THEO 1432: The Religious Quest
🎵 Recording ⌨ Space / ←→

Gītā 13-18

04/23/2026 · Tue/Thu 12:00-1:15 PM · Brad Bannon · Boston College

📄 Synopsis

This session focused on the final synthesis of the course, centering on a close reading of Bhagavad-Gītā 15:1-5. The instructor, Brad Bannon, led an analysis of the 'upside-down' Aśvattha tree metaphor, comparing translations by Barbara Stoller Miller, R.C. Zaehner, and Gemini AI. Students explored the paradox of cutting down a tree with roots in the divine using the 'axe of detachment,' connecting the imagery to the chariot allegory and the concept of the Purusha. The discussion transitioned into the nature of scripture itself, utilizing Wilfred Cantwell Smith’s concept that sacred texts are inherently 'inscrutable,' meaning their depth allows for continuous re-interpretation across different life stages. Bannon emphasized that the goal of theology, as noted by Francis Clooney, is to learn to see one's neighbor through the lens of the text. The class concluded with instructions for the final podcast and reflection paper assignments.

⚡ Key Takeaways

  • Bhagavad-Gītā 15:1-5 uses the metaphor of an upside-down Aśvattha tree to represent the relationship between the transcendent divine and the manifest world.
  • The 'axe of detachment' is the necessary tool for cutting through worldly attachments to reach the unchanging realm of the divine.
  • Comparing multiple translations reveals how linguistic choices impact the theological interpretation of concepts like 'men' versus 'ones' or 'place' versus 'state.'
  • Wilfred Cantwell Smith argues that scripture is 'inscrutable,' meaning it is inexhaustible and requires ongoing relational engagement rather than a single objective answer.
  • The banyan tree (Aśvattha) is a unique metaphor because its aerial roots grow back down into the earth, creating a complex, interconnected structure that mirrors the one becoming the many.
  • Scripture is relational; a text becomes sacred through the reader's relationship to it and its presence in their personal or family history.
  • The chariot allegory from earlier in the Gita is relevant here, as the senses (horses/twigs) must be disciplined rather than simply destroyed.
  • Theology involves a dialogue around the text that helps practitioners see their neighbors more clearly.
  • Unlike a textbook that is read once and mastered, scripture is revisited at major life transitions because its meaning can shift over time.
  • The instructor highlighted the potential of AI models like Claude and Gemini to understand complex theological teachings, while noting the implications for future graduates.

🎤 Transcript Tap any timestamp to jump the audio player

Opening Meditation and Breathing Exercise

Student
Howdy!
Brad
Let's take a moment and put away screens and just transition, try to be fully present, mind and attention where your body is. Oops!
Student
Let's take a breath together and breathe in and out.
Brad
Word? Word.
Student
Word.
1:16

Attendance and Administrative Announcements

Brad
So the last attendance of the semester— are we missing Wilkes? Alice? Wilkes and Alice, right? Everybody else here? So I might take attendance next week, but if I— whether I do or don't will not affect your attendance grade. It's just for my own data analysis, if you will, trying to correlate, trying to understand grades at the end of the semester. Well, you know, try and do something fun on Tuesday. That's going to be my main goal, is doing something fun that's also maybe review, maybe have some bonus quiz points or something like that. So this will a little bit of incentive to come to class and things. But yeah, and then also something fun next Thursday. And next Thursday, your final reflection papers are due. I'll say a little bit about that before the end of class. And we'll spend the last half hour or so talking about your final podcast assignment. So we'll cover both of those things. Before the end of class today. But I wanted to start by giving attention to Bhagavad Gita 15:1-5. ⚠
2:50

