Andrew Root Reflection

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Last Wednesday I was star-struck with the privilege of personally me meeting one of my favorite celebrities. I traveled to Northwestern College to listen to my favorite theologian and textbook author, Andrew Root, give a presentation. First I met up with Jason Lief beforehand in an attempt to maintain connections with the valuable youth ministry resources that he could provide. As the coordinator of the seminar, I had the honor of accompanying Lief to go pick up Andy Root and then eat lunch with two of my biggest youth ministry role models. After we finished eating, other citizens filled the college cafeteria with their meals. I turned on my socializing to an uncharacteristic high and commenced in networking with the other youth workers …show more content…

I felt like I was back in the Creeds and Confessions class I took last semester as Root took us through the history of Nicene Christianity. By talking about how the Arian heresy was rooted in the conflict of whether Christianity should be viewed through personal experience or theoretical logic, Nicene Christianity paves the way for scientific Christianity. Besides challenging me intellectually, Root also challenged me personally. I struggled with whether I drew the conclusions that Root intended for me to understand. Root seemed to convey the idea that certainty is the enemy of science; that science is humble to being open to its theories being disproved. However, I personally see science as being a more rigid set of facts than theology. On the Root presented Christianity as having a pessimistic reputation of refusing to be uncertain. Just a week earlier, I had a conversation with an atheist who confirmed this, saying that Christians act like they’re the ones who have to have everything defended and can never be wrong. However, I personally feel like I have experienced the exact opposite in my theology classes; the more I learn about theology, the more I realize that I’ll never be able to learn everything. On the contrary, I see science as more of a black and white