A New Year!

Welcome to Constructing the Theological Mosaic!

You may be wondering, or not, why the term 'mosaic' is used in the title of this class. Why not just call it 'Systematic Theology' or 'Theology Survey' or some other such exciting name? To be honest, I don't really know. However, I can take a fairly educated guess.

This class was developed by the late theologian, Stan Grenz and he was good friends with Roger Olson, who wrote The Mosaic of Christian Belief. It seems that both of these theologians longed for a broader theological method that took seriously the theological tradition as well as current thinking about God and culture. Olson, in the intro to his book, talks about the need for a "both/and theology." What he wants is a theology that can hold an orthodox understanding of God while simultaneously holding our current questions about God, the universe and everything. In addition, if we are willing to look and explore, many of the questions that we ask today have been asked before, so we also look to the tradition to help us in our questioning and theologizing. Thus, our first week's reading turns to Olson to help us understand how we might begin the theological task together.

I believe that this background is an invitation to wander and wonder about God. We should all bring our questions to the table. Just like a pictorial mosaic, each of our offerings becomes a small tile as we work together to understand the God who is revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. We will also read and read in this class, attempting to understand the questions of the tradition so that we might ask better questions.

To help broaden and deepen our discussions, the class will be divided into different reading groups. My hope in diversifying our readings is to create a different sort of mosaic, diverse views of God, Trinity, creation, humanity and the person and work of Jesus Christ. You will all be given an opportunity to bring this diversity to our class discussions. The goal is to search out the "least inadequate language" through which to talk about God, as theologian Colin Gunton puts it.

So, I invite you to bring yourselves, bring your questions and bring your minds to the theological mosaic. We will read, sort, discuss and listen to a variety of voices. Come and help create the theological mosaic with me and all your classmates.

See you next Wednesday at 9:30AM (yes, that is 9:30AM).

Peace,
Chelle (a.k.a. Dr. Stearns)

Final Schedule For April 17th, 2009

Here is the official schedule for our Theological Mosaic Extravaganza!

Time	Name	What	Media Needs
10:00	Kerry & friends	Liturgy	Mics, Projector
10:30	Ed & Chelle	Announcements
10:45	Chelle	Lecture-ish
11:20	Break
11:30	Heather Smith	Performance Piece	Total Darkness
12:00-12:45	Parallel Tracks: Choose One	Large Classroom: Ali Bradford Sara Vander Woude Ben Olson & Steph Shaffer
		M3: Barbara Tantrum, Shannon Stauffer & Friends (God as Mother) Elise Cadwell
		Small Classroom: Informal Sharing of Paper Topics
1:00-2:00	Lunch	Downstairs	look at art, etc.
2:00	Alison & Amy	Songs, presentation	4 mics, mic stands & doc projector
2:30	Poetry Slam!!	Andrew Bauman Abigail Jimenez Campbell White	mics
3:00	Small Group Share Time	Papers? Thoughts from the Class? Wander Freely and Look at the Art?
3:30	Chris Fine	Song
	Brent Brownlee	Song and Video
	Damon Vrabel	Song
4:15	Austin & Kevin	Movie	Darkness, Projector
4:30	Chelle	wrap-up or down	Clarity

Schedule For April 17th (Tentative)

Here is a first go at a schedule for this Friday's Class. If you are not on this schedule and would like to be, please let me know right away!!!

Time	Name	What	Media Needs
10:00	Kerry & friends	Liturgy	Mics, Projector
10:30	Ed & Chelle	Announcements
10:45	Chelle	Lecture-ish
11:20	Break
11:30	Heather Smith	Performance Piece	Total Darkness
12:00-12:45	Parallel Tracks	Large Classroom: Ali Bradford Elise Cadwell Sara Vander Woude
		M3: Paper Presentations Barbara Tantrum, Shannon Stauffer & Friends (God as Mother) Other creative presentations?
		Small Classroom: Informal Sharing of Paper Topics
12:45-2	Lunch	Downstairs	look at art, etc.
2:00	Alison & Amy	Songs, presentation	4 mics, mic stands & doc projector
2:30	Poetry Slam!!	Abigail Jimenez Campbell White Andrew Bauman	mics
3:00	Small Group Share Time	Papers? Thoughts from the Class?
3:30	Chris Fine	Song
	Brent Brownlee	Song and Video
	Damon Vrabel	Song
4:15	Austin & Kevin	Movie	Darkness, Projector
4:30	Chelle	wrap-up or down	Clarity, Brevity, Levity?

Creative Project Rubric

Here is a link to the Creative Project Rubric.

-chelle

Reading Report Link

Exactly. Here is the reading report link, one more time so that it is obvious where it is.

Cheerio!
Chelle

Papers Due

Just to let you all know, from this point on the paper due date of Monday, April 20th is firmly set. If papers are turned in late, they will be automatically docked 1/3 of a grade. No paper turned in after the morning of April 24th will be accepted without an approved incomplete for the class. (No graduating students can apply for an incomplete without it affecting their status as a graduate of MHGS.)

(If you have already spoken to me about a different due date, then that is OK for you, so don't worry.)

If you have questions, please ask either Ed or myself.

Thanks!
Chelle

Turning in Journals this Wednesday

Hello All,

Journals are due this coming Wednesday. Please turn in all materials to the front desk. (I'll warn Molly.) I'm around all day, so I'll go down periodically to pick up your work.

If you really want to hand your stuff in directly to my greedy, wee hands, I'll be in my office from about 1PM on. I'll be with students. Just knock and the door will be opened for you. (You know, that sounds vaguely familiar...)

Peace,
Chelle