Month: March 2018

A funny thing happens when I’m asked what I teach at the university. I’ll say theology in general and often have to correct the assumption that I’m a Biblical scholar, I am not. But when I talk about the courses I teach and mention grad and undergrad courses on ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue that is when things often get interesting. If the person asking is an evangelical, which is my tribe, then you often get the sidelong glance or their attempt to inject that I must mean some sort of apologetic approach to other religions (by which they usually mean why our religion is the right one.) Leaving aside that I’m fairly critical of contemporary apologetic approaches, I thought it might be helpful to talk about why I believe inter-religious work is so important.

We Live in a Plural Context

The most basic reason why inter-religious work is important is that we live in a plural context. Unless we make herculean efforts to shelter ourselves and our families we North Americans cannot help but see the diversity around us. I really appreciate that my own kids are in the public school system and have very diverse friends. They are prepared for the challenge that pluralism brings to life. We’ve had to navigate food restrictions, meal blessings, and even the ways that religion can be toxic (some of their friends live heartbreaking realities). In fact my kids have interacted with both good and bad representatives of many world religions, so they are not naive about the functional reality of religion. The good examples help encourage their own religious questing and the bad examples show them what they do not want to be like. Pluralism is a blessing as well as a challenge. However, just because pluralism is our reality does not make inter-religious work an imperative, it just means we are limiting ourselves when we choose to pretend it does not matter.

Our World is Full of Problems Bigger than We Can Address Alone

Another approach to establishing the importance of inter-religious work is to look at the scope of problems we face in our world today. Ecological issues, human trafficking, racisms, fundamentalisms, are just a few of the big issues that we face today. No one religion is up for the task of dealing with these issues because the issues themselves spread out to all of us regardless of our religious orientation. Even though our religions can also get caught up in the systemic aspect of injustice, they also contain tools which allow us to confront those injustices. Thomas Berry taught us that we cannot solve the challenges of our day with religions in their current forms, but we also cannot do it without them. The fact that we need to cooperate to address the challenges of our day is a crucial reason to pursue inter-religious cooperation. However, I am convinced there is still another reason that makes inter-religious work personally compelling.

We Grow Best when we Spend Time with the Other

It is through inter-religious conversations that our faith grows the most. It is exactly this sort of attitude that gives my evangelical friends the most pause. One of the unfortunate aspects of our evangelical heritage is a tendency to see other religions in an adversarial light. So when I make the audacious claim that having deep meaningful conversation with folks of different religions it is understandable that I face some resistance. So let me explain. I’ve included a video that I used in a grad course on ecumenical and inter-religious work. It is part of a series of short videos that were meant to pose provocative questions preparing the students for a weekend learning intensive at the university. I’ll refrain from assigning readings, but I will encourage you to give the video a watch.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eV-dRj07xk?rel=0&w=560&h=315]

I am blessed with a diversity of friends, including a few deeply religious friends who happen to not be Christians. I love conversations with these friends, especially because none of us are afraid to talk about religion and even to talk about our own personal faith. There are two things that happen in these conversations.

First, I come to respect and understand the depth of character these friends have, especially those who take their religion seriously and live it out in the world around them. There are always bad examples of every religion, the news is full of them. But having relationships with non-Christian friends of deep faith has opened my eyes to the ways their religions can be a force of good in the world. I come to love and appreciate them even more as they share those things that are precious to them.

The second thing is that I am personally challenged through my relationships with my non-Christian friends. Seeing the faith of the other moves me to examine my own faith. For example, as I listen to stories of the hospitality of Ramadan I am reminded, and share, about the beauty of Jesus’ table fellowship with his followers. Additionally, I am pushed to question how my own Christian faith encourages me to be hospitable. It is when we deeply examine our faith that we learn better why we are committed to our religious faith. Personally these relationships challenge me to ask what that means to call myself a Christian. These relationships inspire me to be as faithful a witness to my friends as they are to me. It is in this deep, examined faith, that I grow most as a Christian.

So here is my question for you: do you have friends who truly challenge you with their difference? I would love to hear the stories.

The video and slide are from my 2016 running of THO5108W: Christianity and World Religions offered at Saint Paul University, Ottawa. 

As a theology professor I end up marking a lot of papers. The process is not really that difficult – however, a poorly written/formatted paper can take me three or four times as long to evaluate as a paper that follows a few simple rules. Believe me, there is nothing to gain from making a professor work hard simply to determine if you understood the concepts enough to pass a paper. In addition, as I often teach first year courses, I do take it on myself to help students write well. So I thought I would capture some of the more common problems that I run into as a head start for students wishing to get great marks.