Comparative Analysis of Bhagavad-Gītā Chapter 15 Translations

Brad
So I've been teaching this course for, you know, many, many times, and always end with this for quite a few reasons. But yeah, I want to start— let's start first of all just by reading it. And I think trying to also model good practice here and that sort of stuff, let's read all 3 translations. Let's start. We'll start maybe with Barbara Stoller Miller. Seems to be a popular translation among students this semester. Before we even read it, what do you notice just from looking at it? Should be able to notice something just from looking at it. Yeah, Boris? ⚠
Student
Individual verses are little I don't know if they're longer word-wise, but they're spaced out more than the normal ones you see where it's like 4 lines per verse. ⚠
Brad
Yeah. So the first one is 4 lines for the verse, which is very typical. But then these other 4 verses are much longer. Yeah. So in other words, they don't follow the same meter.
Student
So like—
Student
yeah.
Brad
So like, "Gita" means song, right?
Student
And so it's written in verse, has a particular cadence, particular pattern, particular meter, right?
Brad
Yeah, it's a meter. And these verses also have a meter, but they're different than the rest, right? So when I brought this up, when we were in chapter 2, remember what I said about those longer verses, the other meters? Yeah, Devin?
Student
[Speaker] You said that they were written like at a different time, like probably much earlier.
Student
[Speaker] Probably much older, yeah, right.
Brad
Exactly.
Student
Good.
Brad
So we can take the other verses around it, the four, the Śloka meters, the four-quarter verses, to be, you know, in many cases sort of a commentary on those older verses, right? And so those older verses, a lot of times they're more enigmatic. A lot of times they're very different than what's around them, but always worth paying a little bit of extra attention to, right? Because, you know, there's something going on. If you were to listen to the Gita, right? So the Gita is a song, so it's really meant to be heard, right? Śruti is meant to be heard, and even though this isn't Śruti technically, it's treated as such. So if you were to listen to it, then when you get to those verses, you, I mean, you would hear it, right? It's a significant difference. When we get to those verses. So in any event, with that sort of in mind, why don't we start with— let's start in the back with Dylan. And so we'll go straight down and read these 5 verses in Barbara Stoller Miller, and then we'll do the same for Zaehner and Gemini. ⚠
Brad
Yeah, so just read verse 1 if you don't mind. Roots and in the air, branches unfold. The Tree of Life is unchanging, they say. ⚠
Student
Its leaves are hymns, and he who knows it knows sacred lore.
Brad
Its branches stretch below and above, nourished by nature's qualities, flooding with sense objects.
Student
Aerial roots, tangled in action, reach downward into the world of men.
Brad
Its form is unknown here in the world of Unknown are its ends, its beginning, its extent.
Student
Cut down this tree that has such deep roots with the sharp axe of detachment.
Brad
I am forced to find the roots of my hunger without returning. I seek refuge in the original school of me, from which pure, dear activity stems. ⚠
Student
Without pride or delusion, all attachment overcome. Content on the self within, their desires extinguished, free from dualities, from joy and suffering, undeluded men reach that realm of the unchanging. ⚠
Brad
Okay, yeah, so Cooper, if you go back to the Zaehner.
Student
That state is not illumined by sun and moon.
Brad
Oh, wait.
Student
Zaehner, verse 1. Verse 1.
Brad
Verse 1, sorry.
Student
The blessed Lord said, with roots above and boughs beneath, they say, the undying fig tree stands. Its leaves are the Vedic hymns. ⚠
Brad
Who knows the veda?
Student
Below, above its branches straggle out, well nourished by the constituents.
Brad
Sense objects are the twigs. Below its roots proliferate inseparably linked with works in the world of men.
Student
No form of it can here be comprehended, no end and no beginning, no sure abiding place. This victory with its roots so partly nourished, take the sharp axe of detachment and cut it down. ⚠
Student
And then search out that highest state to which, when once men go, they have not come back again. I fly forth to that, uh, primordial person, um, from whom flowed forth primordial creativity. ⚠
Brad
Not proud, not fooled, all taint of attachment crushed, even abiding in what appertains to self-desire suppressed, released from all dualities, made known in pleasure as in pain, the undiluted march ahead to that state which no one There was no change. Okay, before we continue, just point out some obvious differences between the translations. So what are some of the things that you notice?
Student
Yeah.
Student
The Zaehner one says that it's like a fig tree.
Brad
So the fig tree isn't in the original text. So he added this little detail, right? And so worth paying attention to.
Student
Why would he turn it into a fig tree, right?
Brad
Zaehner's a really good scholar, really good Sanskritist, so yeah, a little unclear why he did that, but he wouldn't have done that unless there was some justification for it. So yeah, good catch. Thanks, Lucas. Yeah, Lucas? I also love the word "the blessed Lord" in the solar pillar. Okay, yeah, yep. I think that has more to do with how I arranged it, but Yep, definitely, yeah, good. Others? We also have this— well, maybe it'll become more obvious in the next translation. Drona, you want to pick up with the Gemini? We don't have to read the part in parentheses, just the— so you want to start with the first one? ⚠
Student
The Blessed Lord Śrī Bhagavān said, roots of above and branches below. ⚠
Brad
They said the Aśvattha tree is imperishable, whose leaves are in the Vedic hymns. He who knows it, he is a knower of the veda.
Student
Below and above is branches spread, nourished by the qualities, with the objects of the senses as its shoots.
Brad
And below is the roots stretched forth, binding to action in the human world.
Student
In this way neither its end nor its beginning nor its foundation, having cut this Aśvattha tree with its firmly grown roots with the strong weapon of non-attachment. ⚠
Brad
Then that place is to be self, having gone to which they do not return again. I seek refuge in the very permanent person, from whom the making and creative energies stream forth. ⚠
Student
Free from pride and delusion, having conquered the fault of attachment, constantly abiding in the supreme self with the desires turned away, freed from the pairs of opposites known as happiness and sorrow, the un-bewildered ones go to that imperishable place. ⚠
Brad
Okay, great. So obviously, you know, we don't know Sanskrit, we're not reading it in Sanskrit, but it is in Sanskrit and the original language is the sacred part, right? So whenever we're reading something in translation, it's a good idea to get multiple translations, right? And so when you compare and contrast these translations, I don't think it's so much a thing of like which one is better.
Student
I think it's better to use multiple, right? And so as—
Brad
because some are going to be better at some things and some are going to be better at other things, right? The only one that you would just from looking at them, the only one that really captures the meter I think is Barbara Soller-Miller, right? And she's very intentional about that. Zayner, not so much. And Gemini actually seems to a couple of times try to put it into Śloka meter, so kind of almost forcing it into the— but still managed to translate all of it. Other things that maybe you notice from one translation to the next? Yeah, thanks. Can I just ask you a more general question? Yeah, sure. Ask away. ⚠
Student
What do you ask Gemini? Like, did you just give it a specific prompt or did you say translate units or sample? ⚠
Brad
So this took me a few hours to create, and I had to go chapter by chapter. And yeah, so prompting it very intentionally to pay attention to meter. And to not translate any sort of problematic words, to put those in parentheses. So it was a process, I would say. ⚠
Student
Everything, yeah.
Student
I think I noticed also throughout is the Gemini translation usually refers to like when Solar Miller says men, it says one. Like it's a— ⚠
Brad
Interesting.
Student
15:05.
Brad
Undeluded men reach that realm beyond change. The unbewildered ones go to that imperishable place. And Xanar doesn't have a gender. The Undeluded march ahead. Interesting. Yeah, very interesting. Yeah, Barbara Stoller Miller is Barbara Barbara Stoller Miller. So yeah, interesting notice. Yeah, good catch. ⚠
Student
I feel like the Solomón and the Zayner translations are much more directional in the fact that you have to engage with this tree and like actually cut it down to like be detached, whereas I don't like pick up that command from the Gemini AI as much. ⚠
Brad
Yeah, it actually says having cut this Aśvattha tree, whereas Stolar Miller says, "Cut down this." So very different verb, totally different verb. And Zaehner, "Take the stout axe of detachment and cut it down." So you've still got the injunction there, cut it down. But yeah, good catch. You don't have that in the Gemini version, which is really significant change. Yeah, good. I hadn't noticed that before. Yeah, Drona? ⚠
Student
I find it interesting that in the Gemini and Stolar Miller versions, they're like, this end place is referred to as a place or somewhere you can actually go, whereas in the Zayner version, it's more of like a state. ⚠
Brad
Okay, word. Cool. And so those can probably both be right. I'd have to look at the Sanskrit, but two very different interpretations of The transcendent.
Student
Yeah, great.
Brad
Anything else?
Student
Yeah, I feel like in the, uh, Stoller Miller one, like, I think a new line starts like after every action. Like, in a way, like, if you look at verse 2, it's like it branches and then stops, and it's like tangled in actions, and then stops, and it's like reach downward. I feel like that pattern kind of repeats itself with a good amount, and it's like kind of separating sentences by like the main thing that's happening Really good catch. ⚠
Brad
Really attentive reading. Yeah, I'd have to look at the Sanskrit, but my guess is that Barbara Stoller Miller was being very faithful to the text. Definitely.
Student
Yeah, good catch.
Brad
Anything else? All right, so what I want to do now, take the next 15 minutes or so and I don't know, I'm open to interpretations of this text. ⚠
15:44

