> More Faculty Profiles
“I’m a pretty boring person, really, a book nerd. I spend most of my time reading and preparing for classes!” Now, book nerd she may or may not be, but a fantastic teacher—Norah Caudill is definitely that. (She’s not a boring person, though!) Her Hebrew courses at Fuller Seminary California Coast are lively, even fun at times. At the end of two quarters, students joyfully recall the Aleph Bet Song she uses to start the class in the fundamentals of the Hebrew alphabet. (The first two letters are “aleph” and “bet”; hence “Aleph Bet Song.”)
Her Hebrew courses are also a lot of work. It’s clear that Norah has indeed spent time in the necessary reading and prep work. She crafts her courses in an extremely well organized and clear fashion, she excels in answering questions—even the difficult ones that students ask when they are so confused that they don’t really know how to ask the question!—and she creates a safe and encouraging environment within which students can grow in this biblical language. Hebrew comes more easily to some than it does to others. But everyone who takes Norah’s class seems to agree that she does a wonderful job with a difficult subject.
She learned the language at Western Conservative Baptist Seminary in Portland, Oregon, where she completed her Master’s, and then at Fuller, where she did a PhD in Theology. Her dissertation on the presence of God in the Exodus narrative was the culmination of her work here as a student, though she has continued to teach Hebrew in Pasadena, Irvine and San Diego. She also teaches an exegesis course on the book of Amos and has found time to contribute a few short articles to the upcoming Baker Illustrated Bible Dictionary.
The owners of two cats—Oscar and Clancy—Norah and her husband of eighteen years, Tom, do not have any kids. But they do have many brothers and sisters in the Lord at Grace Point Church in Carmel Valley, where Norah teaches classes on the Old Testament from time to time.
Norah may or may not be a book nerd, but thanks be to God that we have book nerds like her in the church to teach us how to read scripture better! We can all be thankful for that gift.
> More Faculty Profiles