"Mature Christian identity is at home with the past — with diverse aspects of it, in diverse ways, but always as posing the question of relation with Jesus. Without this encounter with Jesus in the days of his flesh and in his life in his corporate body in history, the believing self remains untouched by transforming grace" (Rowan Williams, Why Study the Past? Eerdmans 2005, 91).
This course has shown you a constellation of developments from the Christian past — Trinity, incarnation, sacrificial atonement theory, Catholic and Protestant ecclesiology, and so on — and demonstrated that they have been crucial for contemporary Christian faith. I hope that our semester together has gradually aroused your curiosity to learn more about that Christian past.
Write a chat log on your small group's reading. How does it demonstrate the truth of Williams' claim, reproduced above, that God's grace only transforms us through concrete encounter with Jesus during his earthly ministry and in his life in the past as well as the present Church? How, specifically, has the aspect of ministry you have been exploring — discernment, prayer, mission, evangelism, relief, worship, or leadership — owed its power to the work of Jesus Christ in his days on earth and in his past and present reign at the Father's right hand?
The usual rules apply.