Class Discussion: Interpreting the Upside-Down Banyan Tree

Student
What do you think it means?
Brad
Try to interpret it for me. And I'll— I don't know if I already said this or not, but of all the times I have taught this class, I always end with this text. And for many reasons, I did start with that. And so one of the things that I do, and I try not to do this the rest of the semester, But I always do it with this text is I want you to kind of throw some interpretations out there, throw some interpretations at me. You know, primarily we'll start with your own, but if you have some commentaries that you looked up, then we can bring those in in a moment. But let's start with just your own interpretations of the text, and I will do my best to shoot them down and say what's wrong with them. Everybody loves that, all right? That's a super fun thing to do. You know? But yeah, we'll see if we notice anything as we do that. Anybody have an interpretation? What do you think of this tree? ⚠
Student
Have a visual image of it or what's— Yeah, Ben.
Student
Upside down.
Brad
So it's upside down, yeah?
Student
So the roots are above.
Brad
Right? So, wait, part of all of what? Of how it's talking about the place, or the state, how the two different interpretations differ, but those realms of the world of men, and the state. Self-state tied to it, at least. So something transcendent, something— and then the world of men, the world of people, the world we're in right now. Boris, and then Jaroslavik. ⚠
Student
It's obviously pretty important that you're supposed to cut the tree down with an active detachment, which is like, I feel like backwards compared— when you normally think of a tree of life in other like belief systems, it's usually very important to keep the tree of life. So in my interpretation, this is more representative of the Tree of Life isn't just life, it's attachment to life and like worldly things. ⚠
Brad
Okay.
Student
Sort of individuality. And then the acts of detachment is what you use to realize that, you know, you're part of the one sort of self and like to lose all that. And by cutting it down, you're cutting away your attachment to life.
Brad
So I mean, that sounds accurate, but like cutting your attachment to life doesn't sound like something I so much want to do.
Student
Yeah, difficult, I guess. Maybe that's like the whole point is that it's, you know, backwards, the tree's upside down, you have to cut your death into life. ⚠
Brad
Okay, all right, Yara Salah.
Student
So I have a thought of big like, so we have roots on top and it means our Brahman, uh, and we have the branches at the bottom which is basically the world we see. And so like even by Coming back to his point of cutting the bottom of the tree, right now on the bottom of the tree we have branches, which are, if we cut it, we have that sense of detachment to go to our brahman, to our roots. So this is like upside down, but it makes some sense to cut the tree because now we cut not the roots, but we cut the branches. If you see this image, you know. ⚠
Brad
Yeah, yeah, no, it's great. Yeah, I mean, I think you're on the right track, but let me just argue against it. So the whole idea of Advaita or non-dualism is that both— I mean, so the transcendent is Brahman, sure, just as you explained, but also the imminent world here and now is also Brahman, right? You don't become Brahman, but you are Brahman here and now. So part of Advaita is understanding this world is already transcendent, or seeing the transcendent ascendant in this world. Um, so then, I don't know, cutting down the tree, you know, I'm, I'm down with the image, but like cutting down the tree— rebuttal? Or yeah, Delaney? Um, I don't— ⚠
Student
I think it's more cutting like your attachment to material life rather than just like life itself, because when you're like away from materials, that's when you can like truly focus on yourself and like try find the source of the tree and become more connected to the being that is the tree and kind of go into the next more spiritual realm.
Brad
OK. All right. Yeah, good. Yeah, Lucas?
Student
The kind of visual image I had is like Earth is hollow inside and the tree's growing down. ⚠
Brad
And they're not cutting off the roots completely.
Student
It's just like— I thought more about pruning the tree. So it can like go like further down to like maybe like the core of the earth, like Brahmin, but being connected to like the earth still, but then the direction you're going towards— ⚠
Brad
Okay, interesting. Yeah, I mean, I'm down with pruning for sure.
Student
Down with pruning, but it doesn't say pruning, it says cutting.
Brad
But, but I could— okay, so I'll follow that. So like, if it, if it means— if we can interpret it as pruning, chill with that. Yeah, Brian. ⚠
Student
I think verse 6 is also important. It says, neither sun, nor moon, nor fire illuminates my highest abode. Once there, they do not return. And then that actually goes with— I think it's at the beginning of verse 4. Then search to find the realm that one enters without returning. And when Arjuna is in the chariot, and he's given the divine eye, and he sees all of this, and he sees everything. It's kind of too much, but would never be able to see it without that divine eye. So I think the way I'm seeing it is almost like impossible to find this thing, because without a divine eye, nothing will illuminate that thing unless you cut down the tree. So it's like a necessary action in order to kind of escape the cycle of life and death and then transcend that and become— they reach the highest abode. ⚠
Brad
Okay, great. Yeah, I want to push, you know, again pushing back. So like, I mean, the whole point of Arjuna getting the divine eye in order to have this experience is because something should follow that, right? So he had that experience, but that's not the end of the story. Then there's some sort of karma that comes after it, right? So he's got to do his duty. So then If the— if you're supposed to— or are you saying like you have this experience, but then you've got to bifurcate, you've got to draw a line, that experience is over, now you have to go into the world, or? ⚠
Student
I think kind of just like it's like a necessary step. So you have to have— whether it's a realization of divinity or just realizing that you can't get to this place without these things happening first, and that thing happens to be cutting down this tree of attachment. ⚠
Brad
Okay, good.
Student
Wilkes and Sophia?
Student
It also says that the branches well-nourished by the constituents are sense objects, or the twigs. So like kind of a connection there to the chariot analogy that like the twigs or like the bottom part of it is like your senses, and then so you're getting rid of them because you're opting to like not focus just on like the earthly like senses, like feel, touch, smell, but rather like your soul and like I guess like the teachings of the Gita. Like this is kind of telling you like cut away like your like attachments and your focuses on like earthly stuff, which is kind of a little bit what Krishna's— or Arjuna— or yeah, Krishna's telling Arjuna, and kind of focus on like your soul and like your brahman and that stuff. ⚠
Brad
First of all, excellent connection to the chariot allegory, for sure. But the chariot allegory, the horses are the senses, and the horses are what makes the chariot go, right? So I mean, like, they don't— it's not like So that you're supposed to have control over your senses, disciplined, right? So not just letting the horses, not just run to this thing that smells good or tastes good or looks good or whatever. That's not being in discipline. That's not being in control. But I also don't want to like cut off my horses, right? Because if I cut off my horses, then Cherry ain't gonna move anymore, right? So I don't know. Again, I'm just pushing back. It's a good interpretation. Sophia? ⚠
Student
I read a commentary that was talking about maternalistic desires. And I guess those with those desires don't have moments of peace. Their mind is always full of anxiety. And this guy had said that tension never ends. Desires are prepackaged with the seed of anxiety. So if the branches contain the seed, You're like cutting those off, I don't know, and then you're like separating yourself from these like materialistic desires that will only like cause you more tension inside. ⚠
Brad
Sure, I mean, I'll buy that, but the roots of the tree are in the sky, right? So the roots are in the transcendent. So aren't those seeds like the flourishing or the fruit of the divine? I don't know. Yeah, again, just pushing back. Anybody else? Just like, no, Brad, this is an irritating fucking assignment. What are you doing? Anybody have some other commentaries you want to bring in? ⚠
