In this blog I am going to write a reflective blog, in which I am going to evaluate the course goals that I feel I have achieved. The course goals are: give students a level of expertise in the discipline of biblical studies, provide the tools to read the Bible in an academic and critical manner, improve student’s ability to effectively communicate and to write clearly matters involving critical thinking, and improve the world. After taking this class, I feel that I have achieved each and every one of these goals. I feel that I have gained almost a level of expertise in the discipline of biblical studies. I walked into this class at the beginning of the semester not knowing a lot about the Bible. Although I am a devout Christian, I feel that there was a lot I did not know about the Bible. I really did not know that much about the Old Testament and this class helped me learn a lot of the stuff that I was lacking. After spending nearly four months learning about the Bible this semester, I think that I have obtained a good amount of knowledge about the Bible. This class did not only teach me about the Bible, but it also taught me how to read the Bible critically. Reading the Bible using critical thinking and the different types of criticisms that we learned about, allows you to better understand what you are reading. Before taking this class, there were many instances, in which I read something in the Bible and I did not know what it meant or I was confused. Learning to read the Bible in a critical many really helped me out a lot, because now I can understand the Bible better. This class also improved my ability in communicating and writing, through the blogs that I wrote. This class is both reading and writing intensive, which allowed me to apply what I have read and to clearly write about it in the blogs. At first I did not like the idea about writing blogs because they are time consuming, but as I completed each one I felt that they were beginning to become easier and easier. I realized that the blogs were not so bad after all, because they really improved my thinking and writing ability. This class really made me apply myself. There is a lot of work in this class and I feel that I was able to handle it just fine. I truly believe I improved the world with my project. What I did may have not been a lot, but I feel that I improved the world at least a little bit. I am very glad that I chose to do my project on world hunger, because I feel that I was able to improve the world by donating my time and energy by volunteering. I also took the time to run and coordinate a food drive at my Church, which ended up being very successful.

     I agree with Saint James on the faith vs. works conflict. Saint James says “…faith without works is dead.” I completely agree with this, because I feel that good deeds shows that you have faith. How can anyone have faith without good deeds? You need to have both faith and works. Anyone can say they believe and have faith in God, but what have they done to show for it. You need to be able to justify what you believe in and that is done only through works. This also applied the other way around. Good deeds without faith will lead one to God. You can be the nicest, caring, helpful, and trustworthy person in the world, but if you do not have faith in God then how will you be able to receive salvation.

     The best part of this course was attending class and learning more about the Bible. I really enjoyed coming to class, because I feel that the topics we discuss in class are really interesting and sometimes even entertaining. I feel that this class was interesting, because almost every time I went to class, I learned something new. The worst part about this class was waiting until the last couple of days to complete 15,000 words. Writing a thousand words a week is really not that bad, but when you wait until the last second then it gets to the point when you give up and you just want to quit. I honestly wish that each weekly blog had a due date, because I would be forced to complete each blog on time. I really wish I did not procrastinate on the blogs. I should have done them on time, but I spent a lot of my time after school at the hospital with my grandmother until the day she passed away. I had trouble managing my time this semester and it was tough dealing with the loss of my grandmother.

     This course has a lot to do with my major field of study. My major is biology and my goal is to become a dentist. This course taught me how to think critically and it also improved my writing ability. These are skills that I will use for the rest of my life. Many aspects of Biology require you to think critically and to be able to write effectively. I am really glad I chose to take this class over the other theology courses that were offered, because I learned a lot. This class allowed me to really apply myself and to help improve the world.  I very thankful for being able to take this class and I thank Dr. Homan for being a great instructor. I greatly benefited from your class. I acquired many great skills and I learned many new things. You really taught me a lot and you taught me well. I look forward to having you as my instructor for my second Theology course next spring. Hopefully I will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed this class.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 26th, 2009 at 7:21 am 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.