1.    I think that this course does give students a better understanding of what a Bible scholar does. I will not lie I had my stereotypes about what a biblical scholar was like. I thought that they would be boring and kind of dull but Dr. Homan is not like that at all. He is a normal person like you and me. He has a sense of humor and he is easy to talk to. I did not know all the things that Biblical studies encompassed until now. I did not know that there were different versions of the Bible that were really old. I did not even know that scribes would change the Bible. So this course does give students a level of expertise in the discipline of Biblical Studies.

2.    I think that this course does give us the tools to read the Bible in a academic and critical way. It shows us that you have to look at things in a critical manner because this is a human invention and it can be subject to error. You can not just look at the Bible and expect it to be in its most original and purest form. It taught me that this was not originally made as one book but put together later by a person.

3.    I think this does build a student’s communication skills. If you can write a paper or an email well after writing at least 15,000 words in five months then you need to reevaluate your college career. It is like you know that other people will read them so you want to write well and sound educated. It also helps you to stick to the prompt and answer the questions that are given to you. These are tools that we need in life and especially in college so I think that this helps us to communicate.

4.    I think that the projects that each student did or did not do had the potential to make an impact in someone’s life. I like that we got to chose what we did and it could be something that matter to us. I do not think it would have been as successful if we were given a particular activity and made to do it. We had free reign and I like that.

Do you agree with Paul or James in the Faith vs. Works conflict?

Paul said that if you have faith basically you do not need anything else. He believes that faith will replace law. According to Paul, Abraham was justified (to be declared free of blame) by his faith. He said that Abraham believed in God before he was circumcised which was the work. James on the other had believes that faith without works is dead. He feels that people can have all the faith that they want to have in the world but if \they do not try to help themselves or the people around them then they are not really all that great. I think that I agree with James on this issue. Faith with out works is dead. You have some really bad people in this world who do have faith. They can pray every day but they are still doing the wrong so they can not be justified. James feels like Abraham is justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar to be killed. Basically James feels that God forgave Abraham because that is what he asked him to do and he had enough faith to follow God’s command. James also uses the example of Rahab who hid the spies from the people within Jericho because she had faith. I think that you have to do good deeds to show that you are faithful. You can not just get by on faith alone like Paul said.

What was the best part of this class?

I think that the information I learned from this class had to be the best part. Even though it seems like we were slackers and did not really care, I feel like I know a lot more about the Bible now than when I started the class. I have always wanted to get a better understanding of the Bible for my own personal growth so doing this class has helped me become more aware of what the Bible says and what it is about.

What was the worst part?

I think the worst part for me was the blogs. Sometimes they were interesting but sometimes they were very hard to write. I feel that if they would not have had specific questions that you had to answer they would be all right. I think that it is easier to say what is on your mind and how you feel than to answer a few questions in 1000 words. I do not know, maybe if it was like that we would run out of things to say but maybe it is good that our blogs are kind of structured. I do not know what I am talking about. Well any who.

Do you think that courses such as this should be part of the core curriculm at Xavier? Why or why not?

I think being at a catholic school, we are bound to learn about religion. I think that it kind of should be a requirement because we do need to be aware of others religions. I think that theology classes do help us to become better rounded people. We are probably a lot more likely to be accepting and understanding of people of different religions than people at other schools. I think that we should have to take these classes because it helps us to be good critical thinkers and keeps us on our toes.

What does this course have to do with your major field of study?

My major is Biology. I feel that this course has to do with biology because it gives me a moral basis for the field that I want to go into. I want to be a doctor and the Bible shows you the right and the wrong things that you are supposed to do to be morally righteous. I feel like every thing that you need to learn about being a good ethical doctor is given with in this book. It gives you basic laws like thou shall not steal and it shows you the appropriate way to act like do not sleep with your soldiers wives and get them pregnant. I think this course applies to life in general.

After writing too many words in this blog, I now believe that I can do anything if I put my mind to it because sometimes it is hard to come up with a thousand words each week but I did it and I was good at it. Yes!!!!!!

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 26th, 2009 at 11:00 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.