Lifelong Learning
Saint John's School of Theology and Seminary
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/ YTM Theology Classes - Summer 1
YTM Summer Institute 2019
Theology Class Choices and Service Sites
(Summer 1 Youth Only)
Name
Listed below are the YTM theology courses which will be held Monday through Friday mornings from 9:30-11:30am. You will be attending one of these courses for two weeks. Please rank the courses for your preferred choice. We will be dividing the group up so each class has about 12-15 students. We will make every effort to arrange that each person receives their top choice, but we cannot make any guarantees that this will be possible.
Please rank your class preference: 1 = First choice, 2 = Second choice. (See course information below.)
Living and Loving Well: Christianity for and Absurd World
If God is all-loving and all-powerful, why do good people suffer?
The Value and Dignity of Human Beings: Perspectives from Theology and Science
Living and Loving Well: Christianity for and Absurd World
Our contemporary world can often bombard us with absurdities: people should be perfect, yet to err is human; people should be fiercely independent, but also intimately caring; people should be unshakeable in their views, yet easily teachable, and on and on. Into this mess, Christianity issues a call to love, and to follow Christ. In this course we will explore a number of facets of what that looks like, and how it can respond to life's absurdities, including questions of why think of God at all, why worry about community, how evil and suffering function, why participate in worship or sacraments, and ultimately, what does this all have to do with love, and a life well-lived?
Instructor:
Benjamin Durheim is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Theology for the Department of Theology at the College of Saint Benedict’s and Saint John’s University. He received his PhD from Boston College.
If God is all-loving and all-powerful, why do people suffer?
All humans experience suffering – physical, emotional, spiritual, psychological -- at various times in their lives. If a person does not believe in God, this suffering is painful, but it probably is not seen as surprising or perplexing; if the world is random and no one in particular is in charge, then yeah, suffering happens. But what if you do believe in God? What if you believe in a God who is loving, who cares about justice, and who is supposed to be in control of everything? Then you have a problem! Why does this kind of God let bad things happen to good people?
In this class we will explore many of the ways that Christians have thought about the perplexing problem of why there is suffering. This kind of intellectual exploration of our faith is called “doing theology.” In order to “do theology” responsibly, we will look at many resources, including: the Bible, historical theologians, traditional church doctrines, Christian liturgies (funerals, sacrament of reconciliation, etc.), art, popular music, and the stories of people who have experienced suffering in their lives (Holocaust survivors, cancer patients, victims of rape, participants in South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, etc.).
Instructor:
Juliann Heller and Adjunct Instructor of Theology with an M.A. from the Catholic University of America.
The Value and Dignity of Human Beings: Perspectives from Theology and Science
This course will examine the beauty and diversity of nature from the Big Bang to the evolution of human beings, and will do so from the perspectives of the Catholic theological tradition in dialogue with modern science. The Second Vatican Council requires theologians to make use of “the recent findings of science, history and philosophy” in their theological investigations. This course will do so through examining the vast diversity of human beings – their cultures, religions and ways of life – as creations of God, and as a call from God to honor all of life, human and non-human alike.
Instructor: Dr. Vincent Smiles a Professor of Theology at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University with a Ph.D. from Fordham University.
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