Studies at John Paul II Institute

Whew! Its been a month already since i arrived in Melbourne and I am really enjoying my studies at John Paul II institute.

Classes are usually about no more than 10 people thus giving a sense of community and opportunity for free flowing discussion. We are a mixture of clergy and laity from different walks of life united however with a basic conviction and love for the Catholic church and a desire to engage the culture at large in a rigorous and thorough manner. You might be surprised but there are quite a number of Asians studying at JP2!

There are two singaporeans (myself and Gregory who's dad Thomas is active in Marriage encounter and who was a former exco member of Family Life Society). Gregory brought his wife Elizabeth and his five month old son Nathan along to melbourne. he is studying for a graduate diploma and shared that studying theology was what he always wanted to do.


Another two fulltime students are Simone and Jasmine. Simone is from Australia and she is often seen in the chapel praying before the lessons. She studied theology at graduate level and is now pursuing a masters.

Jasmine is from HongKong and she is here because she was inspired by another Hongkonger Peter Ho who is doing his PhD examining the understanding of the virtue of chastity in scripture.

Among the clergy there are Korean, Thai, Mauritian and Vietnamese priests. The Vietnamese priest Fr John Baptiste Nguyen is having a bit of a struggle with English and i try to help him by sharing my notes. He is determined though to succesfully complete his studies in bioethcis as he has been given a scholarship and will not want to disappoint his Bishop and his benefactor back home. I really admire and respect his determination. One thing i notice is a total lack of clericalism on the part of the clergyman. After all we are fellow students who are engaging the same material and i think that's healthy.
We also have a sprinkling of other students who are doing courses part time and for audit. They are mostly australian. There is a Canadian student Peter Baklinski who is doing his PhD examining the vexed question of portraying the human body in art. He graciously invited me to his place for dinner. His wife and three kids came with him all the way from Canada and we had interesting conversations about beauty art and philosophy. He is also an accomplished pianist and has actually produced a CD of piano pieces inspired by the Theology of the Body. You can actually visit his website and have a look. They are quite good, i bought an MP3 version of it myself =)

http://www.resonanceofthegift.com/resonance_of_the_gift/Welcome.html

The lecturers are really top notch in their field. In terms of teaching method, Dr Adam Cooper is the best and is a really good teacher, able to breakdown complicated concepts into understandable portions. Aristotle and Plato are easier to understand with him around. Dr Tracey Rowland the Dean has very important things to say as well and is very generous and helpful in freely lending her collection of books an articles to students who may want to use them for reference. Dr Nicholas Tonti-Filipini teaches the NFP module and is the associate dean and head of the Bioethics Department. He is a quiet superhero really. He has been going for dialysis for many years and thus, his reflection and teaching on bioethics has a very personal bite to it.

Bishop Peter Elliot who teaches the Marriage in the Catholic Tradition module and who is the Institute's director is humorous and wise and happily weaves in apologetics when he talks about the history of the Christian understanding of marriage.

So yes am enjoying the company very much. It does get a bit lonely at night though when i am back home but i guess that's part of the experience of living overseas.

 

I've got a couple of blog posts i intend to write, a series of reflections on what i have learnt so far and its relevance for contemporary culture. I've got the titles for them, "Aristotle's classification of knowledge and the modern confusion of the practical and theoretical", "Plato's cave - thoughts for a modern day apostle", "Duns scotus: On the right way to worship and not getting yourself into metaphysical trouble" "Contraception: it's been around...we've just got better at it. "Marriage abortion and infaticide: The revenge of the Romans", "Speciesm, if man is a naked ape, then plants are capable of screaming"

 

Just need to get down to writing them. Stay tuned!