Unreliable memage

[tree_and_leaf]

Hmmm... I took the 'Which theologian are you' test over at quiz farm and came out, first as Anselm, then....

You scored as Augustine. You have a big view of God and also take human sin and depravity very seriously. Predestination is important for you. </td> Paul Tillich 80% Augustine 80% Jonathan Edwards 73% Karl Barth 67% Anselm 67% J�rgen Moltmann 53% Charles Finney 33% Martin Luther 33% Friedrich Schleiermacher 27% John Calvin 20% Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com

I know why it thinks I'm into predestination, though: it was saying that I didn't think you could only be saved by exercising free will. My view has always been, you can't, because if you are in a state of sin, you need God's grace to be able to choose anything at all. However, as I think that there is a real choice, it's not predestination. (I suppose you could argue that I've just said you need to exercise free will - but I think that's a misleading way to put it, so I don't.)

Ah well. I like lots of Augustine: "You have made us for Yourself, and we are restless until we find our rest in You." And anyone who admits to crying themselves to sleep over the Aeneid is OK with me.

At least it wasn't Calvin. I might have had to... retake the test until I came out as someone more sensible.

Disclaimer: No offence intended to Calvinists, three-point or otherwise. I do not think Calvin was the Anti-Christ or even that everything he said was wrong. Some of my best friends are Calvinists. No Calvinists were harmed in the making of this post.

On the other hand... I'm a high church Scot, so Calvin freaks me out. Read Buchan's 'Witchwood', and you will understand the freaked outness, even if you don't share it....

Comments

[sammee42.livejournal.com]

I didn't want to say this on my LiveJournal, because of all the Americans who read it, but I have to complain about the American educational and legal system for a bit. Everyone knows about our separation of church and state ammendment, and I think it is responsible for the dearth of theological education in American schools.

Is there something offensive that non-Christians would learn about Christianity in an academic sense? Americans who didn't attend a Catholic school or didn't take theological courses in the University (I don't add attendees of Christian school to the informed, as Christian school in America basically teaches about the Bible, but not really about theology) are igorant when it comes to theology, unless they've read about it in my spare time (my guess is the average American hasn't).

Never would a theological book be required reading, as it would be against separation of church and state. Then, these students enroll in university, decide to become academics, and find out that they're behind their peers when it comes to theological debates, which could be very bad if you're a medievalist or studying renaissance history or music or similar. You are missing out on an important part of the pre-1700 worldview.

AARGH.

These silly tests never let room for nuances of thought, which is why Tim refuses to take them. I think they're fun time-wasters when I'm still on break (semester starts next week).

[tree_and_leaf]

Never would a theological book be required reading, as it would be against separation of church and state. Then, these students enroll in university, decide to become academics, and find out that they're behind their peers when it comes to theological debates, which could be very bad if you're a medievalist or studying renaissance history or music or similar. You are missing out on an important part of the pre-1700 worldview.<-i>

That must make it very difficult to teach any old texts! (Mind you, I taught in a school in the former East Germany. One of the teachers, who co-incidentally was from the West, told me that in her first year at the school, she had been teaching a poem which contained the term 'blessing.' Turned out the class, brought up under a Communist system and without RE, didn't know what that meant, in any sense. So she tried to explain.

Next news, a number of parents had phoned in to complain about this evil Christian western woman indoctrinating their children. Fortunately, the head told them not to be so silly and to go away and learn the difference between a neutral statement of what a concept means and indoctination. Nevertheless, though... words did rather fail me.

These silly tests never let room for nuances of thought, which is why Tim refuses to take them. I think they're fun time-wasters when I'm still on break (semester starts next week). <-i>

I know the feeling.

By the way, how do you get a user's name to be clickable? I tried this last night, but it just wouldn't work.

[sammee42.livejournal.com]

Umm, you want to go into rich-text mode, and then click on the head icon, which has you type in the LiveJournal user's name. It's beside the 'cut' button.

By the way, how is everything going back in Oxford? When does term start -- next week, too? How's your research?

I have no idea how to make things non-italicized after italicizing portions, either. I guess I have to learn HTML.

[tree_and_leaf]

Ah, I'd been trying to use the non-rich text mode. I thought I'd figured the italic HtML, though...

Oxford is fine, and yes, we're in 0th week. I'm currently staring in horror at an enormous Latin text, which - well, let's just say it's going to be a bit of a stretch...

[sammee42.livejournal.com]

Yes, I imagine that communist regimes would be worse than the USA, but still ... it makes it difficult to introduce students to primary medieval texts in high school. Usually students wait until university, and for some reason state universities are able to teach religious thought without any problem. I guess it is from parents who are also afraid of children becoming indoctrinated...

[tree_and_leaf]

But it's odder in a counrty like the US, which doesn't have a grand tradition of school-as-propaganda. I mean, the East German idea seemed to be 'Well, for years the government has been teaching its ideology to children through schools. Governments are like that. Therefore, the Westerners will be doing the same.'

Not the greatest of logic, but it's easier to see the line of thought (or fear).

As far as the US goes... well, it doesn't seem to speak of much confidence in the power of secularity. I suppose the thing I don't understand about America is that there seems to be this enormous ideological chasm in society, with people on both sides (not ALL the people on both sides) more interested in throwing rocks than anything else. But I don't really know enough about this to be able to comment fairly.

By the way, if you have a phone number for Sarah Pf, could you send me it via e-mail?