1) Read The Question

Nothing makes marking more difficult than when a student ignores part or all of an assigned essay question. Before I mark even one paper I will take the assigned question and create a rubric or marking scheme. This rubric will include all the key concepts – dividing up the points for the demonstration of understanding for each concept. What a professor is trying to determine is not how creative you can be, but that you are able to understand and to articulate the concepts from the course.

A great strategy to demonstrate having read the question is to make an outline and to check each part of that outline against the question. An outline should be a series of simple sentences ordered to accomplish a goal. The outline also dictates what you should include in your introduction and conclusion. The introduction tells the reader what you are going to do and the conclusion sums up what you actually did in the paper. An outline not only keeps your project on track, but it can be checked against the question to make sure that you are covering all of the points needed and not spending time on points irrelevant to the question asked.

2) Write Academically

Writing an academic paper is about expressing precision and clarity. The language you use is an important part of being precise and clear. Good writing is actually hard work. It involves thinking about each sentence and asking if the sentence demonstrates adequate understanding of the subject.

One common problem that students run into is missing steps between ideas, how does one idea get you to the next? In the paper this looks like they have shifted topics mid-paragraph. The thing is the arguments are connected in our heads, but we simply push them out onto the paper and sacrifice clarity. Nine times out of ten I can ask the student a few question and find out they actually know how the ideas connect, but at that point the paper has already been marked. Remember a professor can only mark what is on the page.

What works in casual conversation will not work in an academic paper. For example, it does not matter how many articles you have skimmed online about Karl Barth, you are not on a first name basis with him. Think formal and handle the ideas in your paper with respect. Most professors have invested many years of hard study to deliver their courses, so how you set the tone of your papers matters.

Here are a few common writing problems that should be avoided in formal academic writing:

• Do not use contractions.
• Do not assume your clever turn of phrase will convey the meaning you intend, write plainly what you desire to communicate.
• Avoid gendered language when talking about humanity.
• Avoid gendered language when talking about the Divine. The big problem here is that we do pay enough attention to the language we use, especially when talking about God. I have no problem with choosing certain god-talk language based on carefully articulated theological reasons – but no undergraduate student has this luxury. (If you want an example of how to articulate a justification for gendered god-talk Miroslav Volf makes such a case in Exclusion and Embrace.)
• Check your spelling and your grammar. If you are not using a modern word processor many of the schools have student writing services that are there to help you improve your writing skills. Even after you do satisfy the word processor’s spelling and grammar checks, it is always a good idea to read your paper aloud to make sure you have the right correctly spelled words (bellow and below are both spelled correctly, but mean very different things) and that your grammatically correct sentences say what you actually intend for them to say.

3) Cite Strategically

It is really important that you cite any material that you use. However, many students seem to believe that citing is for direct quotations. I actually discourage the use of a lot of direct quotations. It might well be that the scholar you are citing expresses an idea far more elegantly than you, but direct quotes do not demonstrate your understanding. A better strategy is to put those ideas into your own words and then cite the source. By integrating the ideas into your prose you demonstrate your own understanding of the ideas.

4) Use The Style Guide

And on the topic of citations, please use the Style Guide for your professor’s faculty. I realize this can be a pain, but not much is worse than a system of citation marks that does not do what they need to do. In the faculty of theology where I teach we use footnotes (Turabian/Chicago)  which allow me, as the reader, get right to the page you are citing from to see how you drew the conclusions you have drawn. Yes, we do use those citation marks when we evaluate your papers. The Style Guide will also tell you what kind of front matter is expected, proper font type and size, as well as how to construct a bibliography for large papers. As a bonus, the faculty usually chooses a citation style based on its journal, so if you write a paper that a professor feels could be turned into a publishable article you will not have to spend time reformatting your paper for their journal.

5) Spell Your Professor’s Name Correctly

I know this one sounds a bit strange, and perhaps it is my vanity speaking. You should know that most of your professors are at least a little vain. So getting their name right sets the tone you want when they read your paper. Sometimes it is the little things that can make the biggest difference.

This is a post I’ve been meaning to finish for over a year now. I plan on doing some videos about academic life and work. One of the things I enjoy most is seeing students grow in their understanding and ability to communicate that understanding. It is a beautiful thing.

The picture is from a recent bout of marking for the course on revelation and faith I am currently teaching. No identifying details remain, but my name is spelled correctly.