I'm creating this blog for my religious studies major. I am rather late on creating this blog. Technically it was supposed to be put together in October. Better late than never, right? Right.
Alright, now for my assigned questions:
What do you expect or hope to learn as a Religious Studies major?
I expect to learn about more about my faith. I hope to learn more about people and how to teach them about faith. I really want to be able to bring people closer to Christ through my work in the world.
Where do these expectations come from?
I suppose these expectations come from the whole reason I’m majoring in Religious studies. I want to share my faith with others and bring them closer to Christ. I’m not really sure where that desire came from. When I was in high school I would go to Youth Days and other events. I was blessed to be in a group where the cool thing was to be Catholic. My family is also very Catholic. I guess I can’t imagine life without my faith.
During my first semester at Loras College I took the class Intro to Theology and Religious taught by Dr. Osheim. I loved it, especially the journaling. I already keep a journal, but having to write journal entries about what I was learning in class really helped me connect my life with the themes and ideas I was learning in class. I was really amazing how much I saw my life connect with what I was learning. The second class I took was Bible and Literature taught by Dr. Waldmeir. I also really enjoy that class because it connected the Bible, which I’ve read and heard all it life, with real life situations. Finally, the most recent class I have taken is Catholic Social Teaching with Dr. Shadle. I learned a lot of the recent issues during the Church.
Perhaps one the best aspects I’ve learned so far in this religious studies major is how my life connects with the Church and its teachings. The Catholic faith is so deep and full of beauty. In the future, I hope throughout the rest of my years at Loras I can learn how to show others the beauty I have been blessed to see.
Alright, so that pretty much all I can think of saying at the moment. God bless!
Katie, seeking to better understand your own faith and better communicate that faith to others is one of the most common motivations for our religious studies majors, and it is a great reason to take on the academic study of theology. I think that one of the great lines in your post is that you believe your desire to study theology not only means studying your own faith, but better understanding other people, as well. This was the approach that the bishops took at the Second Vatican Council (1962-65); the Church must learn from the world to in order to better understand how to live and teach the Gospel to the people of today's world. You have a great opportunity here at Loras College, which is a Catholic liberal arts college. Not only is it Catholic, where you have an opportunity to deepen your own faith, but it is also a liberal arts college, where students are expected to study a broad range of subjects in order to get a broad perspective on what it means to be human. Hopefully you will draw on these different perspectives in your religion classes.
ReplyDeleteWhen you are talking about where your motivations for choosing the major came from, you mentioned that the Catholic faith is deep and full of beauty. This is definitely true, but it would be helpful if you had given a couple of examples of this from your past experience to show what in your life has drawn you toward the study of theology. I think that something to consider in your future blog posts is to expand on your ideas and give concrete examples.