Truth

Here at PTS for the month of January you take a three week course. The class meets from 9-12 everyday and provides students with a concentrated study of the material. The class I took was on the issues of the theology of scripture. The purpose of the class was to explore the various issues that arise regarding interpreting the Bible. As well we discussed the role of the Bible in life and church.

While I found the course to bring forth many of the issues surrounding scripture, I think it attempted to do too much leaving many loose ends. Now to be fair the topic that we were tackling is one that has more questions than answers and is not likely to be resolved anytime soon.

What I did find exceptionally useful was the question around which the course was structured. It is a question that at first for some might appear to have an easy or simple answer, but upon careful consideration of the question what one comes to realize is that not a single aspect of the question is simple or easy. It is a very complicated question that requires a careful consideration of every assumption that we dare to make. It is also a question that requires one to constantly question and revise the answer one comes up with.

Frankly it is a question I think every church, believer, non-believer, and secularist should spend some serious time processing as it is a question that is central to many of the issues that become hotly debated.

What is the question?

"What do we mean when we say the Bible is true, and what methods of interpretation help us to appreciate its truthfulness?"

It is at least something worth pondering for a little bit.

Amanda

War of the Worlds

Me testing the Pond!

Emma worried by the alien in the lamp!

Ahh, the aliens are coming!

Not long after I decided to go to seminary in New Jersey I happened to come across a television show about Orson Welles's radio telecast known as War of the Worlds. It turns out that the town that Orson said the aliens had landed in is just outside of Princeton. So of course as soon as I discovered this I put visiting it on my list of things that must be accomplished while living in NJ. I convinced my friends we should go and this last weekend we had the fun of adventuring to Grover's mill. We found the monument dedicated to the event, walked around the mill behind which used to stand the water tower that the people of the town had thought was the alien UFO and visited the coffee shop dedicated to the event. Even got to play on a frozen pond. ( I was the test person to make sure it was really frozen) Oh, I can't forget, while we were driving we listened to the broadcast of War of the Worlds. It was a great way to get to know NJ.

P.S. When we arrived at the monument there were foot prints in the snow leading away from it but none leading towards it. Weird !!!!!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Amanda