Student
Anything else to add here?
Brad
I won't push back at all, I promise. I will explain what I'm doing and why. OK, let me shed a little bit more— Can we give another perspective? So we have here the fig tree. Why do you think Zayner brings in the fig tree? I mean, we don't know. I don't know, but I could speculate. ⚠
Student
Elliot?
Student
I think it's to highlight the fact that the branches bear fruit, and fruit is kind of like the pleasure and material benefits of actions, I guess. And it's kind of like saying to detach yourself from that. That's what I thought the fig tree meant. ⚠
Brad
Okay, so focusing on the fruit, so it needs to have some sort of fruit, right? It could also be— I mean, he's a Jesuit scholar, right, at Oxford. I mean, he's passed away now, but could be maybe had some more of like the Christian notion of the fig tree, like the fig tree that we read about in Mark's Gospel, which is actually in all the Gospels, but Could be, but the text uses the word ashvatā tree, which is another name for a banyan tree, and banyan trees, they don't really have so much in the US. I hear there's a pretty massive one in Florida somewhere, but it's a pretty tropical plant, so, or tropical tree. So most of you may not know what a banyan tree is. But a banyan tree is a very unusual— this is one tree. Sorry, all of the images that I found were really pixelated and low quality. Sorry about that. But hopefully you can kind of make out enough here. So this is a banyan tree from— ⚠
Student
in Thailand.
Brad
This particular one is estimated to be around 350 years old. It's again one tree, not a— it's not a forest.
Student
It's one tree.
Brad
There's the largest one, which I think is in Calcutta in India, is around 125 acres. So it's like really, really large. You can actually see it from space, this one tree, because it's just that massive. And so as you can kind of tell, you know, Right, so it grows up like trees do, but then it grows out like trees do. But then unlike most trees, it also grows back down and it reroots, right? So the roots kind of come down. You can hear again, see another, right? So the roots go up and then over and then back down. A little bit easier to see here. So this is a different Spanien tree, and so not nearly as old as the other one. So it's easier to tell what sort of the central trunk is, right, in this particular one. Yeah, another one, another one. With that in mind, anybody have any other interpretation? This might come back to Lucas's idea of pruning. Then, right? Because then you could understand like, all right, I'm going to cut here but not cut all of them, right? ⚠
Student
So that would be more along the lines of pruning.
Brad
I don't know, other interpretations, ideas?
Student
Yeah.
Student
I mean, it kind of comes to mind, it's like it'd be very hard to cut the branches or like the— because they're also intertwined. ⚠
Brad
Unwind.
Student
I don't really have an answer, but like, it wouldn't— you'd have to cut all of them. You couldn't just cut one because they're all so connected and like they flow into one another.
Brad
And yeah, so I mean, it doesn't say cut all of them, right? So, so that could be— that's sort of like along the pruning sort of metaphor too. Yeah, yeah.
Student
It just like reminds me of like the one becoming the many, and then it all started from one trunk, but they've all formed their own unique trunks.
Brad
So then we've got that connects also with the Purusha, right? So the Purusha Sukta, so the, I mean, we've got the word Purusha in there, right? That primordial person. ⚠
Student
So the one that has become the many.
Brad
So in the sense that the one banyan tree almost seems like it has become many. You could probably even, I don't even know, I don't know that much about banyan trees, but you could maybe Cut them so that they're separate, but they would still— so they would look like separate trees even though they're technically kind of clones of each other. Yeah, Eduardo? ⚠
Student
For me, it reminds me of the bed sheet example.
Brad
Yeah.
Student
I'm thinking maybe the tree originally acts as one sheet and the earth as another. And when it grows these roots and reaches back down, that's like the point in which— I guess like were created just like this, a singular person, but then when it's time to cut the tree, they're detached. Both parts still exist, but I don't know if I'm phrasing that right. ⚠
Brad
Yeah, no, no, you're phrasing it exactly right. Yeah, so the two bed sheets is one of the other, right? We focused on mimamsa and vedanta, but yoga is one of the six systems, and yoga is the dualistic system. System. It's like the transcendent plane and the— we explained it very well actually, right? And then so the roots above and the leaves below, and then wherever those two join, yoga, yuj, right? Wherever those two are joined, then you get an Eduardo, right? So, but then that's still, I mean, that seems a very legitimate interpretation. But I don't want to— ⚠
Student
I mean, the whole point of being Eduardo is to be that unique joining, right?
Brad
So then, if I cut that, then sure, we still got the self of all beings, we've still got the physical universe, but we've lost Eduardo, right? So, it seems like that is the divine coming into the world, right? The whole point of being Eduardo is to be Eduardo. I don't want to cut that off, right? Even as you were talking, even as you're explaining it though, I was thinking, well, maybe in a different context we could understand it as like a funeral march or something, right? So like, okay, so we're not cutting Eduardo or just Eduardo's already gone and we're kind of like psychologically acknowledging that what's actually happened is the physical body of Eduardo is still here, the spirit of Eduardo is still in existence, but just not joined as Eduardo anymore. ⚠
Student
So that could be it.
Brad
Lucas, did you help here? Okay. Anybody else? All right. So here's one more interpretation. So another image I found. So I think the image kind of speaks for itself, you know, but the roots are in God or the divine, right? And then the leaves, I mean, it says the leaves and the branches are the Vedas, right? But maybe the fruits of the Vedas are our actions in the world, right? And so here he's cutting the attachments to the world, but it seems like the whole point of the upside-down tree is to engage in action, dharmic action in the world, right? To bring justice into the world, not to stand idly by while people are being victimized or abused, but, um, right, to engage in just righteous action in the world. So I don't know, still, um, still troubled. I think, uh, I would be very happy with, um, this entire passage if it just didn't have the whole, uh cut down the tree thing, right? Why give this beautiful, beautiful image of the transcendent divine God flourishing in the world, in and through our actions in the world? ⚠
Brad
Everything about that I absolutely love, except for the whole cut down the tree part of it, right? But that's the thing with scripture is you don't get to pick and choose what it says, right? You don't get to decide it should should say this or it should say that, right? It says what it says. So if it's scripture, then it's all scripture, right? There's this— kids, I want to say one more thing here. Let's get to Wilfred Cantwell Smith. Not the first time that I've talked about him this semester. And one of the things I said in Chapter 1, Wilfred Campbell Smith says, you know, the goal of studying something called Hinduism isn't to understand this made-up category called Hinduism, but instead to try and see the world through the eyes of a Hindu, right? To see the world through the eyes of someone else, or to see the world through the eyes of a Christian. So that was him. He's a great comparativist, and one of the things that he said was, uh, was that he was really interested in this idea of scripture, uh, or, um, sacred, sacred texts. ⚠
Brad
And, um, you know, it's one thing to like call something scripture, yeah, just sort of taxonomically saying, okay, if I say scripture, certain things come to mind, right? Like the Quran or the Hebrew Bible or the Greek Testament or the Bhagavad Gita, right, or the Vedas. But as Smith points out, scripture is kind of relational, right? So what makes the text sacred is your relationship to it, right? We saw that in Cluny. So like, if you're going to approach a text that's not sacred to you and you're going to approach it as a sacred text, well, that's challenging. 'Cause the text isn't sacred for you, right? So then Smith being scholar wanted to approach this from a real academic perspective. ⚠
36:11

