MARCH 2013 NEWSLETTER
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Bible.org | 1101 E Arapaho Rd Ste 260 | Richardson | TX | 75081
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Related Topics: Administrative and Organization
Session 5 - Christian Epistemology
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Session Overview
What kind of questions are Christians to be prepared to answer today? Modernists ask questions that are rational. Did Christ really rise from the grave? Is the Bible reliable? Postmodernists ask questions that are emotional. Why does God allow evil to happen? What about those who have never heard? In this session, the student should gain a greater understanding of why Postmoderns are asking the type of questions they are. Should the Christian join the moderns or postmoderns? The student will learn what the Christian view of truth should be in response to both Modernism and Postmodernism.
Session Reading (for self-study students)
- Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, pp. 105-126
Related Topics: Introduction to Theology
Session 4 - Postmodern Epistemology
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Session Overview
Why is truth devalued in our culture today? What is Postmodernism? We live in a different world than we did just 20 years ago. People think differently today about the reality and nature of truth. Your truth is your truth, my truth is my truth-they are both right is a comon belief that we encounter in our Postmodern culture. Why are people thinking in such a manner? By the end of this session, the student should have a better understanding of the history of man's search for truth, learning that the Postmodern view of truth (that truth is relative) comes as a response and reaction to an overly optimistic view of man that came out of the enlightenment. We will begin to answer the question, How should the Christian respond to a Postmodernism culture?
Session Reading (for self-study students)
- None
Related Topics: Introduction to Theology
Session 3 - Categories of Theology
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Session Overview
What is systematic theology? What are the common mistake that people make with regards to doing theology? How important is it that one use a theological process that is testable? This session presents the different categories in which theology is done. The student should gain a greater understanding of what systematic theology is by understanding its relation to biblical, apologetic, historic, dogmatic, and philosophical theologies. A basic understanding of the theological process is introduced. The student should leave with an understanding that biblical theology must be done with great integrity, asking what did the text mean in its original setting? then asking what does it mean for all time? then finally what does it mean for today?
Session Reading (for self-study students)
- Representing Christ to a Postmodern World (also contained in Student Notebook)
Related Topics: Introduction to Theology
Session 2 - Defining Theology
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Session Overview
What exactly is theology and who is a theologian? Why are there so many bad theologies out there? Are you a Tabloid theologian, believing everything you hear? Or are you a more skeptical theologian, who won't believe anything? This session will cover the different methods and commitments, good and bad, that people bring to their theology causing them to be a good theologian or a bad theologian. During this session the student will be persuaded that everyone is a theologian because everyone has theological persuasions and convictions, even if they don't realize it. The student will have to decide what type of theologian they want to be. One can be a sloppy theologian, by naively receiving their belief system without a constructive methodology, or one can be a theologian with integrity, by exercising critical examination.
Session Reading (for self-study students)
- None
Session 6 - Defining Essentials and Non-Essentials
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Session Overview
What are the essential beliefs that make a Christian a Christian? What are the core beliefs that someone must believe to be saved? Are there truths that are relative? If so, how do we know which ones? In this session the student will struggle with these difficult questions. The goal here is not that everyone comes to complete agreement, but that we begin to dialogue about such issues, understanding that failure to do so has produced legalism where people are judging others for not agreeing with them on each and every detail on non-essential issues. The student should also begin to recognize that their are different levels of certainty about all beliefs.
Session Reading (for self-study students)
- None
Related Topics: Introduction to Theology
Session 1 - Class Introduction and Authority
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Session Overview
Whom do we trust for authority? Should we trust an institutionalized Church? Is there any validity in the tradition? Or should we rely upon the Scriptures alone as the Reformers insisted? This lesson should provide the student with a better understanding of the various views of Christian authority that have been held throughout history. The student should have a basic overview of the beliefs concerning authority of the three major traditions (Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, and Roman Catholicism). The student should also have a better understanding of the significance of Martin Luther’s famous (infamous) “Here I stand” speech at the Diet of Worms. As well, the student should understand the extremes that some modern Protestant denomination have gone in neglecting the authority of tradition all together, misunderstanding and misrepresenting the Reformation doctrine of sola Scriptura.
Session Reading (for self-study students)
- Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, pp. 127-138
Related Topics: Bibliology (The Written Word), Reformation, Catholicism, Inspiration, Revelation, The Theology Program
Session 2 - Sola Scriptura
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Session Overview
What is Tradition? Why does the Roman Catholic Church reject Sola Scriptura? Why did the Reformers reject the absolute authority of Tradition? Is Sola Scriptura to be blamed for all the separation in the Protestant Church? Can’t I just study the Bible on my own and let the Holy Spirit guide me to all truth? This lesson will center on the doctrine of Christian authority.
Session Overview
What is Tradition? Why does the Roman Catholic Church reject Sola Scriptura? Why did the Reformers reject the absolute authority of Tradition? Is Sola Scriptura to be blamed for all the separation in the Protestant Church? Can’t I just study the Bible on my own and let the Holy Spirit guide me to all truth? This lesson will center on the doctrine of Christian authority. Here, focus will be on the Protestant doctrine of sola Scriptura as compared to the Roman Catholic doctrine of dual-source authority. The student should become aware of the arguments put forth by both Roman Catholics and Protestants with regard to ultimate authority. While this lesson should provide the student with a solid defense and a greater appreciation for the doctrine of sola Scripture, it should also give the student a greater appreciation for the role that tradition has to play as an authority (albeit a fallible authority) in the Christian life. In the end, the student should understand that that Protestantism rests on the bedrock of the doctrine of sola Scripture, that the Scriptures are our final and only infallible authority in matters of faith and practice.
Session Reading (for self-study students)
- None
Related Topics: Introduction to Theology, Bibliology (The Written Word), Reformation, Catholicism, Revelation
Session 3 - Transmission of Scripture
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Session Overview
How do we know that the Bible that we have is the same as when it was originally written? Did the scribes ever make mistakes in copying the text? If so, can we really trust the Bible? Upon completion of this lesson, the student should have a better understanding of the process and history of biblical transmission. The introduction to textual criticism provided in this session will give the student a firm grasp of the challenges that the scribes faced when copying the Scriptures from generation to generation. This challenge will be illustrated and demonstrated in many different ways. The student should leave with greater confidence that the Bible that they hold in their hand accurately represents the original.
Session Reading (for self-study students)
- Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, pp. 54-72
Related Topics: Textual Criticism
Session 4 - Canonization of Scripture (OT)
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Session Overview
How do Christians know what books belong in the Bible? Who determined what books were inspired? What about the Deuterocanonical books (Apocrypha)? Should they be included? Upon completion of this session the student should have a better understanding of process of the canonization of Scripture. During this session the different criteria that people have proposed for determining the canon will be examined. The student should struggle with the traditional understanding that the closed is canon. As well, the student will learn the Roman Catholic arguments put forth for the inclusion of the Old Testament Deuterocanonical/Apocryphal books and the Protestant response. The student should leave trusting in God, understanding that He, ultimately, is in providential control of the canon of Scripture.
Session Reading (for self-study students)
- None
Related Topics: Canon