Almost two months ago, now, I was approached by the diocese
with a request. They want to start a lay
theological institute, hosted here at Easter College. Within a year or two, assuming it passes the
accreditation process, it would become a full-fledged department of the school,
giving students in the northern dioceses a place to study theology before going
on to Manila to the seminary there. And
they want me to teach a course while I’m here.
Let me back up a bit.
When I arrived in Baguio, I was introduced around to most of the
higher-ups in the church offices, including the bishop. Most of them, as part of making conversation,
asked me what I studied in college. When
I replied that I’d studied Biology and Religion, there was an almost universal “Are
you from Mars?” look. And of course,
they asked me to explain how I reconciled the two disciplines. Evidently, I did a good job explaining to the
Bishop, because he decided that one of the special courses for the new theological
institute should be Science and Religion, and that I should teach it.
The past two months have been spent working a great deal on
preparing to teach this course. I’ve
been up to my eyes in research, including discovering that it seems like most
of the work in English geological studies was done by Anglican clerics to some
degree or another. I’ll be re-writing my
course syllabus this week, so that it’s ready to start classes in December,
which is the current projected start date.
So far, the people who have seemed most interested in this class seem to
be my fellow teachers, mostly from the clergy of the diocese. I had several of them, while we were at our
training seminar, tell me that they were going to sign up to take my class. Which means that I will be teaching a
collegiate level theology course to priests, many with more in-depth
theological training than me.
What I have prepared so far includes a bit on the course
expectations:
I
do not expect you to agree with everything I say in this course. I do not
expect you to agree with everything I give you to read. In fact, over the
next few months, I will hopefully be giving you articles and books to read
which will disagree with one another. I expect each of you will find yourselves
drawn more to some authors, some perspectives, than others. I expect each
of you to at times, disagree with one another.
This is good, this is important, this is healthy to do so. I will be striving to give you multiple viewpoints for this very reason. It would be very easy for me to only present topics and papers that agreed with my fundamental positions on the issue of the relationship between science and religion. It would also be an act of sabotage for your long term trust in me, and for your education. We learn the most when we confront ideas that are not our own, when we learn to articulate the ways in which we agree and disagree with other viewpoints.
To give you only one perspective would be as if we were to say today that we should not have four gospels in the Bible, that we do not need to see multiple points of view on Jesus. The point of this course is not to convince you to think like me. It is not to force you to give up any position you already hold.
The point of this course is to let all of us, me as well as you, work through what we honestly believe. It is to force us to examine and articulate our own beliefs, to know why we think as we do. Because as long as our positions are not thought through, they remain prejudices, and prejudices are always blinding.
I expect you to listen, and to read what is presented. I expect you to keep an open mind and consider what someone else's perspective might offer you. I also expect you to offer your own opinions and reasoning throughout. This is a dialogue, not a monologue. I expect that I will at times challenge you, and that you in turn will challenge me to think more deeply about the subjects we address here. And, at the end of our course, I expect that you will be able to say more clearly what you believe, and to know why others believe as they do. If we can all do that, I will know that we as a class have succeeded.
This is good, this is important, this is healthy to do so. I will be striving to give you multiple viewpoints for this very reason. It would be very easy for me to only present topics and papers that agreed with my fundamental positions on the issue of the relationship between science and religion. It would also be an act of sabotage for your long term trust in me, and for your education. We learn the most when we confront ideas that are not our own, when we learn to articulate the ways in which we agree and disagree with other viewpoints.
To give you only one perspective would be as if we were to say today that we should not have four gospels in the Bible, that we do not need to see multiple points of view on Jesus. The point of this course is not to convince you to think like me. It is not to force you to give up any position you already hold.
The point of this course is to let all of us, me as well as you, work through what we honestly believe. It is to force us to examine and articulate our own beliefs, to know why we think as we do. Because as long as our positions are not thought through, they remain prejudices, and prejudices are always blinding.
I expect you to listen, and to read what is presented. I expect you to keep an open mind and consider what someone else's perspective might offer you. I also expect you to offer your own opinions and reasoning throughout. This is a dialogue, not a monologue. I expect that I will at times challenge you, and that you in turn will challenge me to think more deeply about the subjects we address here. And, at the end of our course, I expect that you will be able to say more clearly what you believe, and to know why others believe as they do. If we can all do that, I will know that we as a class have succeeded.
What do you think?
Would you be interested in this course?
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