3.247 ideal lab? genealogy? Nota Bene? (138)

Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@VM.EPAS.UTORONTO.CA)
Fri, 14 Jul 89 21:17:46 EDT


Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 247. Friday, 14 Jul 1989.


(1) Date: 13 July 1989 (21 lines)
From: Willard McCarty <MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: the ideal language and literature lab

(2) Date: Thursday, 13 July 1989 2220-EST (23 lines)
From: KRAFT@PENNDRLS
Subject: Courses on Genealogical Research

(3) Date: Thursday, 13 July 1989 2231-EST (43 lines)
From: KRAFT@PENNDRLS
Subject: Genealogy, Psychology, Religious Experience

(4) Date: Fri, 14 Jul 89 07:37:59 -0800 (21 lines)
From: Malcolm Brown <mbb@jessica.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Nota Bene 3.0 on PS/2's: any caveat's??

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 13 July 1989
From: Willard McCarty <MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: the ideal language and literature lab

If you could have what software you wanted to equip an IBM-and-Macintosh
instructional computing laboratory for language departments such as
English, French, Italian, and German, what would you ask for? Let us say
that you wanted to provide for all levels of university students and
that you would be taking into account all the various applications
instructors might require or should require, e.g., elementary writing,
grammar and style checking, wordprocessing, dictionary access,
machine-assisted translation, note-taking and keeping,
language-learning, text-analysis, and so forth.

I think it would be instructive to see arguments over what the
categories of things should be and what should be put into them. We need
not argue about which wordprocessor is best, but I think recommendations
in the other categories might be illuminating.


Willard McCarty
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------26----
Date: Thursday, 13 July 1989 2220-EST
From: KRAFT@PENNDRLS
Subject: Courses on Genealogical Research

Having worked myself into the literatures, approaches,
and rewards of genealogical research, I am contemplating
proposing a credit course on the subject in our College
of General Studies (evening school, summer programs).
It occurs to me that it would be useful, in preparing to
submit the necessary paperwork to the curriculum committee,
to know whether such courses exist elsewhere and if so,
under what departmental auspices? My experience thus far
is that there is a great deal to be learned in terms of
historical "method" through systematic research into
genealogical and biographical matters, but I don't recall
having come across developed University programs in such
subjects. Any pertinent information will be appreciated.
Obviously, the computer assisted aspects of such research
make it all the more exciting and teachable. I suspect it
would make a very desirable evening/extension type course,
for openers.

Thanks, Bob Kraft (Univ. of Pennsylvania)
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------46----
Date: Thursday, 13 July 1989 2231-EST
From: KRAFT@PENNDRLS
Subject: Genealogy, Psychology, Religious Experience

In an article presented in 1982, William M. Shea argues that much
of what the Puritan-Calvinist revivalist Rev Jonathan Edwards
(1703-1758) had to say about personal Christian experience may
have been derived from conversations with his wife, Sarah Pierpont,
about her special experiences ("Jonathan Edwards and Sarah
Pierpont: and Uncommon Union," pp.107-126 in Foundations of
Religious Literacy, ed. John V. Apczynski; Scholars Press, 1983).
Apparently Sarah had such "wonderful seasons" of religious experience
as early as 1715 (at age 6), and again (at least) in 1735, 1739, and
1740.

Since I have been compiling genealogical information on the
Pierponts for several years (my great grandmother was a Pierpont),
it occurred to me in my historian's inquisitiveness to search the
genealogical file to determine whether those dates fit into any
pattern of events in the lives of Sarah and her immediate family.
To my delight, if not amazement, each of Sarah's special experiences
seems to come in the immediate wake of deaths within the family --
her father on 22 Nov 1714, three of her oldest sister's children
in 1734/5 and 1739 (that sister lost most of her children when they
were very young, while Sarah lost NONE of hers!), her own sister
Mary (on 24 June) and her own mother (on 1 Nov) in 1740. (Other
deaths in her immediate family occurred in 1718, 1722/23, 1727,
1728, 1741, 1748, and 1758.) That she struggled with the problem
of death in relation to God's justice and goodness is clear from
her letter to her daughter Esther upon the death of Jonathan
Edwards in 1758 (quoted by Shea, p.121). The fact that her father
died when Sarah was not yet 6 years old may have set a pattern.

In any event, my question is whether anyone on HUMANIST knows of
studies of the relationship between death to loved ones and
heightened religious experience? My hunch that Sarah's
experiences might be related to her struggles with accepting
death would be strengthened if such a connection has been
observed in other instances. And the value of access to systematic
genealogical data for this sort of historical research would
be further enhanced.

Bob Kraft (Religious Studies, Univ. of Pennsylvania)
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------23----
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 89 07:37:59 -0800
From: Malcolm Brown <mbb@jessica.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Nota Bene 3.0 on PS/2's: any caveat's??


The folks in our department of Slavic Languages are
considering the purchase of some IBM PS/2's in order
to run Nota Bene. They would be using Nota Bene's
Cyrllic language system.

If anyone is aware of any problems with this combination
or has any sort of caveat in this regard,
I'd be most grateful if you'd share them with me.

Please send directly to me, and if anything significant
turns up, I'll summarize back to the list.

many thanks,
Malcolm Brown
INTERNET: mbb@jessica.stanford.edu
BITNET: gx.mbb@stanford.bitnet