Theological Lecture: The Nature and Function of Scripture

Student
What do we mean?
Brad
How can we define scripture? What are the aspects? What are the qualities of scripture? Sort of across the board. And maybe surprisingly, but poignantly, here we're coming to like a point I want to make. He said scripture must, or is, I think is, probably is always inscrutable. Can't pass up the opportunity to make a joke, right? I love saying scripture is inscrutable because Inscrutable is inscrutable, right? What does inscrutable mean? Inscrutable means you don't know what it means. So scripture is inscrutable, and inscrutable is inscrutable because no one knows what it means. Because I ask every class and no one ever knows what it means. Now you got the joke, right? The best jokes are always ones that you have to explain. You want to hear my best joke ever? I didn't even tell this class. This is my best joke ever. This is the highlight of my life. This is like the best thing that ever happened to me. Yeah, you want to hear this, no? Whatever. Um, so just for context, right? It's just for fun. This is free. You don't have to pay for this. ⚠
Brad
Um, uh, when I was at Harvard, um, I was my, um, doing my— I was doing this thing where we like had all these doctoral students come and, um, uh, it was like a teaching conference, right? It was like conference for doctoral students to learn how to teach, pedagogy conference or whatever. And so it was also a great opportunity to like get to meet other doctoral students because we didn't usually like intermingle or whatever. And so I was hosting this little session and beforehand, you know, I'm supposed to like talk to people and like make friends. And this guy comes in and it's like, you know, I'm like, hey, you know, welcome. What do you, you know, what are you doing here? They're all doctoral students. It was like, what are you doing here? I said, "What area are you in?" He's like, "Philosophy." I was like, "Oh, I love philosophy. What kind of philosophy do you do?" He said, "Oh, I'm a peripatetic philosopher." I said, "Are you ready for this?" I said, "Oh, so you don't drive?" Yeah. I had a long, appropriately long pause waiting for his laughter. ⚠
Student
Which did not come.
Brad
And he just stared at me, and actually then he got like this Harvard scowl on me, like I'm an idiot. And he's like, "No, peripatetic philosophy is like philosophy of Aristotle, right?" And I said, "Yeah, bro, I know that, but the word peri— ⚠
Student
pathetic—
Brad
peri meaning like perimeter, like walking, like around, and pathetic like walking, so like walking around." walking around. So you're a paraplegic philosopher, so you don't drive. Scripture is so inscrutable. So the point— that's the whole story. ⚠
Student
Did you also explain it to him?
Brad
Yeah, I explained it to him. And he got embarrassed? A little bit. A little bit. Yeah, a little bit. He was like, I'm never coming to one of those conferences again. I thought it was the one situation where that joke would land. Right? The one situation where that joke would land. And I just came up with it off the top of my head. Anyway, it was funny. So scripture is inscrutable. What do you think he means by that? Why would this be a feature of scripture? It's not a— yeah, why would that be a feature? ⚠
Student
Maybe because there's not like an objective answer. Like right now we're talking about different interpretations, but I don't think you even have like a— there's not like a black or white, like true or false, like no, you're wrong, this is the answer. Like everyone can somewhat have their own interpretation and like you can't really say like, no, that's wrong. Like obviously some probably are less right than others, but there's not like a right answer. ⚠
Brad
Right on, 100%. Yep.
Student
I was going to say the same thing.
Brad
Okay. Yep.
Student
I was just going to say that we didn't write it, and because we didn't write it ourselves, we can't ever truly know the true meaning of what it was intended for. We can try to guess, but we may never be right. ⚠
Brad
For sure. Why is this a feature though? Why is this a benefit? Only the divine can know the truth. Okay. So that's a common way of looking at it. Only the divine can know. Yep. Hannah? ⚠
Student
I feel like also, I know we've talked about scripture like staying relevant to the current time, so not knowing truly like means that we can then relate to it and apply it to whatever it is that we're going through. ⚠
Brad
Right on. You guys are like writing his book for him. Yeah, absolutely. So it leaves it open for interpretation, but the point is to interpret it, right? And so how does that interpretation happen? At least in this course.
Student
I feel like also part of it is like if everybody just agreed on everything that the scripture said, there'd be no point in— yeah, you'd be kind of just blindly following it at that point. Yeah, if you don't disagree about something, you can't really like figure out why you personally think something is the way it is. ⚠
Brad
You just—
Student
yep, great.
Brad
Olivia? Also, like, I feel like if there was like one straightforward answer, like no one would actually read it. So that's back to the point of like being relevant. Like people want to read it so they can interpret it, but if there was just one answer, then everyone would be like, okay, like no one would really care. Great, excellent. ⚠
Student
Yeah, like the whole point is that we can draw like the anchor and the circle and like through a dialogue we can kind of get different points of views and try to screw, screw the bullet. ⚠
Brad
Screw it, screw it. Yeah, I like that. Good, excellent. Very much on point. Yeah, yeah, I think there's some— well, I mean, just a couple of— this is kind of a rephrasing of what you guys have already said. All of those points are super on point. So if Scripture were like, I don't know, like chemistry textbook or something, right? You just go, you read it, and You understand it, then you move on to the next book. So you don't need to keep rereading it if you've understood it. Especially like a math book, right? You read algebra, you don't need to go back to your algebra book. The whole point is you read it, you understood it, you move on. You don't keep coming back to it at major decision points in your life, or major— when your parents die, or when somebody close to you dies, or when something significant is going on in your life. You're feeling lost at sea, like I talked about in the opening lecture, you don't go back to your algebra book, right? ⚠
Brad
But you can go back to a text, particularly a text that means something to you, has significance to you. I was thinking about this as I was listening to your podcast on the way in, and trying to make this point, or wanting to make this point, that like scripture is always going to be scripture for you, right? It's not going to be— it's hard to approach somebody else's text as if it were scripture, right? As I was thinking, listening to your podcast, and you guys were talking about Mark chapter 4 and Jesus standing up in the boat and saying, peace be still, right? You said that this is on your grandfather's tombstone, right? So That, I mean, that means that it means so much more to you even before you ever read the text, right? ⚠
Student
Because it's already, it's part of your history, it's part of your family, it's part, right?
Brad
So no matter how much studying of the Gita you do, you're never going to have that kind of connection to the text because you don't have that family connection. Does that make sense? I'm trying to say, right? So a few things. One is that scripture is inscrutable. That's why we keep coming back to it, because there's always more to understand. That's why Jesus spoke parabolically, right? In order that they won't understand, but in parables, sort of around the point, so that you can come back to a text and maybe it means something. Maybe it means one thing at one point in your life, but then you come back to it at a different time in your life and it means something different, right? Like Eduardo's thing about the joinings, right? Maybe that means one thing, like I don't like the interpretation, If it means like cutting off everything that's unique about Eduardo, but if you put that in the context of a funeral, then all of a sudden, really, I could kind of vibe with that a little bit, right? Cool. And the— oh, the other important thing is Clooney's— ⚠
Student
what we said in chapter 1, right?
Brad
The whole point of theology, as Clooney said, is to learn to see our neighbor through the text, right? So reading the text is important. Using the text to help us understand ourselves and our place in the world, all that's important, right?
Student
But at the end of the day, truly doing theology means doing it around the text with your neighbors and learning to see your neighbors through the lens of that text, right?
Brad
Word? Cool. All right. Well, we got half an hour left, and I want to give you some more direction. I don't know, lights on or off?
Student
It's just text.
45:57

