Here are the podcasts for the course THEO 101-102 at George Fox University. The host website here is the website of one of the professors for the course. (This course used to be called “I Believe,” which is why it is labeled that way in the URL!)
In the beginning, God created…what does it mean for us to affirm God as creator today? How does the creation story in Genesis ch. 1 compare with other creation stories ancient Israelites might have known about? Dr. Brian Doak asks us to consider creation not only in terms of the past, but also as relevant for thinking about our world today.
In this wide-ranging panel discussion, we dive back into the creedal language of God’s identity as “the Father Almighty.” How can we call God a “Father” if we’ve had a bad experience with our fathers? Are those without traditional fathers doomed to misunderstand God? Does the Bible use the language or imagery of God as mother? Maybe we believe in God or maybe we don’t—but does God believe in us?
Pastor Dominic Done takes the stage to talk about the creedal phrase “the Father Almighty.” What do Christians mean when they call God a “father”? Is this language sexist, or altogether irrelevant, or can we adopt it if used in the right way?
Another word from Pastor Aaron!
For this week’s panel discussion, we’re taking another shot at understanding the Creedal phrase “in God.” The panel attempts to take on some particularly hard questions about how God handles situations where people have dementia or other impairments that would seem to make active “belief in God” hard or impossible, as well as whether it might be the case that there are some things God simply doesn’t want us to know.
Because the Creedal phrase “in God,” as the source of belief, is so huge and important, we’re taking another week to tackle it! Dr. Javier Garcia (PhD Cambridge) delights us with metaphors about dance, community, and love as we think about what it means for God to be “one,” yet also “three persons.”
Some after-the-panel reflections with Pastor Renji Abraham from Village Church (Beaverton, OR)
Dr. Melissa Ramos is back to field questions from her Monday lecture on the Creedal phrase "in God.” She’s joined by Pastor Renji Abraham (from Village Church in Beaverton, OR), Dr. Nijay Gupta, and Dr. Brian Doak. We tackle questions about “General” vs. “Specific” revelation, what it means to be made “in the image of God,” and a strange moment in the book of Genesis. (NOTE: Apologies for the recording problem with Dr. Gupta’s microphone—if you turn the volume up very loud when’s talking, you can still hear him!)
Today we’re hearing from Dr. Melissa Ramos (PhD, UCLA) on the Creedal phrase “in God.” Is God just whatever we want God to be? A totally subjective experience we have? Or something more concrete and specific? Does God have a name? And how do we know we’re experiencing “God”?
More from Father Sean Flannery, Church of the Vine (Newberg, OR), on Genesis ch. 15.
We head back to the auditorium for our Friday panel, still dwelling on this concept of “believe.” Is “belief” the same as “faith”? And what about “knowledge”? Why doesn’t the Creed begin, “I know there is a God,” as opposed to “I believe in God…”? We also tackle a hard question about why some people seem to believe in hateful, horrible things, and whether it is possible to believe in something too much.
We’re spending a second week on the creedal word “Believe,” because the concept of belief is so rich and important for Christians. What does it mean to “believe”? Do I have to understand what I’m believing? To what extent? And what kind of understanding, exactly?
Some thoughts from biblical scholar Dr. Nijay Gupta (Portland Seminary) on the question, What is the Bible?
A special bonus interview, after the panel on August 30th, with Pastor Audra Mahoney.
Our panel convenes to take up questions regarding the creedal world BELIEVE. Is the Wesleyan Quadrilateral (Scripture, Reason, Experience, Tradition) really helpful? Many Christians in our context agree that Scripture is valuable—but “tradition”? Isn’t tradition dead? We also talk about depravity and the problem of evil.
Historian Dr. Leah Payne introduces the class to the "Wesleyan Quadrilateral," and ends with a story about belief and unbelief.
Our panel continues the discussion from this past Monday’s lecture on the first word of the Creed (“I”). We discuss the image of God, are humans “good,” “bad,” or something else, and how should Christians think about the environment in light of Genesis ch. 1.
In our first lecture in the series, Dr. Nijay Gupta takes on the first word in the Apostles’ Creed: the first-person pronoun “I.” What does it mean to be a human being, a self, an “I”? What does the Bible have to say about the status of humans, and how might we grow up to become…ourselves? The first ten minutes of this audio feature the course directors, Dr. Brian Doak and Dr. Leah Payne, welcoming the class and explaining a little bit about our weekly rhythm in THEO 101-101 I BELIEVE, at George Fox University.
Two of your professors, Dr. Brian Doak and Dr. Leah Payne, welcome you to the THEO 101-102 course experience! This was originally created as a video, and can be viewed on YouTube here if desired. In this podcast, we talk about three things: (1) What is this course, how does it work, and what will we do? (2) Basic college things—how to communicate with professors, being on time, and other basics. (3) Frequently asked questions about the course. Feel free to consult our Syllabus!!
