Course: Exploring the Book of Isaiah (2021)
Faculty Mentor: Ted Brownstein
Editor’s Note: L. McGill is from the town of Bray in Ireland. Exploring the Book of Isaiah was their first course for 2021. What follows are the comments they posted in the Learning Self-Assessment Forum at the end of the course.
I enjoyed the course “Exploring the Book of Isaiah” very much. My learning objectives were rather subjective, (pun not intended) and I think only time will tell how much has changed. I think a perspective shift and perhaps an attitude change did take place.
Because of my previous (limited) experience in discussing Bible topics with Christians of strong convictions, who focus on words and verses to support their understanding, I had also developed this approach to find the exact word or verse that would respond to theirs. The exchange stayed very much on the ground.
The course gave me the freedom (both in perspective as well as in permission) to function at a higher spiritual altitude. The mentors were also very helpful in giving me concrete advice on carrying out such conversations.
I intend to be actively looking for people I can engage with in discussing the proofs of Bahá’u’lláh based on the Bible and will be very mindful of applying my learning from this course. I believe experience will be necessary for this learning to be integrated and become natural.
With gratitude to all the people who contributed to making this course a success, JoAnn Borovicka and Ted Brownstein, my colleagues in the course, and the Wilmette institute.
