Introduction Kip Redick

Welcome to the Fall 2015 Sacred Communication/Journey blog page. Blog entries will be considered informal writing assignments and as such will be graded more in relation to content than style. Blog entries will contain questions and answers to questions, as well as reflections that relate to daily classroom discussions, completion of exercises, and reading assignments. Any questions the student has while reading or completing assignments should be written in their blog. Reflections may relate to connections the student makes between discussions in this class and those in other classes, between arguments raised in the readings in this class and those raised in other classes or from informal conversations. Students are encouraged to apply the ideas learned in this class to activities that take place outside of the class. These applications make great reflections. The student should bring questions from the blog to class and ask those questions that were raised in specific blog entries. As those questions are addressed and answered in the classroom discussions, the student should make note of the discussion and answers within subsequent blog entries. This class blog will reflect the quality of the student’s daily classroom participation and completion of homework assignments, and will be graded with this in mind. The student may submit the blog for grading at several times during the course of the semester. The blog is not the same thing as a compilation of class lecture notes; it is the product of written personal reflection related to the class. A good journal will contain at least 15 entries. At least 6 of the entries should be reflections on the connection between assigned essay reading and the required texts: 2 from Landscapes of the Sacred and 2 from Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture and 2 from Phenomenology of Prayer.  At least 3 of the entries should focus on an outside reading, something not assigned as part of the class requirements.  At least 2 of the entries will be the result of the student’s experience of a natural setting, a visit during the semester.  Finally, 4 of the entries will be centered on a topic of the student’s choosing. Each journal entry should be dated and given a title related to the subject of reflection.