Author: Jason Hamstra

Jay: We’ve been talking about what shapes our view of God and grace—starting with the effects of our modern educational experiences followed by the effects of the life and ministry of Jesus. We discussed Bloom’s taxonomy, which posits that we progress through stages our cognitive development: Recall and understanding of knowledge, its application, analysis, and…

Jay: We have been trying to understand how education may have affected our view of God and our view of grace. We’ve talked about the psychology of education and last week we began to talk about the parables of Christ, the teaching methods of Christ, and what they were trying to show us and display…

Jason led the meeting in continuance of last week’s discussion. Jay: Last week, we began a discussion of how education might shape our views of God and grace, based on an earlier comment from Michael that our psychology—the way we’re wired and the way that we’re nurtured—may affect those views. We therefore looked at some…

As a professional educator, Jason led today’s discussion of education as a driver and component of culture, religion, technology, and our view of God. And one of the things that I think affects, in a major way, our view of God is education. Since we have professional educators in the class, I thought it would be…

This is the Great Commission given by Jesus to the disciples: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and…

Last week we discussed the suffering that seems to be the common element in several prayers, including the prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane on the night of His arrest. We questioned whether or not suffering is part of God’s plan, God’s will. It was evidently His plan for the Egyptians during the period in which…

In several parables, Jesus talked about people being lost to “outer darkness”. Here are three: And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.” Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” But the centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy…

The Babelonian community wanted to establish a closer relationship with God and align more closely with His will. Does a community stand a better chance than the individual in this respect? God seemed to question the Babelonian motives, however, and worried that if they were to succeed their will would be as powerful as God’s:…

A team from Oxford University’s Institute of Cognitive & Evolutionary Anthropology analyzed ethnographic accounts of ethics from 60 societies, and discovered what they believe to be seven universal moral rules: These were found in a survey of 60 cultures from all around the world. The full report is available here. A university press release says:…