May 4, 2012

May 4 was truly a distinct class.

In its beginning, the class was visited by a team of Seniors come to teach us about their Service Learning Project. To give us but a taste, they showed us a video of their project: baking and delivering pies to military veterans.

The second and final segment of the class bore witness to an event worthy of the mightiest toasting. Classmates gazed upon with thine eyes the spectacle that was the presentation project produced by none other than Eric Rupprecht, Tyler Maroulis, and of course, Juan Carlos Urcia. In this project, no, carnival of awesomeness, the three aforementioned students displayed their prowess and knowing of the religion colloquially referred to as that which is, of course, the Greek Orthodox Church (of Christianity). These studs were the first group to go.

Connections: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P5FZkqWBuU
                        This is a Greek Orthodox Chant, characteristic of the Greek Orthodox Church.

                    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGPiqAlqu18
                        Tradition and culture is a main core of the Greek Orthodox, and thus, here is a video of a                                      Greek Food Festival.

Homework: Update thine site of Circumlectio; Construct ye Religion IA Paper!

Class of April 23rd

Today in class we learned about the divisions of Christianity.
Homework:  Continue updating Circumlectio and continue progress of Site Visit Presentation and IA.

We began class with prayer, and proceeded to take notes from a video recording of a lecture by some professor.  Despite what I expected, the guy actually wasn't that boring and I stayed awake and took notes the entire time.  He explained the schism of the East and West churches, the origin of the Protestant Christians, and also the differences and similarities between, including terms such as filioque and theotokos.

We discussed these notes the following class so nobody should've missed this key information.

Here is a diagram/timeline/flow-chart thingy that helps visualize the religion's divisions.  Stimulating multiple senses helps you remember things so perhaps this diagram will help you remember the different schisms of Christianity for future reference.

Link 1:
Here is a very informative website which has links to articles on the most common denominations of Christianity.
http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/denominations.htm

Link 2:
This is another article comparing the three main divisions of the religion.
http://www.world-religions-professor.com/protestantism.html

April 19th: "The Shack"

Today in class we read a few excerpts from The Shack.  Our assignment was then to reflect on specific images of God that were distinctly Catholic.
Here are some quotes that show the distinctly Christian Catholic view of God:
"I am neither male nor female"
"An emphasis on fathering is necessary because of the enormity of its absence."
"Everything is about him."
"when all you can see is your pain, perhaps then you lose sight of me?"
"the bird walked straight to her hand and began feeding."
"By nature I am completely unlimited, without bounds. I have always known fullness. I live in a state of perpetual satisfaction as my normal state of existence"
"Although he is also fully God, he has never drawn upon his nature as God to do anything."

This is the Shack by William Young

http://www.challies.com/articles/the-shack-by-william-p-young
This is a link to a review/analysis of The Shack that examines it as a book, and the theology aspect of it.

March 27th: Stations

In class we did two activities in two separate groups.  One group went to the media center and viewed a power point while the other reflected on the Holocaust Museum, then we switched!

 The Power Point was all about The Holocaust.
It outlined the history of the Holocaust such as the years leading up to it and how it was able to happen.
The history covered goes from 1933 to the end of World War II
One thing I want to share from the power point are the 3 Stages of the Nazi Plan:
1. Shooting

• Jews were told they were being relocated but were shot in the woods and then their bodies were burned

2. Gas Vans

• The Jews again were told they were being relocated. However, the van was constructed so that the exhaust was sent up to fill the van.

3. The Camps
Concentration and Execution camps

This is a website that similar to the Power Point shows the history of the Holocaust

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/history.html

The other Half of class was spent reflecting on our visit at the Holocaust Museum.  I really enjoyed hearing what my class mates had to say and what they found to be inspiring, touching, heartbreaking, and moving in the museum.  The museum is very deliberately designed in such a way that you could get a true sense of a small taste of what it was like for these brave people who suffered in the Holocaust.
Here are some pictures from the Holocaust Museum.


