Joel Berger
Journal Week 3
June 24,2005


1) One paragraph summary of the key idea summarizing the topic of the week.

The big key idea of this week was faith. There are two kinds of faith, with a capital "F" and a lower case "f." Believing and trusting in God is Faith; and faith is the belief or trust in someone you do not have absolute certainty. Faith with a capital "F" is a grace, requires a free human response, is a risk, is reasonable, is certain, seeks understanding, and is a virtue. The two key ingredients to biblical are trust and belief. There are four characteristics of Faith: 1) Faith is not intellectual, but Faith is a loving trust; 2) Faith involves periods of doubt and struggle; 3) Faith has periods of risk and darkness; 4) Faith is an ongoing trust that lasts all of our lives. There is also a certain kind of faith called nihilism. Nihilism is a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless; a doctrine that denies any objective ground of truth, especially moral truth. There are also people who take faith to far, when this happens it is called radicalism. Two kinds of radicalism are fundamentalists and fanaticism. Fundamentalists are members who interpret their holy book literally in terms of history and scientist. Fanaticism is believing in something so zealously that one's actions become unreasonable or even hypocritical.

2) List and explain three of the most important ideas you want to remember from this week.

a) One of the most important ideas was nihilism. Nihilism is a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless; a doctrine that denies any objective ground of truth, especially moral truth.

b) The idea of faith with a capital "F" and a lower case "f." Faith is the belief in God. Where as faith is the trust or belief in a person or thing around you.

c) The movie, The Mission. This movie was about a tribe of Guarni Indians and some Jesuit priests in South America who were having trouble with the mercenaries in the area. They ended up fighting to their deaths, except for Father Gabriel, in order to save the mission.

3) One image of that reminds you of the topic. Attribute, link, your source.

Pic Link

This picture reminds me of the topic in the way that we all take risks when we have faith/Faith. When we believe in a family member or a friend we trust that they will not stab us in the back or intentionally hurt us in any way. When we take Faith in God we risk the fact maybe there is no God.

4) One good question you should keep with you to ponder.

Do I put enough or too much faith into the people around me, especially when I am driving?

5) What should you try to do to make you a better person, a more faithful person, form this study.

I need to think about whom I put faith in. Do I put to much faith into the people around me or do I not put enough faith into others. I also need to look and see if I should put faith into people that I put absolutely no faith into.