CPE aay, Neumann a Jonathon Neumann Mr. James Gordon BITH 111 13 December 2013 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your ‘mind. "- Matthew 22:37 (NIV) Tam one of the few throughout history who has been given time for deep academic study. Through my study of theology and the liberal arts I hope to gain a better knowledge of God as well 2s grow closer to Him and think more like He does. Essentially, 1 desire to integrate my faith with my leaning as I seek God with my mind As an Integrated Biblical and Theological Studies major, one may say that integrating my faith and learning should not be difficult; however, I disagree because one can easily study ‘heology with a weak faith. Last year I took Old Testament Survey yet I spent little time in solitude, meditation and prayer. I leamed much about God but did not apply it to my personal Feith. As Dr. Johnson, a theology professor at Wheaton College, stated: “Faith stands at the center of integration of faith and learning.” I must seek God personally while I Practice my academic disciplines or I may come to believe that fulfillment can come through the disciplines themselves. As I study who God is, I will be able to worship Him with new knowledge, but I ‘must use it to grow closer to Him and to help others grow closer as well. In my pursuit of God with my mind I hope to encounter challenging theological questions such as “How did Jesus redeem humanity?” As I seek the answers to questions such as this I will Team about Christ as well as His relation to His bride, the Church, This is vital not only because He is my Savior and Lord but because everything was made through and for him as Colossians‘Neumann 2 1:16-17 states. Christians know that He is eternal but they often only see Him for what He did on the cross. He is also the mediator of Creation. I must agree with Comelius Plantinga Jr. in his book Engaging God's World: “...we find it difficult to think of him...as the mediator of creation” (Plantinga 19). Redemption is the main focus of Christology. Redemption has been part of God’s plan throughout all time, and it came into action when “Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us” (John 1:14 NIV). God came down as fully divine and fully human. Ironically, this action is the greatest example of how Jesus mediates for His creation. Jesus is only perfect man to ever live; essentially, His life is the only truly human life, Also we believe that and His death is our only way to life. That is the good news, as it says in Colossians 1: 21-23 we have the hope of eternal life through Christ’s death and through our faith in Him. Through Christ's atonement we can be changed from rebels to justified children of God. As Plitinga says: “Fesus Christ eame to into the world to offer the penance we refuse” (Plantinga 79). Through Christ alone we are reconciled with God and with our neighbors, and the Holy Spirit enables us to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind and our neighbors as ourselves. Knowing Christ and what He has done is an essential part of loving God with our minds. Ecelesiology is the study of the Church and, as I plan to go into the ministry, it is necessary to know what the mission of the Church is and how to do it. The Church is the body of Christ and, as the apostle Paul mentions in both Ephesians 4:15 and 5:23, Christ is the head of the Church, The Church is a unified group of people throughout history with the intention of spreading the Gospel as wel living as imitators of Christ. The question that often arises is — how do we imitate Christ in the world around us? How do we look after the widows and orphans as we are commanded to in James 1:27? Perhaps Timothy Keller in his book Generous Justice canNeumann 3 help us as we seek to follow Christ's example of love, care, and justice. He explains that: -people who come to grasp the gospel of grace and become spiritually poor find their hearts gravitating towards the materially poor. To the degree that the Gospel shapes your self-image, you will identify with those in need” (Keller 102). This is where we start — seeing that we have no right to think highly of ourselves in comparison to the least of these because we too have put ourselves in our situation, and Christ still gave Himself for us. Justice is a large responsibility of the Church, and over the past few weeks the Holy Spirit has been challenging me to reflect on how to promote justice in our world today. Additionally, I will also grow in my knowledge of the liberal arts. Mark Knoll in his book The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind calls us to “think like a Christian...across the whole spectrum of modern learning, including economics and political science, literary criticism and imaginative writing, historical inquiry and philosophical studies, linguistics and the history of science, social theory and the arts” (Knoll 7). Everything should be pursued for the glory “of Christ and His kingdor ” Before classes started I was conflicted whether or not to join the theater program here at Wheaton because I thought it may distract me from my Biblical studies, but I met with Michael Stauffer and he convinced me to enroll in Theater Survey. Through my study of theater I now see it as a vehicle for change, reflection, and discovery. I discovered more about myself and humanity in general, and it made me truly think. I had to wrestle with frustrating questions in an attempt to find answers. ‘Throughout my years I will also be involved in classes such as Introduction to Chicago, ‘Art Survey, and Music History not because I need to fulfill general education requirements, but because I seek to know more about all aspects of life. I hope I am not, as Mark Knoll describes oak voc pr‘Neumann 4 many Christians today, an anti-intellectual, but rather a follower of Christ that secks God in all that I do. In conclusion, seeking God is not a simple task. Loving God with our minds is not an easy thing. Through my studies I hope not be simply prepared for a job, but to be prepared for my vocation as a Christian continuing to lear for the rest of his life. The truth is that learning never ends; we can never comprehend God. We can only understand Him better as we seek to eam about His creation through Him, and about Him cage Hi eae 1 hone to give all I have to God and I believe that is why he brought me to Wheaton College. “Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tendemess and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind” (Philippians 2:1-3 NIV).Neumann 5 Words: 1,207 Works Cited Keller, Timothy. Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just. New York: Riverhead Books. 2010. Print. Knoll, Mark. The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. Print. Plantinga, Comelius, Jr. Engaging God's World: A Christian Vision of Faith, Learning, and Living. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 2002. Print.