Final Podcast Assignment Guidelines and AI Integration

Brad
Off. I want to give you some more direction on the final podcast assignment. So I will provide this to you.
Student
I haven't provided it to you yet.
Brad
I wanted to kind of go over it in class. I've spent, just to be honest, I've taught this class many times before, and every time is a little bit different. I always try to partly make it different for me, but also try to improve upon it, you know, kind of tweak it, tweak it, make it a little bit better. And I could not be more happy with this particular version of the course. Of all the versions that I've taught, this one is, uh, like low-key chef's kiss. So, um, kind of, kind of proud of that. And I spent way too much time on this particular podcast prompt. Um, I mean, most of the last 10 days actually has been working on this little thing I'm going to read you, mostly on this, um, one prompt. I spent a lot of time in dialogue with the various like Gemini and Claude, mostly Claude, Sonnet 4.6 Adaptive that just came out last week. And wow. I mean, I've been trying, I've been engaged with AI to try and understand my courses for the past, you know, 4 years. ⚠
Brad
This is the first time that, like literally the first time where I felt like an AI model understood a significant part of what I was teaching. So that's kind of cool. But it also kind of means that like maybe not the best news for graduates, grad, 'cause like, you know what I'm trying to say? What I'm trying to say is this, like I know at CSOM and other places, they kind of pit you against each other and you're competing with other students to perform and curving grades and all that kind of stuff. It's not my bag. It's not my vibe. You're not competing each other. ⚠
Student
You're literally supposed to work with each other, teammates and team discussion, all that kind of stuff, lift each other up and that kind of stuff. ⚠
Brad
But you are not going to— you are competing against AI for real. That's kind of your future, I think. So it's good to at least know what AI is capable of comprehending and what it's not. Anyway, the prompt is 100% Brad. Every comma, every parentheses, all me. Claude kept trying to change that shit and I was like, bruh, no, you literally can't make this better. Literally every time he tried to do something, I was like, no, it's worse. So I was like, stop trying to, you know, mess with perfection. All right. So here's the prompt, right? For Podcast 5, comma, demonstrate— ⚠
Student
key verb there—
Brad
demonstrate your understanding of the core themes and methods that I've emphasized consistently and sometimes repeatedly and occasionally parenthetically through my lectures, my writings, and the specific texts that I curated for you this semester by—
Student
here's the instrumental— by applying the comparative theology methods of Francis Clooney, S.J., as taught by me in this course in Unit 1 and in Unit 4, to— here's the accusative—
Brad
to Mark 10:45 and Bhagavad Gita Bhagavad Gita 2:47. Now I know in your podcast 4, a lot of you engaged with 2:47, which is great and appropriate for so many reasons, right? It is kind of the synopsis of the Bhagavad Gita. And so, you know, I don't want to belabor the point, but I also feel like maybe a little bit more than a little bit was left on the table. And mostly I'm using this as an anchor for you to kind of go in other directions, right? So the idea is for you to demonstrate your understanding of the core themes and the core methods that I've taught this semester, right? The whole semester, I think more than themes, more than concepts, more than vocabulary, I've emphasized method. Even today, I've emphasized method through and through, right? So method is the— ⚠
Student
method is the key.
Brad
So I want you— and it's not just one method, right? There's the basic theological method, right, that theology is a philosophical investigation of first principles anchored in a canon of texts. Even the definition is a method, right? But then there's also other methods like upasamhara, right, coordinating this text with that text, which is a skill. And samanvaya, so learning how to harmonize this passage with that passage. And harmonize doesn't mean saying they say the same thing. Harmonize means seeing that they are similar and different, right? So that's what harmony is, as I wrote about in that chapter 13. ⚠
Student
So here's the two verses, and I'll give you this, but so I gave it to you in Sanskrit: karmani eva adhikaraste ma phaleshu kadacana ma karma phala hetu bhur ma tesango svadharmani. ⚠
Brad
So your right— and this is a terrible word— but your adhikāras. Your adhikāras is your— remember we talked about mimamsa, like in order to perform a ritual you have to meet certain criteria, right? So like in order to perform that ritual I showed the video of, you have to be 60 years old, right? So So that's adhikāra��a. Adhikāra��a is your qualification to perform this karma. And so here, your adhikāra��a is only to your action, your mandate. I like, kind of like mandate actually, but your mandate, your control, your obligation, whatever you want, is to karma, your action alone, never to its fruits. Let not the fruits of actions be your motive, 'Nor let your attachment be to inaction.' Now, this is not the definitive— I mean, I've already complained about this translation as I was reading it, so no translation is going to be adequate, right? So part of the thing is to pay attention to the vocabulary, pay attention to the grammar. I've given you lots of tools. In fact, there is a link to the Gita tool right here, right? ⚠
Brad
So you can dig into any of the verses You know, you can jump right into—
Student
by the way, I like this interface less and less every time I use it.
Brad
Super open to suggestions and feedback, but you could, you know, you can look at multiple translations here. You can dig into the words themselves and ask questions and that kind of stuff, right? So you've got the tools there to engage with the text even if you don't have any Sanskrit under your belt. Likewise with the Greek. So I've given you Mark 10:45 in the Greek and in translation with a little, little bit of gloss down here too, grammatical gloss. ⚠
Student
For the Son of Man— important title there— came not to be served but to serve.
Brad
Actually, even this verb is significant.
Student
Elthan, the orith, the aorist of arrival.
Brad
So not a birth, not an incarnation, not what we find in like Matthew or Luke, but came. The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom, right?
Student
So lytron.
Brad
Key, key verse there, key word there, for the many. So what I'm looking for— yeah, so what I'm looking for— the prompt is simple on purpose. ⚠
Student
A simple instruction in a single sentence demands that you make the hermeneutic decisions. That's the point. You've spent a semester learning methods and reading texts.
Brad
And we've done a lot of this work together. And podcast 5 is your chance to show me that, you know, what you actually heard, right, Śruti.
Student
What follows is not a checklist, it's a demonstration.
Brad
10 examples of the kinds of moves that I'm looking for. After much prompting and context engineering, I mean, literally like, you know, most of this week I've spent on this little page. They're pretty, they're really pretty good. ⚠
Student
I crafted these 10 possible paths together, and it was, I think, a pretty collaborative effort. What Claude cannot do, and what you can do, is engage in genuine honest discourse with your teammates, making sincere eye contact and actually see one another through the texts. If your motive is your grade rather than the genuine desire to learn from your neighbor, that is always audible in the recording. ⚠
Brad
So I encourage you to act without that particular attachment to the fruits. The text can be taken in any order.
Student
There is no requirement to begin and end with either verse. All that matters is that both 247 and 1045 are part of the journey, and the journey uses the methods of this course.
Brad
Also, one of the things that we have done in the past for your other podcasts, and this is part of my method, was, you know, that's, all right, Brian takes a turn and leads the discussion, then Elliot takes a turn, leads the discussion, then Delaney takes a turn and leads the discussion. You know, I mean, I think that's a natural, normal way to do it. ⚠
Student
You can still do it that way.
Brad
But it can also be a lot more fluid, right? So all of you are supposed to engage with 247 and 1045, and all of you are supposed to bring in some other coordinating, harmonizing texts. So do that in any way that you want. It doesn't have to be like going from person to person. ⚠
Student
Organic is cool in the gang. Cool.
Brad
Any questions so far? All right. Couple other things. So I think— so the podcast is due Tuesday, but I'm really pretty flexible. Yeah, I think I really need it by Wednesday, by Thursday, if at all possible. But I don't want you to be crunched for time or effort or whatever. So if you need longer than Tuesday, just let me know, okay? And I think in terms of length, you know, 30 minutes would kind of, I think, be on the low side. Try not to go over 45 minutes. Minutes. So 30 to 45 would be, I think, sweet spot. If it's longer than 45, as my old guru used to say, if it's shorter, it better be good, and if it's longer, it better be interesting. So yeah, wise words. So I'll give this to you. I don't have time to read through all of it, but it's kind of too good for me to totally ignore. So I've, yeah, these have been through many different iterations. I'm really pretty impressed with them. So let's just go through one of them. ⚠
58:14

