University of the Holy Land??

Is this familiar to anybody?

"University of the Holy Land," with an Israeli email address ([email protected]) but an Oregon address for donations:

UHL-ICARE
1563 Cypress Point Drive
Medford, OR 97504

Phonenumber.com, queried about that address, says it belongs to

Shelton Jeffrey
1563 Cypress Point Dr
Medford, OR 97504
(541) 734-4713

UHL offers graduate degrees:
http://www.uhl.ac/graduate.html

Phone number +972 (0) 2 623-6804 is here:
http://www.uhl.ac/Spring.html (Israeli number)

From http://www.uhl.ac/meet.html
"The founder and President of the University of the Holy Land/Center for the Study of Early Christianity is Dr. Stephen J. Pfann."

From http://www.uhl.ac/doctor.html
"If you have questions, please contact Mrs. Claire Pfann, Director, Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs."

So it seems like a family enterprise.

What's the teaching load like?

Fall 2004 UHL Course Offerings at http://www.uhl.ac/Fall.html:
1001 Instructor: R. Pritz
1004 Instructors: S. Pfann and V. Hillel
1005 Instructor: C. Pfann
1007 Instructor: C. Pfann
1060 Instructors: C. Rico and S. Pfann
1062 Instructor: R. Buth
1086 Instructors: S. Pfann and V. Hillel
1093 Instructors: S. Pfann, S. Gibson, and guest specialists
1040 Instructor: J. Chung
2005 Instructor: S. Wingate

So Pfann (Stephen and Claire) are teaching 6 of the 10 courses. Lots of professors, aren't there?

Domain registration info: IP is 65.58.240.188; that's probably in Beverly Hills, California, USA.

UHL.AC (DOM-17491)
University of the Holy Land P O B 24084 Jerusalem Israel
Created : September 20 2000.
Expires : September 20 2005.
Last Updated : August 31 2003.
Admin Contact
=============
Pfann, Stephen
University of the Holy Land
POB 24084, Mt. Scopus Jerusalem 91240 Israel

Technical Contact
=================
Pfann, Stephen
University of the Holy Land
POB 24084, Mt. Scopus Jerusalem 91240 Israel

What do you think?
G

 

Is in the State of Oregon!

Just Call Alan and O.D.A.

 

also at that address...

1563 Cypress Point Drive Medford, OR...

Cascade Boys Ranch

 

Council for Higher Education in Israel message re. UHL

We're done, I think:

G

 

What's that noise?
Just the shit hitting the pfann...

 

Did anyone think to look in Nauvoo?

 

You mean Independence, Missouri, don't you?

That's where the LDS Second Coming will occur. . . Heck, there's a tiny splinter sect from the current Community of Christ/former RLDS that exists solely because it owns the proper spot.

 

That reminds me of the old good news/bad news joke...

 

A number of co-operative programs have been established between the University of the Holy Land and other educational institutions including:

Durham University
The École Biblique et Archéologique Française
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The University of Kent at Canterbury

http://www.uhl.ac/coop.html

 

Speaking of LDS and the UHL, the lost tribe of Israel should have told someone before they left Israel to settle the Americas. I think it is rather rude to go off to settle the western hemisphere without telling someone first. I figure that they must have owed the other tribes some money.

 

Well, they stuck a note on the windshield of the chariot...

 

Hi Zvavda:

First off, my condolences to you in light of the natural disaster which struck your country. The dignity and competence of Thai authorities stand in stark contrast to the bigotry and stupidity which have marred the response of some other afflicted nations' governments.

Now for those joint programmes.
HUJ lets UHL students take two courses. Whoopee!
The UKC link was not working.
The ÉB permits cross-registration. Likely mostly one way.(Understatement.)
The UD bit is on a video, which I did not watch.

With all due respect, the (Utah) LDS Church has invested a lot of cash and a lot of effort into establishing a niche for itself in the ongoing Dead Sea Scrolls scholarly jamboree. The institutional relationship between UHL and that religious body is unclear to me.

Might this become something? It might. But it ain't yet.

American evangelicals have a religious and sometimes political interest in setting up various semi-academic outposts in the "Holy Land", as they like to call it. The (Utah) LDS Church--very definitely not an "evangelical" group--has become very interested in establishing itself as a player in the American mainline religious ballgame. The resultant public relations effort has been very well done. (I think the impulse is a bit daft, but not insincere; I thought it was a bit daft when a liberal sect (LCMS) of my own religion sped off down this road.) My hunch is that UHL is a part of the LDS campaign to be regarded as religiously and religious-right-ly* (sic) mainstream. If the evangelicals set up little schools in the"Holy Land", well, by gum, the Saints will, too.

Interfaith bonhomie notwithstanding, I'm pretty skeptical (and not in the warm fuzzy manner of, say, Antiochus of Ashkelon) of UHL. I'm not part of its Pfann club.


*The term "religious right" in US political parlance refers to a linkage between many evangelical Protestant Christians and many conservative political causes. If you want to see some frenzied debate, look at the politics forum. I am not introducing that debate in this post or this thread, just offering an explanation of US political jargon for our esteemed Thai poster, even as I am sure he would offer an explanation of Thai political jargon to me, if applicable to the wording of one of his posts.

