Tonight I deliver the last full substance lecture for my course THO3162: Christian Faith: Encounter with the Self-revealing God (formerly Revelation and Faith). We have a review lecture next week, but I anticipate half of the class will be the end of my lecture from tonight (we are about a half class behind which means we’ve had some awesome conversations along the way.)
I find the semester moves along way too fast. We spend the majority of the course building a foundation to make possible a robust conversation about God’s revelations to humanity. Now that we have a framework, the final lectures look at how our understandings of God as the self-revealing One shape our worship, our sense of mission, and how we interact with non-Christians. I love how we go from highly philosophical/technical teaching to some very practical conversations. I also really enjoy that I can weave into the course understandings from a variety of Christian traditions even though the basic reflection is strongly rooted in a Roman Catholic approach by way of Dei Verbum and the work of Avery Dulles and Dermot Lane.
The core premise for the technical side is that revelation always has both an objective and a subjective side. Revelation is always rooted in something substantial (objective) like Scripture, tradition, or even experience. At the same time revelation is always received and interpreted in the human person, hopefully within the confidence of the community that is the Church. It is this idea that we always necessarily mediate revelation (subjective) through our own lives that allows for our experiences of God grow with us as our faith and understanding matures. I always try to communication that revelation has the capacity to become more meaningful, not less.
It is at this end point in the semester that I already start to miss the conversations of our class. I have the absolute pleasure of watching people grow in their understanding both of God and of themselves. For a teacher there is no greater pleasure than to see your students light up when they grok something new. This class has been quite rich in that regard.
The photo is from a student auditing my class who has a very mystical approach to learning. I’ve really enjoyed having a really diverse class this semester including a couple of evangelicals.
Let me know your thoughts...