Theology of Teaching: Guru, Rabbi, and the Word Heard

Brad
I actually kind of had Jane in mind because you're teachers, thinking about different career paths and that kind of stuff. Different, yeah, different career paths. And so let's follow the student-teacher path, right? ⚠
Student
Guru, rabbi, and the word that must be heard. So the point here is to try and get a sense of like what's the value of comparative theology? What's the value of reading these texts back and forth?
Brad
What's the value of this? The whole semester I've encouraged you to postpone comparison. Right, to let each text speak on its own. We still want to do that, but at some point we got to get to the comparison, right? And so this is, this is what this is.
Student
So the Gita is not a philosophical treatise that someone found. It's a conversation, a teaching, someone in crisis, someone who cares, a question asked in the right moment. That form is the theology, and it's the same form in Mark. So you could start with the Mandukya Upanishads, the Mandukya's method, purva purva pravilapana, which we discussed in Chapter 13 and then the February 26th class. So progressive disillusion. The goal isn't to add content to the student's mind, it's to remove what obstructs, right? ⚠
Brad
So in the reader I said, like cleaning a window.
Student
The view was always there. The teacher's job is not to transfer information from my head to yours, but to point, right, you are the 10th person. The student had to trust the teacher enough to hear it. That trust is not automatic. And notice the Mandukya coordinates the Om meditations of the Chandogya with the consciousness teachings of the Brahmadaranyaka and harmonizes them, upasamhara and samanvaya, at the level of sound itself, as I wrote about in Chapter 13. Then you can shift from there, right, to the notion of shabda. So the word must be spoken by someone who truly cares. Shabda becomes Śruti. So that's lecture that I gave, one of the three lectures I gave on March 31st, right? The word becomes heard only when spoken directly, personally, without mediation by a teacher to a student who is eager to hear it and receives it humbly. ⚠
Brad
Tat tvam asi, Shvetaketu, my dear son. Father and son, that intimate relationship, right? Uddalaka has everything at stake.
Student
The student must recognize that the teacher cares, and that recognition is what makes the shabda into Śruti. I think there's a passage here from class. A student asked whether the truth can be a solitary journey, just you and God.
Brad
I responded, you need to, you need a teacher to embody that role and to point point to the student in that sort of way.
Student
Another student said, the truth must be spoken by someone who truly cares, someone who really embodies those characteristics. And I added that it's not just that the teacher cares, but the student has to recognize that the teacher cares. That recognition is what makes the shabda into Śruti. ⚠
Brad
I think a key aspect of pedagogy, actually.
Student
So say many experts.
Brad
Coordinate to Naciketas at death's door, right?
Student
So from Chapter 8 and the February 10th class, Yama turns out to be the greatest teacher in the text, but only, as emphasized in class that day, only because Naciketas is the greatest student. Yama says so explicitly, right?
Brad
He— the student is the one who asks the best questions. And has the right desires.
Student
So his desire is for wisdom itself, a sign which is itself a sign of wisdom. The third boon, the one, the one that Yama tries 3 times to refuse, right, the question that he asked, do I exist after death or not, the student won't be bought off. He returns to the hard question and earns the teaching by not giving up.
Brad
You could connect that then, of course, to 2:47 as the guru's central instruction.
Student
Arjuna is paralyzed. Krishna doesn't hand him a pamphlet. He speaks to him directly in crisis in the chariot. Karmāni eva adhikārasteh. The form of the instruction is as important as the content. The guru does not teach remotely, but a living voice responds to a living crisis. And the second half, my Nishkama phala hetu bhur. Not even the teacher claims authorship of the student's transformation. ⚠
Brad
And then finally coming to Mark's Gospel.
Student
So at the Transfiguration, the most theophanic moment in the Gospel, Moses and Elijah are present. A voice from the cloud. Peter's instruction is not to bow. He says, Rabbi, teacher. Of all the titles available at this moment, right? He could say Son of Man. ⚠
Brad
He could say Son of God.
Student
He could say Messiah. He could say anything, but he chooses that one. Rabbi, teacher. Of all the titles that are available in the moment, he reaches for the pedagogical one.
Brad
Then the Son of Man came not to serve but to be served—
Student
came not to be served but to give. Um, the diakonēsē, diakonēsē, easy for me to say, um, the serving, the giving, um, is the teacher's final demonstration. ⚠
Brad
Not a lecture that's given, but instead a life that's given.
Student
I think it's pretty nice, huh? Yeah, um, I am impressed with the level of understanding.
Brad
Um, again, not, not like a simple prompt that generated these, but, um, but, um, yeah, I don't know. Any questions? I don't know if I— if there's much benefit in continuing to read these as good as they are. You get a sense of what I'm looking for? Any questions about what I'm looking for? So I'm looking for your journey through the course, right? And the journey that's anchored at various steps from particular scriptural passages, right? So one of the things that we did today, right, starting with the Starting with the Bhagavad Gita 15:1-5, right? And from there we went very quickly into like the Purusha Sukta. ⚠
Student
I mean, suggested by the text, right?
Brad
We went there to the differing interpretations of purusha versus prakriti, matter and spirit. And, you know, so many other ways that we could go. Questions? Okay. On here, I also gave links to the course reader, which obviously you have, but just kind of making it handy. And of course, the transcripts and sessions. If you were to— I mean, I think reviewing some of the things would be highly recommended. If you were not sure where to start, I would highly recommend March 17th, really super important pedagogical lesson, right? So I mean, we've got these anchors in the course. Obviously the opening lecture and so these lectures on method, the first 2 lectures on method including chapter 1. And then something similar is going on here after the midterm. So I talked about method a lot on the 12th and especially on the 17th. Sorry, this is 10:30. No, noon or whatever. So, you know, you could even have a look at the board from that day. Right, what I'm trying to do is, I mean, everything that I covered in that lecture, it's kind of a foreshadowing of your final assignment. ⚠
Brad
So I want you to, you know, follow this journey, anchor your discourse in the Bhagavad Gita and in the Gospel of Mark, but the point isn't just to stay with your anchor here or there, but to journey back and forth between the two, right, and see what is gained from from the comparison. Cool? All right. Final reflection paper. So let me take a moment on that. So your final reflection paper, unlike the— unlike your final podcast, We've spent a tremendous amount of time carefully crafting the prompt. Not so much the case with your final reflection paper. So for your final reflection paper, it should be a minimum of 3 pages and a maximum of 3 pages. ⚠
1:07:41

