Semester 3 Week 11

          As a freshman I was not a Religious Studies major I was a Secondary Education and Biology major.  I realized within my first couple of months at Loras that I would not be happy in my current major so I began looking at different possibilities.  Since I was coming back to my faith at this point in time, I was very interested in Theology/Religious Studies.  So I decided to try a course, Jesus in the Gospels, and ended up loving it.  But, I still was not sure if this major was for me so I did not officially declare, but signed up for more Religious Studies classes. 

          During that summer, the summer between my freshman and sophomore year, I decided to work for a program called Totus Tuus.  Working this program really influenced me and made me realize that I want and am meant to do some sort of work in Theology/Religious Studies and work for the Catholic Church.  Totus Tuus is a youth summer catechetical program.  Totus Tuus is a phrase that is translated from Latin to mean “totally yours” and the program takes its name from Blessed Pope John Paul II’s apostolic motto which signified his devotion to the Virgin Mother Mary (Totus Tuus Maria).  The program consisted of a team of four college students (I was one of them), two boys and two girls, who go to a different parish every week.  Our team would stay at a member of the parish’s house for the week, the boys at one house and the girls at another.  Every day the grades 2-8 would come from 9:00-3:00 where we would teach four different classes on the Catholic faith.  The classes covered many different topics such as the Luminous mysteries, prayer, Mary, mass, etc.  Mass was also an essential part of the day as well as confession.  Then in the evenings we would give talks to high school students and do different activities with them.  These talks covered a variety of subjects such as chastity, prayer, Saints, etc.  We covered six parishes throughout the summer in the Des Moines diocese.

          Working for Totus Tuus was a very great influence for my decision that I wanted to be a Religious Studies major.  It made me see how great the need is to evangelize and teach in the Catholic Church, especially to the youth.  The experience I got from working Totus Tuus was invaluable.  Teaching anywhere from 10 to 24 children at one time really makes you learn to not only think on your feet, but to convey the faith in a an understandable way that is not watered down.  Also Totus Tuus helped me to be a much more comfortable public speaker.  We not only gave talks to high school students, but we also had to speak in front of whole parishes at mass to publicize our program.  Not only was this a good teaching and public speaking experience, but it also helped me to understand a little more how parish dynamics work.  To have to coordinate with directors of religious education, youth ministers, priests, and parents was very challenging (in a great way of course) but it was also a great way to learn how parishes work.  It also gave me an increased respect for how much work people who work in a parish have to do.  Totus Tuus definitely influenced me becoming a Religious Studies major and I can see that it has also prepared me for future work in the Catholic Church. 

Semester 3 Week 6

          As I am now a junior Religious Studies major here at Loras College I really need to start thinking about my future and what I intend to do with my major.  I suppose I should note here that I am seriously considering adding a Philosophy major because I am almost done with my Religious Studies major and I have already taken some of the classes needed.  Anyway that is just a side note.

          There are many different career options that are possible with a Religious Studies major.  Some of them include graduate school to pursue a doctorate in many different aspects of theology, parish work such as a director of religious education, a youth minister, director of RCIA, liturgical coordinator, marriage ministry or other sorts of specialized ministry.  There are also volunteer options such as a volunteer at Catholic camps, the Peace corps, etc.

          Obviously each of these different options requires different skills.  Graduate school would require a strong academic background in Religious Studies/Theology and study skills as well as a good GRE score and letters of recommendation.  Plus a strong will is necessary for continuing on education and a vision of where you want to go with your graduate degree.  I think the Religious Studies program at Loras prepares students very well for graduate school.  The classes are always very high caliber and challenge me to the utmost especially in writing a paper and developing a thesis, which from what I have heard, you do a lot of in graduate school.  Also, during senior year Loras has a 6 credit hour thesis students can complete if they are seriously considering going onto graduate school which can help one get into graduate school.  Plus, the student faculty relationships on campus are very strong and personal so the professors are always helpful for knowledge and guidance because of how well they know their students.

