study theology

I’ve always loved studying religions. I want to get my masters in theology and again in teaching so I can become a collage professor. I just can’t seem to find a collage that offers more than just the six main religions. It’s so frustrating!! But I’m not giving up hope yet.

To make for even more heated banter!

Theology is not what we know about God, but what we do not know about Nature.

Theology is like being in a dark room and looking for a black cat that isn’t there and shouting “I found it!”

I have a very simple question for Christians: how fair is infinite torment as a punishment for a life of finite sins?

I’m a Christian and I kind of stumbled into theological study just as a curiosity. I read (and continue to read) Wayne Grudem’s excellent book Systematic Theology and I was shocked at how my faith was built and how much more useful I became at talking over Biblical/Theological/faith questions with my friends.
Since then I’ve read many more specific books (Grudem’s is a really broad introduction to the field) and undertaken this couse with Newfrontiers – the family of churches I belong to.
If you are a Christian who is just getting into this, can I encourage you? Its probably one of the most faith-building directions I’ve ever taken in life and more Christians need to be able to give decent answers for the hope they have – be one of them!

And love it more and more.

I think I’ll take this off my list now. I’ll continue to take an interest and learn, but I think the basics are down.

The more I study, the more alarming it becomes.

Richard Dawkins puts it well describing his atheism (I will paraphrase): “All religions are atheist about all other religions’ beliefs. Some people just go one god further.”

It’s so alarming to see how people can hold views that they’re completely right and everyone else (with exactly the same level of faith) is completely wrong.

I wanted to find out if religion really is the cause of all wars, and it’s looking pretty much like that’s the case. Blind faith is so dangerous – even fundementalist atheism.

I just find it amazing that all these religions who preach tolerance, peace and love actually cause so much hatred, intolerance, destruction and death.

Maybe my study is coming to an end… I’ll leave it to the heavyweight thinkers to come up with solutions.

That’ll be me as of May 2006. Can y’all believe it? Good luck to all others who study theology in whatever faith tradition it is. However, just because I’ll have the MA doesn’t mean I’ll stop studying. Hell, the books alone mean I’ll keep reading for years to come! Theology is a lifelong discipline of growth and renewal. I’m proud to be a part of the public theologian academia.

It gets more and more fascinating. This weekend, I watched Dogma by Kevin Smith – a comedy with more than a few interesting ideas on catholicism and general theology, and also Kundun about the life of the fourteenth Dalai Lama (that’s the current one, in case you were wondering!)

I’m also following Priest Idol, a documentary about an American priest who has taken over a church in a very run-down area of Northern England. The locals are hostile to say the least – with F**K GOD graffittid on the back of the church (my censorship, obviously).

Another current TV documentary series is Preachers To Be, following three novices from three different faiths (Anglican, Muslim and Krishna Consciousness) as they grow to become preachers.

I know this isn’t really theology, but it’s fascinating to see how these people work.

Some Jehova’s Witnesses came to the door and rather than telling them to take a hike, I had a good chat with them – so much so that they ended up making excuses and left.

I’m not sure how they’ll get on along our street of predominantly Bangladeshi Muslims… :)