Tradition ! ! !

Just wanted to share this photo of Sasha during her presentation on Judaism today - music is an integral part of every culture and Sasha did a great job with the piece, "Tradition!" from Fiddler on the Roof as part of her presentation today.

Foundations of Christianity Class Presentation

In my absence today you are to work on a collaborative class presentation - here's the link to the Christianity 101 Class Presentation - where you can all add to and continue to work on your own slides simultaneously along with the rest of the class working on their slides.

"Duplicate Slide" to add slides that are IN THE SAME FORMAT as the original one (your name upper right, title upper left, font size 14 white Arial, picture somewhere in the middle) and then immediately change the name to your own and the title, picture, words etc.

You need to figure out who will be working with whom and on what topics.  I've included the beginning of the presentation (link above) as a starting point.

Here are the topics:

1. Four Gospels of the New Testament
2. Sermon on the Mount
3. The rest of the New Testament
4. Schism between Eastern Orthodox and Roman Churches (1054 CE)
5. The Crusades (started around 1095 CE)
6. Martin Luther leads the Protestant Reformation (1517 CE)
7. King Henry VIII creates the Church of England, aka Anglican Church (1534 CE)
8. First Vatican Council (1870 CE)
9. Second Vatican Council (1965 CE)
10. Modern-day Protestant Churches (Lutheran, Calvinist, Baptist, Methodist, Mormon, Jehovah's Witness)
11. Modern-day Catholicism and the brand new Pope
12. Profile of a Great Christian Leaders of the Modern Day (2 only for the whole class, each to be done by one student only)
13. Cloning and genetic engineering - why is this an issue for many Christians?

For each you should focus on the facts and figures, the main events and then why it is all significant.  The significance to the "church" and to the history of the Christianity and to the modern day practice of Christianity as a tool for social justice and change should be your focus once you have set up the nuts and bolts of your topic.

I think 8 - 10 slides for each topic should suffice but you might need more.  Please limit the writing on each slide to the space available in size 14 Arial based on the first sample slide that I've included.  A sentence or three should suffice - this is to be picture rich, not too much text per slide.

You can work singly or in pairs (NO groups of three).  The entire class needs to spend five minutes, with the help of the supply teacher, picking topics and names for them.

We'll have a look at your work on Tuesday and then everyone can present, informally, your work for the class.

Christianity Terms and Beliefs

Some important terms in Christianity

apostle - Jesus chose 12 men to go out and teach the gospel to the world.

Ascension - the rising of Jesus' body up to heaven after his time here on earth (celebrated 41 days after  Easter).  

Resurrection - Rising of Jesus from the dead 3 days after his death.

baptism - Sacrament (action) of sprinkling water symbolizing washing away sins and entering the Church community.

confession - Sacrament (action) where a believer confesses their sins and is forgiven by God.

Crucifixion - Roman execution method of hanging (with rope and nails) a person to a large cross - Jesus was killed this way.

disciple - follow of Jesus during his ministry (it includes the 12 apostles)

Easter - the day that Jesus was resurrected from the dead and ascended into heaven

gospel - "Good News", the teachings in the bible of the life of Jesus.

Eucharist (Communion) - Sacrament (action) of spiritual communion with God - often in the form of unleavened bread and wine.

Holy Spirit - one of the three persons in God, believed to bestow spiritual gifts upon people.

Judgement Day (Last Judgement) - Day of God's final final judgement at the end of the world - the faithful will go to heaven.

Messiah - The Saviour, the person sent from God to save all people - Christians believe this to be Jesus.

Original Sin - believe of our tendency to sin (Baptism will wash this away).

Purgatory - temporary stage in which souls of the dead are purified from sin.

Papal infallibility - The belief that the Pope (the head of the Catholic Church) cannot be wrong in matters of faith and morals in his role as head of the church.


BASIC BELIEFS
Creation - God created everything in the universe (no particular date, he just did it).

God - derived from Judaism, one god made up of three entities - the Father, The Son, Holy Spirit.

Salvation and Eternal Life - believers will be forgiven for their sins and will enter heaven for eternity.

Morality is derived from the 10 Commandments.

Gender Roles - men are priests (Catholicism), women are nuns.  But in most Christian denominations ministers can be either gender.


Further to our previous discussions, here's a list of various big ideas that we have been exploring: Questions Christians can grapple with.

Christianity Introduction - Meaning in Your Life?

We started today having a look at this information on the discovery (it was theorized in the 1960's but only proven last summer at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland) of the Higgs Boson - a particle that existed in abundance at the creation of the universe and, so the theory goes, the particle that gives mass to energy, in other words creating "something from nothing", a rather novel thing indeed!  And an appropriate point to interject into conversations about our origins in a religious context.  This little video explains how the Large Hadron Collider works.  

Brief introduction to Christianity including the birth of Jesus Christ in around 4-3 BCE and his subsequent crucifixion  about 30 years later.  Notice some strong parallels between Judaism, Christianity and Islam.  The main area of focus is on the human needs that we all have and how Christianity (and any other religion) addresses those needs.  The need we focused on today was the need to have rules to govern our lives and the need to live a meaningful life.