           As for parish and volunteer work, it seems that not only grades or involvement of certain activities seems to be the only thing important, but hands on experience.  This is where the Religious Studies practicum I think comes into really helping students out.  It gives experience to the student, but it also forces them (in a good way) to connect their daily experiences with what they learned in the classroom through evaluations and journals.  It also helps students make connections with the parish/school community for potential jobs in the future.  As for class work I think Loras lays a good foundation for ministry in what they teach.  We get a great and broad background of knowledge of Catholic theology and beliefs, through classes such as Christian Sexual Morality, Catholic Social Teachings, Sacraments, The Catholic Heritage, Introduction to Theology and Religious Studies, and many other classes.  We also get a good biblical foundation through classes such as Jesus and the Gospels, God’s Literature, Does the Land Belong to Israel?, Wisdom of the Prophets, and others.  The only thing that I think maybe could be added to the Loras curriculum is some classes on ministry within the Church.  But, I know that a class about foundations of ministry is being added for next semester which will be a great addition.  

          To be honest I do not know what I would like to do with my major, the ideas I have seem to change every week.  But, I do know I want to graduate (haha) and as of right now I have no desire to go to graduate school to pursue a doctorate, so it is a good thing I have many other options.  Right now I am leaning towards possibly working in catechism in some sort of aspect in a parish whether in RCIA or religious education.  Young adult and adult ministry also really interests me.  I am excited to see where the Lord leads me and the experiences still to come in the Religious Studies department at Loras College.   

Semester One: Week 6

            As a Religious Studies Major, I hope to learn more about the Catholic tradition that I have grown up in and the other faith traditions I may or may not know much about already. I expect that there will be a lot of reading and challenging topics to study and overcome with this major. Most of the reading material should be brought up in class, sometimes in large or small group discussion, sometimes in reflections, and on handouts (if applicable).

I get these expectations from classes I have taken in the past: Intro to Theology and Religious Studies, Seasons of the Sacred (the Honors section), and Why Am I Catholic? (in high school). Each of these classes had a fairly demanding load of reading and challenged me with projects, papers, and topics that I had to research online and in books and dig up information from previous experience and knowledge.

In Intro to Theology and Religious Studies with Dr. Osheim we had large and small group discussions daily about the readings and every once and a while we would get a hand out that helped expound on the discussions and notes on the readings. We also received study guides formatted like the test which really helped me to know how to prepare for each test and to know what to expect, even though I did not get a very good grade on the first two. With each new professor I encounter, sometimes it takes me a while to get used to their teaching style and as the semester went on, I got more and more comfortable with the style of the class and did better on each assignment and test.

In Seasons of the Sacred with Dr. Pitt we had large group discussions daily and occasionally broke off into smaller groups for activities and discussions. We received very few handouts, but there were extremely helpful along with the diagrams drawn on the board to copy into our notes. I did a lot better on the tests in this class than I did at the start of Intro to Theology and Religious Studies, but I had a different professor and different test formats, so I expected to have different results and was pleased.

Why Am I Catholic? caused me to truly question why I was a Catholic and provided me with opportunities and tools to research the Catholic traditions outside of class and dig deep down inside to find out what was truly appealing to me about my faith. This class required a lot more reading than my other classes in high school, but it prepared me well for what college theology classes would be like. It pushed me to question and deepen my faith, which ultimately led me to make the decision to become a Religious Studies major.

My family raised me Catholic and I never dreamt or thought of doing things differently. When I became old enough to ponder why my parents had raised me the way they did, I knew that they raised me into the faith that they believed so strongly in and there had to be a good reason. Faith, Catholic faith to be more specific, has always been a big part of my life because it means so much to my parents. I know there is a lot I have left to learn about the Catholic faith tradition and all other religions and I hope and expect that through the courses of the Religious Studies major I will learn a lot more about all faith traditions.

Semester 2 Week 11

          This semester I am happy to say that I am taking a class called Philosophy of God and Religion by Dr. Janine Idziak.  I feel this class relates very much to a class I took last semester called Introduction to Religious Studies/Theology.  These two classes relate because they both discussed how we justify the presence of evil in the world: theodicies.  They both just approach this subject in a different way. In the Introduction to Religious Studies and Theology course we discussed different religions and their view on God and Sacred Scripture; these religions were not necessarily Christian, but a very broad spectrum of different religions.  This class we also discussed theodicies and the problem of evil and biblically how we see these theodicies.  In the philosophy class we studied how to justify God’s existence philosophically, God’s attributes, and how to justify God’s existence with the problem of evil.