 

It is the LDS church doctorine that LDS is the only true church. The priesthood can be passed down only through the LDS, being baptized only counts if done through the LDS, God only speaks directly to the leader of the LDS and to no one else on earth. I can't imagine that the LDS church would do anything to further Chritianity in general unless it was a by-product of strengthening the LDS church. *


*Disclaimer: the LDS church would consider me an apostate although I haven't believed the church's version of Josph Smith and the golden plates since I was seven years old. Apologies to any members of the LDS if I've spoken incorrectly. Please correct me in that case.

 

No, they wouldn't. It's an attempt to claim a political and cultural niche by imitation. Is that good or bad? I guess that depends on what you think of the Utah LDS, the religious right, and evanescent schools.

 

Hi Uncle,

Thank you for your sincere about the dissaster in Thailand. Thai meteorology officer used to warn the government and suggest to set up warning system 2 year ago. Sadly the government had hold him to shut up because it might affect to tourist industry.

This disaster is not unexpected thing. Thank you also for many donate money but we can't accept cause it is my false. I just need only technical assistance that we lack

 

As is often the case when Degreeinfo is talking about religion, this thread is incomprehensible to me. Why did it suddenly switch from talking about the University of the Holy Land to knowing insider's jokes about the LDS church? One of the mysteries of faith, I guess...

But nevertheless, to an ignorant heathen like me, this University of the Holy Land is surprisingly interesting.

I don't think that University of the Holy Land is a degree-mill at all. Apparently it only offers a masters degree, in some rather fascinating specialties:

At present, UHL offers the Master of Arts degree in five different areas of specialization:

New Testament and Early Christianity;

Old Testament and Culture of Ancient Israel;

Archaeology with major focus on the Galilee;

Inter-testamental History and Literature with major focus on the Dead Sea Scrolls; and

Cultural Anthropology with major focus on Pilgrimage Studies.

Pilgrimage Studies! To tell the truth, I kind of like this University of the Holy Land.

Frankly, I don't know how much conventional value one of these masters degrees will have, but the UHL might actually be a Pfann-tastic oportunity to study Biblical archaeology for those students who don't have a degree objective.

Why do I say that?

Here's a UCLA visiting professor of Near Eastern Archaeology who apparently used to teach for them:

http://www.nelc.ucla.edu/Faculty/Mullins.htm

Here's a Harvard museum exhibit webpage that gives a credit to somebody from the U. of the Holy Land:

http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~semitic/HOAI/adultmain.cgi?article=acknowl.htm

Here's U. of the Holy Land's Pfann giving a talk at a Qumran conference at Brown University:

http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/2002-03/02-031.html

Here's what appears to be a graduate class at Fuller Theol. Seminary with a required text published by the U. of the Holy land and edited by the Fuller professor:

http://www.fuller.edu/cll/fnc/ecds/033/OT531_Liid033.html

Here's Pfann giving a talk at Smith College:

http://www.smith.edu/acamedia/Archive99-2000/aca041300.html

Here's Pfann giving a talk at Oxford:

http://www.ox.ac.uk/gazette/2001-2/weekly/280202/lecs.htm

Here's an abstract of a presentation that Pfann delivered at Hebrew University in Jerusalem:

http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il/symposiums/4th/pfann.html

Heres another talk at Hebrew University:

http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il/symposiums/upcoming.shtml

Here's Hebrew Univ. announcing a Qumran conference co-sponsored by U. of the Holy Land and the Ecole Biblique:

http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il/resources/boardConferences.shtml

U. of the Holy Land is a corporate member of the American School of Oriental Research:

http://www.asor.org/corpmem.html

Here's ASOR linking to UHL:

http://www.asor.org/outreach/links/ANEarchy.html

Here's Claire Pfann giving a talk at a convent in Jerusalem:

http://www.sion.org/ehcben1.htm

Here's a bio of Pfann from a Dominican Order website, including a list of his numerous publications. Pfann has a masters from the Graduate Theological Union/Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley and a Ph.D. from Hebrew University. He apparently has conducted archaeological excavations with Yigael Yadin.

http://ebaf.op.org/wsw/en/pfann.htm

Here's somebody from Lipscomb Univ. presenting a paper at an Evangelical Theological Society meeting, discussing something Pfann had written about early Christian iconography of the crucifixion:

http://www.etsjets.org/meetings/2003/2003-papers-4.html

Here's a director at something called the Pacific Academy of Ecclesiastical Music (PACEM) who used to have some kind of connction to UHL:

http://www.pacem-music.org/directors.html

 

but...

But it is odd that the UHL appears to be based in Israel (from the country code in its phone number) or Oregon (from the address on its charitable donations page) and neither place has authorized UHL to offer degrees. If they are entirely legit, I would imagine them to do curriculum delivery without granting degrees.

G

 

Reminds me...

The title of this post reminds me of that infamous punk rock band "Unholy Band from the Holy Land".....

Sorry.... I had to do it.

 

Right, Carl, but were they from Eretz Israel or from Minnesota?
I get confused on this religious stuff.

 

LMAO! I think they were from Nebraska.....