In another one of my blogs, Teaching Theology: Sacramentality, I begin by discussing the entire framework and scope of my classes. This blog has the same general format and methodology, but the actual content differs. At my school, the current curriculum for 9th graders includes exploration of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, the Communion of Saints, Ecclesiology, Sacraments, and Moral Theology. Any one of these topics could consume years of study; I get nine months to teach it. So, it is a bit of a survey course, but taking a survey course in Catholic theology is really a disservice to all my students, Catholic or non-Catholic. Catholic Christianity, as I stress to my students, is not a religion about God; it is a relationship with God, and with that, it is really not enough to just study the material beliefs and practices...it also requires some component of encounter. So, I try to balance the learning of theology and the doing of theology.
This blog is intended to show what I teach and how I teach it in addition to how I create space for students to begin to encounter God in a real and powerful way. I am not a priest so I cannot offer Sacraments for my students, and we can't take classroom time to go on retreats or do service, so I have to get a bit creative. Hopefully this blog will introduce the reader to some basics of Catholic theology and help the reader to find some ways in which they can do that theology and not simply know it.
(Henri is spotting some mountain goats ahead)
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