the last external subject I did in my BA at UQ. I can’t remember when the news came that the federal government was reforming external studies and only some universities would continue to provide that form of study. After this subject I had only 4 units left to get a BA and it seemed unfair that UQ would not be one of the universities continuing with external studies. These days nearly everything is available online, but in the pre-internet days I suppose it was hard to justify the expense. I would have to find away to finish my degree internally.

Rev Dr Ian Gillman took this course and though I didn’t meet him until the following year as an internal student, it was obvious that he was an absolute gem of a man. He had been head of the Department for Studies in Religion but I think he was nearing retirement when he took this course so I am not sure if he was in charge at the time.

I have his book “Many Faith’s One Nation” that I picked up years later. He died in 2005 aged 78 years – see his obituary.

This covers Christian thought to just before the Reformation and External Studies provided the usual excellent lecture notes and course readings.

It was assessed by two assignments and an examination. I note there were study groups offered but I did not take up the offer, nor do I recall attending the vacation school. I find it impressive how much was covered and how little I recall.

The second 3000 word assignment was on the topic:

What image of Peter is presented by Paul’s (authentic) letters and by the Gospel of John (including Chapter 21)?

I found this an interesting topic but it appeared I didn’t have as much spare time as with the other assignment and there is less evidence of preparation. I still got a 6 (out of 7) overall.

The essay was not returned as was often the case for the second assignment of a course in those days.

I kept a latish draft (that was printed in draft) and is too faint for OCR. It has both my wife’s exasperated notes and corrections along with my own. It comes up reasonably well as an image in pdf and may surprise those who never submitted an essay on an early word processor, or even had to print one out for that matter. I think I still was using my odd laptop computer with 2 disk drives and no hard drive and am printing to a trusty dot matrix printer. There is a fair bit proper formatting possible with indents and changing from double to single spacing, so it had a degree of sophistication for 1991.

Peter in Paul and John

Discuss the speeches of Peter and Paul in Acts with reference to authorship, style, form, context and theological content.

Peter and Paul

I’m scanning from quarto pages and I’ve left the end notes as that rather than convert to footnotes. I’m using a new scanning setup and I hope I haven’t left too many errors in the pdf.

Frantzmann’s only comment, apart from correcting innumerable typos, was “Good work” and a mark of 42/50.

I did this course in the first semester of 1991, still as an external student and still working full time as a suburban GP.

One again Associate Professor Michael Lattke was taking the course this time with Dr Majella Franzmann who marked my assignments. Lattke was assisted in the preparation of the course materials by his then PhD student Greg Jenks.

Just to torture myself, as I stayed in General Practice forever, it’s nice to see how these people kicked on with their careers.

if you check her Linked in profile you might say Majella Franzmann has had an amazing career, because she has. Her research has taken her around the world and she was Pro Vice Chancellor Humanities at Otago University and then Curtin University.

Greg Jenks of course got his doctorate and is an Anglican priest in diocese of Grafton where he is the Dean of Christ Church Cathedral.  I have his book, “The Once and Future Bible”. He still lectures at Charles Sturt University and for many years was academic Dean at St Francis Theological College in Brisbane.

It speaks to the quality of the staff at UQ thirty odd years ago.

The course materials were extensive along with the usual indispensable reading guide to use in conjunction with the miraculous Thatcher library. It is sad to think that very soon after this the external studies department was cancelled at UQ.