These are only some views of the many moving exhibits that are in the Holocaust Museum.

March 23rd: Nazi Ideology

In this class we focused on the Nazi Ideology in regards to the Holocaust.
We read an article and watched a video to help learn about this topic.
I would like to show what we learned by sharing some quotes and concepts:
Mein Kampf (MyStruggle): written by Adolf Hitler while in prison

•     outlined his plan for future Germany
• advertised antisemitism
• Social Darwinism: abilities determined by racial makeup
• first stepping stone to the Holocaust

Nationalist Political Movements shared Hitler's belief and felt their position at the top of the hierarchy was being threatened by infiltrators
"Aryan" stock: racially superior beings
Nazis believed they were destined to rule the empire
No group was more dangerous or threatening than the Jews-believed they had triumphed the Soviet Union
Viewed Jews as Communists
Hitler's Theories led to persecution of "inferior" races

The website below is supplemental to the article we read in class.  This just adds to what we have already learned and serves as an outline of the Nazi Ideology.
http://www.nazism.net/about/nazi_ideology/

This is a video documentary of Nazi Ideology and expands on the Social Darwinism talked about in the article and video.  It shows how this concept led to a horrific genocide.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADixIqj8XyA

April 25, 2012

Due today: Updating of Circumlectio

In Class: Lecture on the East-West Split

Ms. Egan went on great length to discuss the high significance of what is known as the East-West Split or Schism. Occurring in 1054, the event marked a permanent division of the Christian religion. Rather than there being one unified church, there now existed one in the West, and one in the East.

The Schism was not at all a sudden event. For centuries, history had been leading up to it. Within the Roman Empire, there existed (among many) the two cities of Rome in the West and Constantinople in the East. Rome was known for being more liberal in observing practices and traditions, whereas Constantinople was known for being strict on its conservative policies. Rome was Latin; Constantinople was Greek. In time, a rivalry brewed between the two cities, vying for power within the Empire. 

The Bishop of Rome, the Pope, and the Bishop of Constantinople, the Patriarch, were at odds with each other.  Rome demanded the observance of its supreme authority in all ecclesiastical purposes. Much to the dismay of Constantinople, it pressed on the East a mandatory celibacy of the clergy and mandatory Latin-use in services, among other changes to Church tradition. The "final straw", however, was the West's addition of the phrase "filio que" (and the son) to the Nicene Creed in regards to the Holy Spirit's procession. The East refused to add this change, the Pope and Patriarch excommunicated each other, and thus, the two halves went their separate ways.

Monday, April 30th

Today we started off with prayer by Courtney and Kyara. They prayed about the end of the month, school year, and all of our stresses we may have. Next, we got two packets, one called  "Christianity in View" that has comparisons between Orthodoxy, Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. The second one was about the history of Orthodoxy.

The next thing we did was watch a video clip of a talk about life on Oprah by a speaker who had only a couple months to live. His main points were:

-Brick walls are there for a reason
-People vs. Things (material items)
-Tigger vs. Eeyore (enthusiastic about life, or complaining)
-Work/Play well with others
-Apologizing
-Show Gratitude
-Don't complain/work harder
-He spoke about this for his three kids

The last thing we talked about was summing up what Eschatology is. It is the study of the last things (heaven, hell, purgatory, Kingdom of God, etc.) "Death will not have the final word" means the legacy of people on Earth will live on. It is not an ending place- everything Christianity stands for is for life after death. "One who has hope lives differently" means if you live your life for a purpose, you will be focused and have a different attitude. If you know something is coming you will act a certain way. Revelation 21:4 means Gods conquers all things evil in Heaven. There will be complete and total justice where God has what he intended in the beginning to be. Faith vs. Works is about salvation. Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism believe these two are important but are not a one time deal- it is an ongoing process. Protestantism believes you must have faith.