Christianity for Deepening and Dialogue (2019)
Faculty: Ted Brownstein, JoAnn Borovicka
Ladan Delpak, from Melbourne, Florida, shares her new perspectives after completing a Wilmette Institute course on Christianity.
“My knowledge of the Bible and dispensation of Christ was limited before this course but now I feel so much more connected to the person of Jesus and His message and His sacrifice for humanity, which falls completely in line with the experience of suffering of all Manifestations of God. I’m thankful to Ted Brownstein and Joann Borovicka for being so active in all the discussion forums. Some of my most important learning came from those discussions. The biggest takeaway from the course is that all the various doctrines of Christianity were developed after the Ascension of Jesus because of different interpretations of His life and message, yet the spirit of the message remained intact. This is a testimony to the power and influence of the Word of God.
As far as dialogue with Christians, I’m going to tread a cautious path because Christians’ relationship with Christ is very personal and emotional. I feel the only way to build unity of thought is to listen and then expand on already accepted understandings. Although I have to say my engineer husband always points to “Occam’s Razor: The simplest solution is always the best,” the spiritual resurrection of Christ, spiritual healing, and spiritual miracles are so much simpler to explain and accept than physical ones, but sometimes individuals feel attacked when their beliefs are questioned. One other valuable learning I gained and I will continue to refer back to, is understanding of how the Bible is organized. I will continue to read the Bible and share quotations at my devotional. Overall, this course was fantastic and I gained so much from it.”
EDITORS’ NOTE: Anne Pearson and Ted Brownstein and are currently updating the course “Interfaith Dialogue and Collaboration” (formerly Preparing for Interfaith Dialogue) which is scheduled to start on April 2, 2020. Register by March 4 for a 10% early bird discount.
