one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church

one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church

by Bradley Longfield -
Number of replies: 0

I suspect the greatest diversity we have in the student body is geographic, but there is still theological diversity rooted in various church cultures within the church catholic.

The church history sequence is a study in intercultural competence since we read from across the ages and around the globe.  For example, in the last two weeks of this semester we read J. Gresham Machen, a conservative Calvinist, and James Cone, a black liberation theologian, certainly representatives of "diverse communities." 

One of the greatest services we can (and do) offer is to provide space for students from different theological perspectives to engage in calm, honest, and humble dialogue about the faith.  Our student body is currently overwhelmingly from the PC(USA) so we could do better at welcoming and serving students from other denominations and other nations in an effort to broaden exposure to the church catholic.  This is certainly easier (and less expensive) with distance technology that with residential programs. 

We used to have seminars with members of other schools in DBQ.  It strikes me that one or two seminars a year with members of the Divine Word College, a culturally diverse Roman Catholic community, would be a good step toward encouraging the faculty and staff in intercultural competence.