Then we had a look at the Nicene Creed - in the first three centuries after Christ died, the church found itself in a hostile environment. The Roman Empire was starting to crumble and in A.D. 312 Emperor Constantine won control of the Roman Empire in the battle of Milvian Bridge. Attributing his victory to the intervention of Jesus Christ, he elevated Christianity to favored status in the empire. "One God, one Lord, one faith, one church, one empire, one emperor" became his motto.

The new emperor soon discovered that "one faith and one church" were fractured by theological disputes, especially conflicting understandings of the nature of Christ, long a point of controversy.  To counter a widening rift within the church, Constantine convened a council in Nicaea in A.D. 325. A creed reflecting the position of Alexander and Athanasius was written and signed by a majority of the bishops. Nevertheless, the two parties continued to battle each other. In A.D. 381, a second council met in Constantinople. It adopted a revised and expanded form of the A.D. 325 creed, now known as the Nicene Creed.

The Nicene Creed is the most ecumenical of creeds. The Presbyterian Church joins with Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and most Protestant churches in affirming it.
The Nicene Creed is the most ecumenical of creeds. The Presbyterian Church joins with Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and most Protestant churches in affirming it. 

We listened to Bruce Cockburn's "Shipwrecked at the Stable Door" and examined the meaning of the lyrics to that song.  There are many references to capitalist, materialistic society and there are biblical references too.  We then began to work through Rick Warren's TED Talks lecture on bringing meaning to one's life.

Judaism Intro - Main Concepts and Celebrations

Judaism Intro - Main Concepts and Celebrations

Here's an interesting idea regarding the Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 3D.  We had a discussion about it regarding whether seeing images from so far away can help us or hinder us in our own understanding and/or belief in a god.  For some it might make it easier to see God as an even more powerful entity than before.  And for others it might fuel the fires of rationality and make it more difficult to accept that there is a god of any sort considering how big this place we call the universe is.  Great discussion, folks, have another lookie at that short video and by all means show your parents, maybe it will be the catalyst for a great conversation!

Please see an earlier post for the Intro to Judaism slide show, (well, here it is again).

We began the class today with what I call "The Telephone Game."  There are enough cell phones and computers in the class that we made teams of 3 or 4.  each team was split and one part of the team was given a list of terms to look up and define but they had to text those terms to the other half of their team for them to look up.  In the old days the second part of the team then had to text back the answers . . . . today we can just sit together to see who can piece together all of the answers the quickest!

Anti-Semitism:  hostility and prejudice toward Jews

Ark of the Covenant:  the wooden chest that held the tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments.  The temple in Jerusalem became the home of the Ark

bar/bat mitzvah:  the religious initiation ceremony of a Jewish boy who has reached the age of thirteen/Jewish girl who has reached the age of twelve or thirteen

chosen people:  the idea that God chose the Jewish people to be the keepers of his covenant.  The concept of “chosen” is reciprocal, with God choosing humanity and humanity choosing God.

Diaspora:  word used when referring to the Jewish population living outside of Israel

Exodus:  the significance event in which Moses lead the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land

Gerut:  the process of conversion to Judaism

Ghetto:  the area of a city in which Jews were required to live.  The first was in Venice in 1516.

Holy Ark:  a cabinet-like structure in the synagogue that houses the Torah scrolls

Kiddush:  a blessing recited when drinking wine that has been specially sanctified for the Sabbath or a holy day

Kippah:  a small circular cap worn by Jewish men, also known as a yarmulke

Kosher:  fulfilling the requirements of the Jewish dietary laws

Menorah:  a candelabrum with seven branches, used at home and in the synagogue on the Sabbath and holidays

Messiah:  means “anointed one”.  Jews believe that a great king will come to lead them

Rabbi:  a Jewish scholar or teacher, especially of Jewish law; a person appointed as a Jewish religious leader

Shiva:  a period of seven-day mourning for the dead beginning immediately after the funeral

Star of David:  a figure consisting of two interlaced equilateral triangles.  It is used as a Jewish and Israeli symbol

Synagogue:  central places of Jewish worship today

Torah:  the Laws of Moses, as well as the rest of the Hebrew scriptures

Judaism's Most Beloved Celebrations

Today we introduced the topic of celebration in our study of Judaism.  Here's a handout for the assignment, Judaism's Celebrations.  All cultures and religions celebrate rites of passage (Bar/Bat Mitzvah, etc), historic events (Passover) and other important aspects of what makes the culture or religion special, so everyone will "teach" the class about a special event on the Jewish "calendar".

The Pianist Project
This leads us to our next project which is called, The Pianist & Holocaust Survivors.  We spent a bit of time in the Library and everyone found a suitable print resource as the basis for your research into the life of one survivor.  We'll head back to the Library to get to work in earnest on this project, it shouldn't take more than two days to complete.  We'll do our Hinduism / Buddhism test next week, but not on Wednesday!