and are very interested in where it came from, how it effects our lives, and whether or not it is true. For those Catholics that are in this class, you may be learning a great deal you didn't know, or are adding to your depth of understanding on what you already did know. For those non-Catholics, you are hopefully coming to understand what the Catholic Church is, what its teachings are, how it relates to your faith (or lack of faith), and why it teaches what it does. I believe your receive much, but it all remains just a toolkit of facts. So long as it remains in the brain only as facts, it is never actualized, fully understood, or developed in a way that alters how you live and how you interact with this world.
In order to move from a base of knowledge to a life changing encounter with truth, I have devised this plan. The basics for the project are as follows: You, along with one other person, will create a blog that will enable you to reflect on what we are learning in class, go beyond this class material, and explore the teachings of Catholic theology in a more experimental way. In this blog, you will receive a topic from Mr. Cole, create your own theme from this topic, and start up and keep up an active and professional looking blog (live and available to the world). This blog is to include a continual recalling of what you have learned each week in class, a reflective and personal dimension, as well as an effort to connect class information with current affairs and outside information. Posts will include summaries of your class learnings and textbook topics, as well as outside sources and information that relate to the subjects. Hopefully you will also move beyond the ties to class topics and also include personal ideas, curiosities, and interests.
The grading for the project is as follows: Each group will begin their project this week of Holy Week (3/25) and will have the start up steps complete by 3/28. Each group will be graded on the look of the project, the depth of their posts, the upkeep of the project and the contents relation to the project theme and course material. Each group is required to submit 5 posts per week. The project will be worth 2 test grades.
The point of this project is to connect Catholic theology to you and your world. Therefore, the blogs should be personal and at the same time continually show a knowledge of Catholic theology. If you are not Catholic, you could possibly theme your Blog as "A Non-Catholic's Perspective on Catholic Theology". If you are agnostic, you could theme your Blog as "An Agnostic's encounter with the Catholic Church". There is no limit or hindrance to the themes and personal connections you may make. This project is not to be a bashing or a hater's passive aggressive opportunistic endeavor. You are to post about what you have learned, and the truth of the teachings of the Catholic Church. This may add great spin and personality to your blog. If you do have a theme similar to "A Non Catholic Teenager's time in a Catholic School", this will give you a great base to write your posts. However, you are not writing simply what you dislike about the Catholic Church or her theology, but your reflections on it. This could be great for many others who are in your situation. If you misunderstand some aspect of our course, you are to take this time and post about your misunderstanding, and maybe what you did to understand further.
This is all about experiencing and sharing your encounter with God, with Truth, and with the Catholic Church's understanding of that Revealed Truth.
The project will have its closing date Monday, the week before Finals begin.
