Robert Somerville

Lives up to the silver nugget. I very much disagree with reviewers who found the subject matter/delivery boring or irrelevant; on the contrary, this class taught me a lot about how key events and people in history employ various precedents to organize and advance their agendas. I am not a history major, nor did I come into the class familiar with/drawn to the Christian tradition. If anything, take the class for Somerville–he's been teaching at Columbia for decades and recites his wealth of knowledge each class in a way that is both humble and remarkable.

Prof. Somerville is without a doubt the best professor in the religion department and one of the best and most underrated undergraduate professors at Columbia. The only reason I can come up with that people think he is boring is that they are simply uninterested in the material. If you have more than a passing interest in Christianity, the class is a must. Somerville made me a religion major by presenting thoughtful, intelligent analysis of the roots of Christianity. He's a giant in his field, and with good reason: he knows his stuff and communicates it well. Taking something from this man should be a requirement for religion majors, and strongly recommended for everyone else--these are the types of classes we came to Columbia to experience.

Somerville is a fucking pimp; that's all you need to know.

Professor Somerville is extraordinarily knowledgeable. He speaks articulately and strives to answer students' questions as thoroughly as possible. Still, he is honest enough to say "I don't know, but I will try to answer as best I can" when students want to know about something that is not very familiar to him. He is poised and direct but has a very dry sense of humor that can be truly delightful. He isn't cold or unkind, but he rarely smiles, so that, every time I achieved a smile (through hard work and my own rather dry sense of humor) from Professor Somerville, I felt truly rewarded. I don't know what the TA situation is going to look like in coming semesters. One TA was bright, engaged, and kind; the other was cold, rude, and bored. If you meet the TAs and feel strongly about one or the other, even based purely on instinct, try to take a discussion section with the one you like. As in any class, this can really make a difference as the semester moves forward; I dreaded my discussion sections because I did not listen to my instincts. Finally, I would like to say a word about other reviews here, because a lot of them mention that Professor Somerville is boring - or at least that the topic is boring. My earnest advice to anyone thinking of signing up for this course is to take thorough notes, review them comprehensively, and ask Professor Somerville or one of the TAs (again,…

Before I delve into this review, let me state that this was one of the most average classes I took while a carefree coed at CU. The class's contents were intrinsically boring, as nothing that has occurred historically prior to 1986 is at all interesting. That said, it's saving grace —its savior, if you will— came in the form of its impressive prof. Ol' Bob Sommerville is commendable for a number of reasons, not least among them his remarkable age. Born before reliable record keeping, it's unknown how old he is, but rest assured, he is a primary source on biblical studies. Every day he walks into class, it's a goddamn miracle. I theorize that he has been dead for some time, but that his synapses still errantly fire, his daily affairs sorted our by dying muscle memory. He knows how to captivate a classroom, only to trail off at the end of his statement, rendering the preceding background information useless. Furthermore, he gets a ton of mileage off self-disparaging regarding his age and death. Like any good biblical scholar, he has ammassed a following of effeminate graduate student followers, and for his class's TA's he selects the meekest members of his intellectual harem. Of course, Bobby S. does toss you the occasional curveball by wearing a backward baseball cap or vomiting up blood in class, and for these reasons I rate the class 4/5 stars. Would take again.

It's true that Prof. Somerville's lectures are pretty dry, but the material is definitely interesting if you care about the subject. I personally am a devout Catholic and was fascinated to see how Christianity would be portrayed here differently than in my high school theology classes. There were some clear differences. For one thing, we didn't use the word "heresy" but instead said "form of Christianity prevalent before the formation of a formalized orthodox consensus". It was also a much less streamlined history than I was used to; it wasn't all aimed at "where we are now" because the course obviously doesn't presume its students have any relationship with the Christian faith. That said, Somerville was very fair to the faith, not at all judgmental of believers and not at all "blasphemous" by the believers' standpoint. The class is VERY historical and not very theological. Get Todd French as your TA. If he isn't, change discussion sections. He's awesome. He's laid back but brilliant. Todd Berzon is also awesome but SO INTIMIDATING and seems like a MUCH harder grader. Lots of interesting guest lectures that ARE ON THE FINAL. Study hard for the quizzes. Study in advance for the final and plan your essays well. Read all the packet assignments and read the discussion section works.

Lectures were boring and the room was always hot. But Sommervile is literally the coolest and sweetest dad professor ever. I only went to a few classes, and when I did go, I fell asleep, and still came out with an A. Definitely attend the Discussion sections, there aren't many and they go over exactly what you need to know for the quizzes. Not all of the readings in the course packet are necessary but can pop up on the final. There are two or 3 quizzes which are based on primary texts (ones from the packet) and which were discussed in the discussion section. If you read the pieces and maybe do a little background info on the internet you will be more than fine. Take it for an easy A with little work. The final wasn't bad except for the True/False at the end which were only about the books we were supposed to buy for the course - which I never bought.

This intro to christianity course was good if you want an easy course with very little work and you want to learn a little something along the way. Go to lectures, take a couple of notes, and listen. Don't bother doing the readings (except for the coursepack). Oh - and go to the discussion sections. This will boost your grade and tell you EXACTLY what is on the quizzes (aka midterms) and what to write for them. Prof. Somerville is a dry and somewhat boring lecturer and the material covered was pretty general nonpsecific. it was a bit of waste of time, but a poretty good way to get an easy A.

As many reviewers have said, Bobby Somerville (as I affectionately came to call him), is a great professor. He does deliver whole lectures without notes, filled to the brim with facts, helpfully writes the main points on the boards, tells adorably corny jokes, and is an overall nice guy. The TA's too: nice and approachable, if just a little awkward, guys. Extremely, if just a little scarily, intelligent too. Who speaks 7 languages including Aramaic? That said: the class. Its a little boring. For the sake of your grade, you should probably attend every lecture, but sometimes that seems overwhelmingly painful to do. But you should do it. The class can be interesting (especially if you are at all familiar with modern Catholicism), but sometimes spending a whole class on the inclusion of two words into the Nicaean Creed can be.... excruciating (etymology joke for y'all). At other times though, like I said, if you're familiar with modern Catholicism, the reason for some obscure thing will just click, and you'll find yourself noticing it in every mass you go to thereafter. If you're not Catholic though, I don't know how interesting that would be. There's not a lot of work, that's true. But that's not to say the little bit of work you have is graded easily. Its not. Two midterms worth 25% each, and a final worth 50%, with the question "read this passage and relate its importance to C…

this was the most boring class that i have ever taken! though my ta was very nice and very friendly, somerville was such a tremendous bore that nothing could redeem the class for me. the subject matter is actually interesting, but somerville kills it as much as possible and the 'jokes' that he tells are the msot atrocious things i have ever heard. the class fills up because you can do little reading and get a decent grade, but IT IS NOT WORTH IT! DON'T DO IT TO YOURSELF!