Greetings Theology students!
There is a serious desire here at Mars Hill Graduate School to be integrative, so that no discipline stands separate from another, or separate from the purpose or meaning behind, or toward, which we are attempting to learn – for the healing and life of the world God so loves. To that end, it will be expected that you become familiar with some of the ‘terms of art’ that allow us to speak among ourselves in ways that enable serious conversation. Just as some of you are required to memorize terms in the DSM-IV to enable you to use certain terms to speak of a whole cluster of ideas (symptoms, pathologies, diagnoses, treatment), so too you will be asked to learn some terms that allow us to use one word (e.g., soteriology) rather than 27 words about all the implications of and meanings of ‘salvation’. So you will be quizzed so that you will be able to actually begin to use these terms.
You will also be quizzed on certain readings. To try to enter into a conversation, remember what’s been said, what you think about it, what questions you have, etc., when you only have one brief encounter, and then are asked to articulate that person’s thought carefully and charitably, is really hard work. Regular engagement is so much better. Since this term we don’t have that regular engagement in class, the quizzes will help you to read/listen more carefully to these conversation partners so you can represent them well (a critical step to authentic engagement, but not one that is practiced much at present).
We’re reading Newbigin first, a churchman who also happens to think who God is and who we are really matters, in every conceivable way and context - that there is splitting between ethics, the movement toward wholeness, God and our talk/life/understanding of God (theology). He will help you take steps to being more clear about the cultural worldview that has you, hook, line and sinker, and is reeling you in to be conditioned about how you are ‘allowed’ to think theologically. He will call you to resist (something you’re good at!). I pray that you resist the real enemy; real evil seldom wears its name on its sleeve. If it’s too obvious, something might be done about it, or we’d have to acknowledge our complicity. So be open to undergoing the reconciliation of your minds (metanoia – repentance, alternative reality) so that you participate in the real, every day, reconciliation that is the future Kingdom in the present.
We will have a couple of essay exams where you get to put some pieces together and see what the picture actually looks like and tell it in your own words. We are not interested in ‘right answers’ spit back to us. We want to know if you can authentically witness to what is the heart of the only good news there is for the world – that it/we are beloved by God, here’s how we know, and here’s the difference God can make when released among his people. (NOT the difference one’s knowledge about God can make.)
You will write a paper, you will read a lot, you will talk among yourselves and with Dr. Stearns (as well as various other guests), you will wrestle, pray, wonder, want to quit, get excited, and all the other stuff of learning as a community and as a unique person. You come embedded in a story. It’s our hope that we see our personal and corporate story(ies) weave together.
May the Presence of God, the Spirit of the Father and the Son, rest upon and in you all, giving you your lives back by drawing you further into the Triune communion, and empowering you to be the place where God’s Presence dwells uniquely in the world for its healing, justice, beauty and final restoration.
On behalf of Dr. Stearns & myself (you're TA), welcome!
"Real names tell you the story of the things they belong to . . . " - Treebeard