I feel like the most educational and rewarding class I have taken in my time at Loras so far would have to be World Religions with Dr. Waldmeir. Now, I could say that it was the amazing people in my class that did it, but it was a lot more than that. I did not really know a lot about many other religions besides Catholicism before taking the class. Yes, I knew all of the obvious stereotypes about the different faith traditions, but that did not mean anything to me. Throughout the entire course I was able to read and discuss different faith traditions, and then after the class was done reading and discussing we actually got to go to the worship spaces of these faith traditions and get hands-on experience about what the tradition is really about. These fieldtrips are where I learned the most during the course. It not only gave me a deeper understanding of the faith tradition but a greater reverence and respect for them as well.
Even though I was learning about other faith traditions during this course, I was able to also come to a greater understanding of my own faith. I was able to learn more about who God is, not only to me but to everyone else around me. I was able to see God in a bigger sense because I was able to take Him out of this “Catholic box” that I have had Him in all of my life. I was able to see God more fully as the God of the universe and the God of ALL peoples around the world. Of course, I still hold my Catholic faith at highest regard, and I know that the Catholic faith is the truest form of worship of God on earth. However, I was able to see that God shows Himself differently to different people in the world. I was even able to see God when we studied the Hindu tradition which has over 300 gods. You see, the Hindus have a belief that there is an overseeing force in the universe that keeps everything together called Braman. This Braman is how the Hindus explain God, and all the other 300 gods are the different attributes and characteristics that our God has. After taking the World Religions J-Term I am able to understand, not only the other traditions that we studied, but God Himself in a greater light.
I do not know if there are a lot of things that need changing about the course. I would say that maybe there should be a bit more structure in the way the fieldtrips are planned out so that we are visiting a place that we are studying at the time we go on them. I think we only had that problem once throughout the course, however. I would also think it would be a good idea to try and fit in another faith tradition to study or alternate which ones are studied throughout the years in order to add some more variety.
