What do you expect or hope to learn as a Religious Studies/Theology major? Where do these expectations come from? (For instance: From classes you have taken already? From sources outside Loras, such as your family or parish?)
As a Religious Studies/Theology major, I hope to, first of all, grow deeper in my understanding of Christian theology. Specifically, I really hope to learn not only a clearer understanding of theology from the Catholic tradition, but I also hope to learn about and gain a much better understanding of Christian theology from the standpoint of other denominations. I hope to gain a much better understanding of the similarities and differences in understanding of Christianity among the many different Christian denominations/traditions.
Along with this, I also hope to learn more about ministry, particularly for lay people in the Catholic Church. I also hope to learn more about how we, as Catholics (particularly as lay members) can work with our non-Catholic Christian brothers and sisters, so that together with them, we can more effectively bring Christ to the world.
This stems from my own personal experience from back in my hometown and home parish. My home Catholic parish did not have a strong youth ministry program whatsoever. Thus, I began to go to non-Catholic Christian youth groups, where I grew a lot in my Christian faith, and thus I developed many strong non-Catholic Christian friends. However, some of them held some very anti-Catholic attitudes, some even to the point where they thought Catholicism was evil and not Christian at all! At this time, however, I did not have a good enough understanding of Catholicism myself to argue with them, or to explain any of the points about the Catholic Church they disagreed with.
In coming to Loras, I have learned so much about the Catholic Church, its teachings, and the Catholic faith. From this, I realized that many of the things that my friends hated about the Catholic Church were based on a lack of understanding of Catholicism and Catholic teaching, and if they knew what I knew now, they probably would have much less hostile attitudes towards Catholicism!
However, in coming to Loras, I have also met some people who have been Catholic their whole life and hold some anti-Protestant/hostile attitudes towards other Christian denominations (many of their attitudes are also based on lack of understanding of where Protestant Christians were coming from) Thus, I felt I played a role reversal that instead of trying to defend Catholicism, I was arguing in defense of Protestantism.
These experiences have thus stirred a passion in me of working towards ecumenism, and building up more understanding, acceptance, community, and unity between Christian denominations. Thus, in majoring in Theology/Religious Studies, I hope to gain, first of all, a much clearer and fuller understanding of Catholic Theology, and the reasons why the Catholic Church teaches as it teaches, and why it worships the way it worships (for example, the purpose of all the different parts of the liturgy, we do in the Mass…which I am actually learning a lot right now in my class “Liturgical Music in Practice and Theology”). Thus, I can use this knowledge to clarify to others about what the Catholic Church believes and teaches, and thus work to break down the hostile attitudes towards Catholicism held by other Christians, as these attitudes are more often than not, based on lack of understanding of Catholic beliefs.
On that same token, I also hope that in majoring in Theology/Religious Studies at Loras, I learn a lot about and gain understanding of the teachings of other Christian faiths, and understand their stances, beliefs, and perspective on Christianity. Thus with this broader understanding of Christianity, we can work to build up the full body of Christ, by engaging in building understanding and community.
In my class “Introduction to Christian Values” in which I am currently enrolled, we have begun talk about the Reformation, and we have been analyzing Christianity from both a Catholic perspective, and from a non-Catholic perspective. I hope to do this more in depth in my future religious studies classes. Specifically, I hope to learn more about what beliefs different denominations teach, particularly the different Protestant denominations and the diversity of Protestantism, instead of viewing things from either a Catholic or Protestant perspective.
In my Liturgical Music class I have also had the opportunity to write a research paper comparing and contrasting Evangelical worship with Roman Catholic worship. This was very interesting and insightful for me, and I hope to delve more into topics like this (especially learning more about Christianity from a non-Catholic perspective), in my theology classes at Loras.
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