THEOLOGY COURSES

Here are 4 of the core courses required for Christie's individualized major:

• Worship & Theology 228: This course explores varying types of worship, both historical and current, many to which I am not accustomed. It challenged me to go beyond conventional thoughts of what worship should be like, ultimately conveying that worship is much broader than we often allow it to be.
• Ethics and the Good Life 252: This course focused considerably on theology and nature; specifically on Aldo Leopold's Land Ethic.
•  Independent Research 398: Nature Theology within Russian Orthodox Christianity: With Marc Robinson as my overseer and Bryn Geffert as my reference librarian, I researched the role of the natural environment within Russian Orthodox Christian theology to get a glimpse into Russian Orthodox Christian views of nature and God’s role within it. I explored questions like: Does a nature theology actually exist within Russian Orthodoxy? How does this affect Russian Orthodos Christians’ view of God? Did/do Russian Orthodox clergy authenticate or condemn seeing God in/through nature? Does Russia have an adequate environmental protection plan? Are Russian environmental initiatives formed due to Russian Orthodox Christian belief? What must be done for Russians to become/remain connected with nature? How resilient is nature in Russia? I wrote a Research Paper at the end of the course incorporating all of my findings. The paper addresses the integration of pre-Christian Russian folk belief with modern Russian Orthodox Christianity, this is known as dvoeverie or dual faiths. (See how this connects with Christie's Russian studies.)
• IS 391: Nature Theology: In this course, I wrote a paper, called: Nature Theology, on the interaction between the realms of religion and the natural environment. This was the product of many semesters of asking such questions as: Within Judeo-Christian Scripture, nature is the first thing that God created, therefore, is the natural environment most important? Such inquiry led me to research the role of nature and theology/spirituality within Russian folklore, another area of interest to me, as my second major is Russian Area Studies. During this course, I also spent a lot of time translating the Russian folktale, The Firebird. I then borrowed some of the characters from this story to write an original folktale to be performed as a street theatre puppet production in the spring of 2005.

  "And if you ask me of God, my God, 'Where is God that in joy we may worship?' Here on Earth too God lives, not in heaven alone. A striking fir, a rich furrow, in them you will find God's likeness. Divine image incarnate in every high mountain. Wherever the breath of life flows, you will find God embodied. And God's household? All being: the gazelle, the turtle, the shrub, the cloud pregnant with thunder... God-in-Creation is God's eternal name." --Saul Tchernikovsky

Read about Christie's upcoming Creation Care Internship