Post for November 11, 2009
Today I had the chance to be the inaugural speaker for the Concordia University Catholic Students Association. They are a new group — only been around a month — so I was delighted to be able to be there with them and support them. The topic they had proposed was quite interesting: Man is made to keep the garden — Stewardship in environment and religion. Unfortunately there were relatively few students, but that may have been just as well — I wasn’t at my best, to be honest, having just come off 3 hours of teaching at the Grand Séminaire.
For those wanting to know more about a Catholic perspective on the environment, the following website entitled Catholic Conservation Center looks quite interesting.
One thing the students did mention to me was that they had a hard time selling this talk to their fellow Catholics, some of whom accused them of being part of a trendy fad or even of encouraging druidism (!). I’ve encountered this sort of reaction myself, and in my experience it is more a reaction to the excessive sentimentalism of some of the environmentalists than to the issues themselves. Indeed, this sentimentalism is sometimes downright irrational. However, I think that an excessive opposite reaction is not helpful either: we must be able to appreciate creation in a joyful reaction to its beauty, as a gift coming from God. There is the possibility of a genuine spirituality of creation, it would seem to me, that keeps things in their proper order. Anyway, that’s what I tried to get across.
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Post for March 20, 2009
I’ve been really busy with work and such, but also with an important teaching project. On Wednesday nights, I teach a course called the Christian Understanding of God. Week 9 of this course was to be a comparative study of the Christian and Islamic understanding of God. And the lecture was two nights ago. Course material here:
As you can imagine, I was a bit concerned about doing this well. I don’t believe that the goal of interfaith dialogue is to create some sort of “mushy middle”, a tertium quid that pretends that fundamental differences don’t exist. They do. But because those differences are so fundamental, it makes it hard for each side to simply *understand* each other. In my opinion, successful dialogue means that side A is able to describe side B in such a way that side B recognizes itself in the description.
So that’s what I was trying to accomplish in my class: a Christian explaining to Christians the Islamic understanding of God in such a way that Muslims would not feel their beliefs were being ridiculed or caricatured, but rather respected (of course with the understanding that the speaker is not a Muslim). And given that I have Muslims in my class, their feedback was important to know if I was on the right track. As it turns out, that feedback was positive. I am open to being corrected, of course, as I want to only share the truth: but in the meantime, I’m happy to share with you the fruits of LOTS of hours of labour.
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Post for February 16, 2009
I’ve been teaching THEO 331 this term (also known as the Christian Understanding of God). It has been a lot of fun, I’m really enjoying it. Today I hosted my traditional study day in a coffee shop close to school.
Of course, apart from mere academics we often get into other discussions regarding religious faith. The students who came to see me today were Ukrainian Orthodox, Pentecostal, Ismaili Muslim, and yes even a couple of Roman Catholics. One student mentioned he was in the process of converting from Islam to Orthodoxy, after having originally been an agnostic.
I pray for my students regularly, not simply that they do well in this course, but in their personal spiritual and religious journey. Their exam is on Wednesday. Say a prayer for them too, will ya? Thanks in advance!
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Post for March 12, 2008
The eighth week of my new course was on the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. Here are the audio files:
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Post for March 5, 2008
The seventh week of my new course was on the death of Jesus, with a bit on his descent among the dead. Here are the audio files:
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Post for February 13, 2008
The sixth week of my new course was on the earthly life and ministry of Jesus. Here are the audio files:
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Post for February 6, 2008
The fifth week of my new course was on Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Mary. Here are the audio files:
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Post for January 30, 2008
The fourth week of my new course was on the Fall and the nature of evil (but also, the dynamics of the history of salvation). Here are the audio files:
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Post for January 23, 2008
The third week of my new course was on “Creation”. Here are the audio files:
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Post for January 16, 2008
The second week of my new course was on “God”. Of course, it is *all* about God, but this was specifically on the issue of his being and essence. Here are the audio files:
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Post for January 9, 2008
Tonight I taught my first lecture for THEO 211L, entitled “The Possibility of Knowing God”. Here are the audio recordings for the lecture:
Please feel free to pass the word on this one: I’m not recording these lectures for myself, after all! If they can help people come to know the Catholic faith better, that would be great.
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Post for January 6, 2008
I spent most of my afternoon today designing my course outline for my THEO211L course that I am teaching this term. The topic is “Introduction to Roman Catholicism: The Creed”. I’ve also set up a course web page for my students, as well as anyone else interested in following along (as I will also be putting the audio files of each lecture on-line).
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