And Know a Few Other Things, Too

Taking even more time to familiarize yourself with various aspects of the new world you are about to enter allows you to maximize your time later in the semester, make informed decisions about what direction you want your graduate career to take, and can ease the transition to life as a student.

The Antediluvian Librarians feel strongly that there are three more things with which we should be familiar as we cross the threshold into graduate work in theology: commonly used software, the members of your faculty, and the language of theology.

These topics are a motley assortment, granted. Yet, each can have profound practical implications for your success in class. So, as just one example, if you are not adept at using one of the standard word processing programs, now is the time to learn it. You will be spending countless hours taking notes and writing papers in the years ahead. Knowing your options for formatting, inserting charts, graphs, and images, and appending reference notes will save you a lot of grief when deadlines loom. Check to see if your new institution offers various software packages either for free or for sale at a discounted student price, then go online to find videos that teach you how to use it. The same applies to your new institution’s Learning Management Software, like Blackboard or Canvas; online conferencing tools, like Zoom or Skype; presentation software like Power Point or Prezi; and even Bible software, like Accordance.

Just as crucial as learning basic software is gaining a sense of the members of your new faculty. If one professor were the same as another, there’d be no need for RateMyProfessors.com. While we understand that many factors play into a student’s decision to take a class, including when, where, and how it is offered or whether it fulfills a requirement, more important still is the question of WHO is teaching the class. Over and above making an effort to learn the names and faces of the faculty, reviewing you school’s faculty biographies is a must. You will learn who covers the fields of study that interest you the most, what they have published and how recently, and what their perspective is. Remember that your theological education should challenge your assumptions and make you think more deeply about them. For example, you shouldn’t necessarily avoid taking a class with someone whose views do not completely agree with your own. Such a class may present you with a splendid opportunity to stretch yourself.

Finally, the new world of theology has its own language. Nobody expects you to speak this language from Day One, but a good dictionary of theological terms will serve you just as well as a language phrase book on a trip overseas. There are a wide variety of such dictionaries available; used paperbacks can be had for a few dollars, and they will save you from looking blank if you are encountering the word “hermeneutics” for the very first time. Your school’s library will have the more comprehensive (and expensive) dictionaries available either online or in their reference room. These may include The Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms as well as the various lexicons of theological terms in Latin, Greek, and modern European languages. But for the purposes of getting by in your first few weeks, a modest paperback will serve you well.