          I would have to say the most relatable subject we discussed in both classes was the problem of evil in the world and how to justify that problem with God’s existence.  The question that was posed in both classes was that if God is all knowing, all powerful, and all good how can evil exist in our world?  To answer this question both of my classes studied some of the same and some of the different theodicies that try and answer this question. 

Both classes studied John Hick’s soul making theodicy and the theodicy of suffering as a punishment from God.  In the soul making theodicy, we learned that suffering could be a way for humans to perfect ourselves and that is why God created a world with evil within it.  But the question that this theodicy leaves us with is that people do not always come out better because of suffering so why would God make evil present in the world to perfect us, when in fact many people despair or become worse people because of an evil they experienced?  The other theodicy both classes studied was that suffering is a punishment for sin.  In Intro to Religious Studies/Theology we studied the Old Testament, specifically Isaiah and Job, to understand this theodicy more.  In Isaiah we saw how many cities were sinning against the Lord in various ways: murder, idolatry, etc. and so the Lord sent many types of suffering upon them as punishment for their sins.  Then, in Job, we see how his peers are accusing him of doing some sort of wrong against the Lord because of the suffering he is going through, but he denies this claim.  This theodicy is very prevalent in the Old Testament.  Then in my philosophy class this semester, we also studied this theodicy by using the movie: God on Trial.  This movie was about men, mostly Jews, in a concentration camp during WWII and they put God on trial on the accusation of breaking the covenant with His people.  In this movie one of the possible reasons they come up with to why the Holocaust was happening is God punishing them for their sins.  We found many problems with this theodicy in class, just like the Jews had a problem with this explanation.  This theodicy is problematic because if one of God’s attributes is all good, then this theodicy is not possible.  Also, the extent of the punishment in comparison to the possible crimes would not be equal, the punishment would be entirely way too harsh.  And thirdly, what about the innocent children in the Holocaust and in the world who had to go through that suffering?  They could not have done anything to gain any type of punishment. 

Both Philosophy of God and Religion and Intro to Religious Studies/Theology classes I enjoyed immensely.  Both classes, while different in many aspects, were similar in the way we studied the problem of evil in the world and how to justify that with God’s existence.       

Semester 2 Week 6

Last semester I took a class called Wisdom of the Prophets.  In this course we dove deeply into the Old Testament prophets and learned what their individual themes were, how they portrayed their message to the Jewish people, and how God was portrayed in each of their books. Some of the themes we saw in the Old Testament were the suffering servant in Isaiah, which is related to Christ as the suffering servant in the New Testament, justice, and repentance.  Personally, it was a very interesting class for me because I had always thought the God in the Old Testament was not relatable at all and very harsh and demanding.  But through the closer study of the prophets I began to see that God was harsh out of love and justice and it pained Him to see His people turn away from him.

          This class did reach its objective in the fact it helped me to demonstrate that I can read “texts” analytically looking for their religious and theological values and show this through writing and oral communication.  There were two specific projects that we did in this class that I think really helped me to be able to reach this objective.  The first project was where we were in groups and each group was given an individual prophet or part of a prophetic book.  We were then instructed to discuss who the prophet was, what his message/theme was, and three modern day prophets who related to him.  Then we were supposed to display all of this on a poster board to fit the class theme of a well known online website.  So for example our group did Google Search, other groups did Facebook, Wikipedia, YouTube, etc.  It was very challenging to have to present the information we found in this way, but very informative and helped me learn a lot because we had to work together as a group to think outside of the box and be creative when none of us really are not known for our creativity.  So to make this project work we had to utilize a lot of teamwork and work to each other’s strengths.  The second activity we did, which was an in class activity.  Our professor gave us different paintings portraying scenes or prophets from the Old Testament.  We then had a about three or four paintings assigned to our group and we had to analyze them and think critically about what the painter was emphasizing about that specific scene or prophet he had painted.

          I thought this class did a sufficient job of helping the students reaching the objective stated above, but I do have one suggestion to continue to help the class grow.  I feel we had a lot of lecture in this class and while I know lecture is the basis of any class, I feel we had too much of it and not enough in class group discussions or projects.  Overall, I felt this class was a great learning experience and I look forward to my future classes in this field of study.