Burgy's description of this course is not much different from my own approach to origins issues at Messiah. I don't tell students what I think unless they directly ask about a specific point (in which case I will tell them my view on that point), and I do tell them that their grade is based on their understanding of the issues and their ability to articulate that understanding, not upon the particular view they favor or even argue in favor of.
At Messiah, we want to produce graduates who can think and who own their own understanding of Christian faith--not my understanding, not their parents' understanding, not their friends', but their OWN. Yes, we absolutely do favor and encourage the formation of a CHRISTIAN understanding; here we differ with the experience Burgy described. I won't defend that, simply b/c I don't think I should need to, given who we are. But the specifics of that understanding are what we encourage students to explore, in many different academic and non-academic settings.
Ted
Burgy wrote:
Some one asked "What do you believe?" His answer was to the point. "If
you say, however eloquently, that you believe as I do and can't
explain reasons, you will flunk. If you say you believe something
else, and explain so with passion and thought, you will get an "A." As
far as what I think, that is not the subject of this course nor will
it be."
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Received on Tue Oct 13 13:22:47 2009
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