It is hard to believe that after all my hard word, diligence, and faithful to writing these blogs each week has come to an abrupt end. I’ve written so much throughout this semester and achieved so much it feels good to know that this is my last one. I wouldn’t consider myself as someone who likes to write a lot in fact many of times while writing blogs I find myself in a steadfast. What I mean by that is, it gets to the point where my mind just goes blank because I had so many ideas but don’t know exactly the right words to say. This course I actually broke that habit because I knew that I had a goal in this class and that was to complete the fifteen blogs required. This road was not an easy one at least for me, at times I found myself listening to music to get by from the painful thousand word blogs. All of that is behind me because this course helped me to understand that I am capable of surpassing the requirements as long as I’m willing to abide by them to some extent There are four main goals of this course. The course goals are to give students a level of expertise containing to biblical studies, to provide ways on how to read the Bible critical, to improve a student’s ability to effectively communicate accurately about the Bible to someone, and to improve the world. I feel that these course objectives were covered throughout this course. I can leave this semester having gained a lot more knowledge of the Bible about the history of the Bible. I have been able to figure out how to interpret different parts of the Bible and understand what they mean. Reading the Bible is more than just reading words on a page. You cannot read the Bible like you would read a novel or a letter. The Bible must be analyzed and broken apart to understand what the text is trying to say. God is speaking directly to us through the words in the Bible. Also I have learned how different interpretations of the Bible may have led to certain misconceptions and understandings of certain aspects. Different translations also contribute to this. When you think about it, the Bible is a very complicated text to understand and to read. Because we have been doing these blogs, I think that I have become a better writer and am able to better analyze the text. Our projects have also taught me how I can improve the world, one step at a time. It is actually not that hard to improve the world. It does not take some long thought out and complicated effort. I feel that anyway has the ability to change the world if they want to do that. Changing the world can be something so simple that can make such a big difference. It does not matter whether one person’s life is changed or many people. Changing the life of one person directly affects the world and the difference that you have made in it. Paul and James were two people that had different views about the way religion should go, more specifically Christianity. Paul was Jewish, who at one time persecuted of Christians. The funny thing about Paul is that he eventually converted to Christianity .He helped spread the word around. He felt that this new religion did not need to have aspects of the Jewish religion laws. However, on the other side was James, Jesus’ brother, who believed that Christians should keep the Jewish law as a part of legacy, so the Christian faith would have a strong and solid foundation. James had a somewhat advantage over Paul because he was the brother of Jesus and Paul used to persecute Christians. They both shared two different opinions. Paul had a principle containing to faith while James believed firmly in works. Paul thought that you should pray about your problems and just have faith that things would turn out for the good. James believed that if you wanted something to happen it should occur based on actions. James argued that prayer can only get you so far. You shouldn’t only rely on prayer to pull you through situations instead you should act on them. If you want something to be done about a problem you have to do it yourself. James stood on the principle that God only helps those who are willing to help themselves. The moment I enrolled into theology I didn’t feel that this class was necessary at all. I thought that this was going to be a class I had no absolute interest in. The reason I say that I because when I think of the word theology I think of an old guy lecturing about a bible pertaining to events that took place in the past and information not relevant to the times we live in today. After the first week Dr. Homan proved me wrong and showed me that there’s more to theology than that. I really like his style of teaching because I was learning information and enjoying the class at the same time. I’m glad Xavier decided to put theology into the arts and sciences curriculum. I think that even if you’re not a Christian you would have appreciation for this course. The lessons that I personally learned in taking this course will carry me a long way in life. This truly one of those courses that is life changing, its just simply remarkable. It had to be a remarkable class if it grasped my interest in the first week, and I’m not an easy person to be impressed. This course has helped me to establish and have a more focused and goal orientated mind, which will ultimately help me as I get prepared to take on my career. It is all about morality and what you consider to be right and wrong. I want to be a pharmacist when I grow up, so the idea of right and wrong and everything in between is something that I will have to implement every day of my career. After writing an uncountable amount of words in theology, I feel pretty comfortable able writing a ten paged essay! I believe that I have a better out take on biblical studies and know how to write efficiently while thinking critically, thanks to Dr. Homan. P.S. I think that I’m really going to miss coming to theology class having you as my lecturer.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 25th, 2009 at 11:02 pm and is filed under Week 15: Reflection. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.