Approach to Response class

We will create ways to share Jesus with those of other religions, by:

Focusing on specific parts of the gospel message,  and then determining how to explain these truths to someone of another religion,

With special attention to these four aspects:
     Avoiding misunderstandings
     Avoiding unnecessary cut-offs in the conversation
     Looking for bridges of common humanity
     Looking for handles in their religion that enables us to explain Christ.

Our emphasis will be on evangelism.  Therefore we will not emphasize:
     Problems that only arise after the person has become a Christian.
     Outward similarities and differences between the religions

We will each write two papers, called "reading reports."  Each will be devoted to explaining certain aspects of Christianity to someone of a different world religion.  During the last three weeks of class, each student will present an oral report with a sentence-outline.  This report will center on one world religion, but will encompass ways to share the entire gospel message.  The religion for the oral report may be the same as one of the religions used for the reading report.

After each reading report is finished, we will discuss the findings in class.  

During the first five week of the course, we will concentrate on the topics above.

During the next five weeks, we will compare different religion's views on:
     The human condition
     What they mean by salvation
     What they mean by God or the divine
     What is their saving method or savior
  and discuss what impact each of these views has on sharing Jesus.

Near the end of the course, we will take up these additional topics:
     Nurturing the new believer
     Strategies for cross-cultural mission
     Dialog as distinguished from evangelism
     Concepts provided by theologians in the third world

There will be a final exam.

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