Page 253 - WhyAsInY

Mass revival
“So, there is a definite teleology in Judaism, but . . .”—and then he moved the same hand on a horizontal line at chest level from right to left— “there is no eschatology.” It didn’t escape me that he had explained Judaism to me by making the sign of the cross.
As a result of my experience in Religion 49, I elected to become a religion major. This meant that, over the next two years, I would take not only Contemporary Religious Thought but also Old Testament, New Testament (both taught by a professor who was an ordained epis- copal priest and served as Amherst’s chaplain), another Pemberton course, a religion seminar at Smith, and many philosophy courses, credit for which could be applied to satisfy the department’s requirements for a major. The fact that previously earned philosophy credits could also be applied in satisfaction of departmental requirements made the elec- tion very simple.
I now had a pretty good picture of what the next four semesters would be like, at least academically. I recall having been fascinated by the variety of the challenges presented by these courses and being extremely excited, much as I had been when, years before in P.S. 193 or Hudde, I had bought and organized my new notebooks and other school supplies on the eve of a new year.
While the excitement was real, I did have an experience early in the second semester that took me out of the realm of academic fervor and transported me to a different plane entirely. One night I became con- vinced that all of the courses significantly interrelated, and I could see, even then, the outlines of the momentous papers that I would be writing for each professor. I had vision, I was empowered, I felt that I had some- how found the key to integrating all of the work that was to come, and I was finally a student, a student on fire.
Those visions were not merely the product of the enthusiasm that one feels in starting a new academic term, however. Soon after I had become acquainted with the new syllabi, I had developed a fairly annoy- ing cold. I knew that Geoff Kurland’s father was a doctor and that Geoff had quite a supply of medicines. Unfortunately, he was not around in the evening when the cold had gotten the best of me, so I decided to “borrow”
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