Though the class itself is full, those unable to meet with the group needn't be left out. Stay tuned here at RE-Connect for readings and conversation starters on the same topics we'll be exploring in class.
Week One:
So long as human beings change and make history, so long as children are born and old people die, there will be tales to explain why sorrow darkens the day and stars fill the night. We invent stories about the origin and conclusion of life because we are exiles in the middle of time. The void surrounds us. We live within a parenthesis surrounded by question marks. Our stories and myths don't dispel ignorance, but they help us find our way, our place at the heart of the mystery. In the end, as in the beginning, there will be a vast silence, broken by the sound of one person telling a story to another.
— Sam Keen and Anne Valley Fox, Telling Your Own Story
At our first class on Wednesday, we will begin to articulate our own religious histories and journeys. As we move through our lives, our hearts and minds struggle to make meaning from our experiences. Whether spoken or unspoken, this meaning-making often takes the form of stories. What are the stories you tell yourself that help you create meaning from your experiences? What do the stories of your own childhood tell you about the nature of good and evil in the world? How do the stories of your family history inform your identity? What stories do you create to help you achieve your goals?
One of our activities will be to create a timeline of significant religious moments in our own history, identifying the moments in our own lives when our theologies formed, broke apart, re-formed, struggled or blossomed.
Leave a comment below to discuss, share a story or ask a question.
1 comment:
Hm, should have come to the blog first! I already submitted my registration for the (full) class so I'll just play along at home this time and try to catch the class the next time it's offered.
- Jamie
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