Final Reflection Paper Requirements and Closing

Student
So somewhere right in the range of 3 pages.
Brad
So, you know, standards, all that kind of stuff. You know, if you're a couple sentences over or under, whatever. That's fine, but aim for pretty clear. And obviously I'm generally never opposed to using AI if you're good at it and you know what you're doing, but don't use it to write your paper. You should write your paper yourself, right? Use it to learn things, use it to make connections, learn— ⚠
Student
use it however you want, but don't use it to write.
Brad
That'd be bad. I spend a lot of time every day reading stuff that AI wrote, so I feel like I know the difference, but whatever. I encourage you to write it on your own. What I'm looking for, pretty simple. It's a reflection, okay?
Student
So must use I.
Brad
You must speak from, you know, genuinely, authentically, honestly. All that kind of stuff.
Student
So it's about you and your journey through the course.
Brad
But more specifically, I'm looking for your reflection on theology and comparative theology. So theology is a discourse. And you don't have to spend any time in the paper telling me things I already know. You don't have to give me the definition of theology. I know what's in there.
Student
You can reference it. You can talk about it.
Brad
But you don't have to waste space telling me what I already know. You know what I mean? If you're talking about Mark 10:45, you don't have to give me Mark 10:45. You can just say Mark 10:45. You know what I'm saying?
Student
You don't have to print the verse there.
Brad
I can always look it up, in other words. Same with the Gita, same with the other texts. So if you're referencing the reader, use the— nomenclature I've given you, like for Chapter 8, Section 4, which is a pretty important one, right? Just say 8.4. You don't have to— that's right. Fine. So part of the idea of 3 pages is so that you can really maximize your space in there, right? Winston Churchill once said, you know, if you want me to give a speech for 15 minutes, I need a minimum of a month advance notice. He said, if you want me to give a 30-minute speech, I need a minimum of a week notice. If you want me to speak for an hour, I'm ready right now. So 3 pages should be way harder to write than 6 pages is the point. So things about theology. So theology is philosophical investigation of first principles. Who am I? What is this world that I'm living in? ⚠
Student
What are my responsibilities to myself and to others and nature and transcendent, those sort of things. Theology must speak to the present moment, major theme running through the whole course. ⚠
Brad
So how does this course, how do the things that you learned, how do they relate to you here and now? How do they relate to you, especially seniors? Are you a senior? No. Seniors that are about to leave. Oh my God, you got to talk about that, right? So like, how does this relate to your profession, right? You're about to be a professional. I mean, you are a professional, start acting like it, thinking like it, writing like it, right? So how do the things that— how does theology in general and the things taught in this course, how do they speak to your profession or speak to your professional obligations and your understanding of yourself as a professional? As a professional. And lastly, the comparative thing, right? We could have spent the whole time just on Hindu theology. I know we spent a lot more time on Hindu theology than on Christian stuff. But we could have spent the whole time on one or the other. So what is the benefit of reading them back and forth? If there's no benefit, then what are we doing here? Right? ⚠
Brad
So clear understanding of what I want from the final reflection paper? Or not? Cool. So I will probably take attendance on Tuesday and Thursday, but as I already said, it does not figure into your attendance grade. I think we will play some sort of a game on Tuesday and Thursday, and maybe there be a prize like bonus points on the quiz grade or something like that. But hopefully it should be fun. Have a good weekend. Yeah? I just have a question for the podcast. Are like, you know, we did each, like all 10 of these collectively, or like, are they operating independently? I'm a little blind right now. Oh, you don't have to— hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. You don't have to use any of those 10 paths. ⚠
Student
You don't, no, don't use any of those 10 paths.
Brad
The 10 paths are just like examples. Examples, I actually think they're really super helpful examples, but you don't have to use any of those 10 paths. But what I want you to do is something similar, right? So draw connections. So each of you should kind of have your own path. And I think it would be it would be a good idea for you to spend maybe half an hour or so talking together before you hit the record button. Yeah? ⚠
Student
Good.
Brad
I was about to like those paths. ⚠
Student
Can I use one?
Brad
If you like one of them, definitely be inspired by it. Definitely you can. Yeah, sure.
Student
For sure.
Brad
I think they're pretty good. How do you all know about doing podcasts?
Student
So what's going on here?
Student
Well, you can no longer tell. ⚠

THEO 1432: The Religious Quest · Brad Bannon · Boston College

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