Historical Aspect of Christianity and Christian Theology - Essay Example

?Insert Part There are several values that I have personally gleaned from One of the values that I gained from is the comprehensive, dynamic and pervasive nature of Christianity and its theology. From lecture hall experience, it became open that Christian theology is not a construct that can be relegated to the theoretical spheres such as philosophical controversy and historical reconstruction. This is not to say that the philosophical and historical aspect of Christianity and Christian theology are of less importance, given that they help in identify the nature and person of Jesus Christ. Likewise, the message of Jesus Christ is inextricably integral to His person and nature. In the absence of the person and nature of Jesus Christ as God incarnate, the message of Jesus would lose the uniqueness, authority and applicability to man attributed to it. The message of Jesus Christ in turn remains of crucial importance since liberation theology is centered on the message of Jesus Christ. As a sociopolitical movement which interprets the teachings of Jesus Christ as being relational and key to emancipation from adverse or oppressive economic, political and social conditions. For instance, the Sermon on the Mountain places great emphasis on the poor and the less privileged, and thereby setting stage for liberation theology, given that liberation theology is deemed by its proponents as an interpretation of Christian teachings and faith through the hope, struggles and suffering of the poor. Normally, liberation theology critiques the society perceived to be oppressive, interprets the Christian message, through the worldview of the poor and is done by detractors such as Christianized Marxists. In this light, it becomes clear to me, that Christianity is far much interested in man's liberation. Another insight that I gleaned from classroom situation was the liberating power of the message of Christ. This was exemplified in the manner Christianity has been able to break forces, institutions and walls of segregation such as the caste system in India, the color bar in South Africa and racial discrimination and the use of racial discrimination in America, particularly, the slaveholding South. The eradication of these walls of separation is in turn underpinned by the manner in which the Christian doctrine intermarries readily with concepts such as universal brotherhood. The concept of universal brotherhood in the Christian doctrine is rested not only on humanity drawing from Adam as the first parent, but also from Christ, the second Adam bringing humanity into newness of spiritual life and oneness in the family of God. Another value that I gained from the classroom experience is the anthropocentric nature of Christianity and its teachings. Even Levin points out that so integrally woven into the benefit and wellness of man that the Gospel of Christ and the Christian message rest upon man’s welfare. Christ gives out His life in His own volition to secure man’s eternal destiny. Secondly, although salvation that Christ secures for mankind is free and a work of God’s grace, yet the anthropocentric nature of the Gospel is to be manifest in man being benevolent towards his brother, as a testimony to his conversion. Mathew 25: 34-46 and James 2:14-26 underscore the importance of dealing benevolently with the poor and the less privileged in the society as assign of true conversation. Charitable foundations such as Henry Dunant’s Red Cross and Red Crescent, and initiatives such as the ones carried out by St. Francis of Assisi and Mother Teresa draw their inspiration from these lines of teaching (Levin, 25). Against this backdrop, I can say confidently that the classroom experience has helped me gain a wider scope of the role Christianity plays in dispensing socioeconomic and political emancipation and empowerment. Part 2 Self -Evaluation about Community Based Learning Using the Reflections Paper Sent [1, 2 3 of Hallmarks (immigration justice)] One of the values that about community based learning has deeply moved me is the academically excellent educational experience. The practical nature of this educational experience has accorded me with the chance to appreciate the practical nature of Christianity. For instance, one can see clearly in Francoise Blin de Bourdon’s standpoint that friendship among Christian believers is fundamentally rooted in God. This postulation closely reverberates with Christ’s assertion that He is a friend to Christian community and that for the same cause; He was laying down His life (for His friends). It is this rationale of the need for Christians to extend the divine friendship they have received from Christ that charitable caucuses such as the Sisters of Norte Dame de Namur continue to help the underprivileged in communities through the use of community relationships. Because of the above need to help the human race and the universality of the human community, charitable and Christian organizations have felt compelled to extend their work to international levels. To this effect, these organizations have seen and clamored for the need to amend migration laws so as to make the succoring of political fugitive, granting of asylum and accommodating refugees can be made more tenable feats. These efforts have yielded fruit, since the United Nations (UN) organ, the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) stipulates that refugees should be accepted into other states even without documents of identification, provided that knowledge of crises from the refugee’s country of origin is there. Another aspect of this divine friendship which emanates from Christ to change man’s welfare is underscored by the closely knit relationship between the spiritual and social. Given that a believer in Jesus Christ is spiritually alive, the divine essence that flows from the Spirit to the believer is supposed to illuminate personal conduct and the believer’s social life. The concept of friendship mentioned immediately above becomes very significant in the normal non-spiritual realm, if the community is to improve its welfare entirely. Particularly, I came to appreciate the rationale held by Christian Marxists who point out convincingly that outside proper spirit of friendship, the masses are not able to unite into a compact movement to oust an oppressive regime, or to compel such kind of a regime to craft, pass and implement just labor laws which will in turn enhance fair labor relations. The converse of this is true that in the absence of closely-knit relationship among the workers, class consciousness may not be strong enough to the point of generating a revolution. The foregoing concept is also enjoys universal importance, since workers are allowed to form their union under the aegis of the UN’s high commission of labor, the International Labor Organization (ILO). It is by this virtue that the Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU) is appreciated in not only furthering the course of fair labor relations and practices, but also strengthening the cause of democracy and by extension, even proper migratory laws. Likewise, because of the effectiveness of community based learning, I came to appreciate the importance of providing social workers with malleable travel and migratory provisions is underscored by the universality and spontaneity of human problems. Problems and challenges which accost the human race are not confined to a geopolitical sphere and strike suddenly and thereby necessitating freer movement of social workers. This provision has proven to be very important in extending disaster management programs to developing states in times of crises. The world through its social workers responded to Haiti’s moment of challenge, when an earthquake struck this South American country in 2010, for instance. Denying social workers entry into Haiti could have complicated the country’s disaster management response efforts. Likewise, it is the same idea of having close ties among partakers of humanity, particularly Christians, that geopolitical spheres which have adopted Christianity to become Christendom provide for less rigorous laws of migration. Works Cited Levin, Mark. Rethinking Liberation Theology. New York: McGraw Hill, 2009. Print. Read More