Spring 2009 Classes

So I'm really excited about all but one of my spring semester classes. The one I'm not overly excited about would be economics, but that doesn't mean I'm dreading it... All my other classes just seem so interesting...

We've got:
- The Medieval World: Kings, Queens, and Commoners which is taught by the same professor I had for my first year seminar class which I actually enjoyed despite the incredibly depressing topic of the Holocaust.
- Literature & Film which has a great group of people in it and just is an interesting topic by itself...How narrative crosses over from a book onto the screen...
- The Film Experience where we watched Star Wars the first day... I have to admit I was a little upset that my life long goal of NOT seeing any of the Star Wars movie was being thwarted but I really enjoyed it and am not tempted to see the rest..
- and finally Christian Doctrine which has a really fun professor but also just is the class I'm super excited about.

Despite being a lot of work (I have to write from memory the Apostles' Creed & Nicene Creed on every test, etc.) all things theology and Historical regarding the church just fascinates me. I'm soo excited that I get credit for finding out more about my faith!

Our major text for the class is a book called "The Mosaic or Christian Belief: Twenty Centuries of Unity & Diversity" and basically has a running theme of the dichotomy of two polar opposite views of Christianity. At one end is the idea that it is totalitarian in that everyone who declares themselves to be a Christian must believe exactly the same things. The opposite of this idea is that it is totally inclusive to the point where anyone can label themselves as Christian which would ultimately devoid the word of any real meaning. The author argues that the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Yes, there is a need for a criterion of what makes a person a Christian, but that does not mean that all Christians must agree on every little detail. There are truths that one must accept to be a Christian (which is often expressed in the form of a creed like the Apostles' Creed) but there are also secondary things that allow diversity withing the Universal church (such as the style of worship, order of service, meaning or use of baptism). It is this balance between the absolute truth and diversity that makes the Christian community so dynamic and unique through the years. Anyways really interesting stuff...

Also I'm reading "The Apostles' Creed for Today" which for me is very informative since I was raised in a church that didn't incorporate the Apostles' Creed regularly into our service... It is something that is relatively new for me. Since coming to Nashville, I've actually been attending two different Presbyterian churches which are pretty different from my Baptist upbringing. I've gotten to learn a lot about their traditions and practices and also have learned a lot about why I love the way I was raised also. Since the Presbyterian church regularly recites the Apostles' Creed in their services, I've become familiar with the words, but maybe not so much the meaning and history behind them... this will probibly turn into the world's longest blog, but I just wanted to post the preface of the book here because I really liked what it said:

"Sunday after Sunday the minister or worship leader says, 'Let us stand and say what we believe, using the words of the Apostles' Creed.'

Some members of the congregation find it very meaningful to recite these old familiar words, remembering that fellow Christians of many church traditions have been confessing them for almost two thousand years, and knowing that this very day all over the world, in all the languages of the worlds, fellow Christians will say the Creed as they gather for worship.

Others will recite the Creed mechanically without giving much thought to the content and meaning of what they are saying.

Then there are some newer and also older Christians and church members who are not sure that the can honestly affirm what the Creed says. They either repeat the words with a guilty conscience, simply stand there silent, or perhaps edit the Creed to recite some statements and delete others. They have questions and reservations...

Should I say these words when I don not understand what they mean or why they are important, and when I am pretty sure I do not agree with some of them?

Why do we need this or any other creed anyway? Shouldn't we look to God's Word in the Bible rather than to some ancient or modern human words from the church to find out what we are to believe and do?

This ancient creed may have made sense and been helpful a long time ago, but it is pretty irrelevant for people in the modern world... Isn't it just 'official' statements of Christian orthodoxy that divide the church into self-righteous, arrogant, warring parties certain that their understanding of Christian faith and life is right and anyone who disagrees with them is wrong? Isn't it just 'orthodox' Christianity, Judaism, and Islam that cause much of the worldwide conflict...?

This book is especially for Christians who struggle with questions like these. Not because they are doubters or heretics who need to be converted to the traditional faith of the church expressed in the Apostles' Creed, but because the church needs them. It need their disturbing questions that invite all of us to take as seriously as they the decision we are called to make when we stand to say 'I believe'...

SO ya lookin forward to that class and to this book...