In "Religion in Dialogue" today, we discussed the role of dialogue in the Book of Job - something everyone had just written a paper on. I'd told them that part of the assignment was defining "dialogue." Many students simply quoted an online dictionary definition. "If dictionaries settled all questions," I observed tartly, "there'd be no need for universities."
By the time we'd broken the Book of Job down into six or seven component exchanges, and weighed ways in which each could be seen as a dialogue - or a failed dialogue - or no dialogue at all, two students moaned "I'm so confused!" Before I could say something acerbic, another student said "But we're getting somewhere!" Vindication!
