Why should I take this class?

Hey there!
 
You made it. Maybe you're on this blog because you want to know more about IKON Institute (Integral Knowledge Offered through The  Newman Idea). Maybe you're here because you want to deepen your intellectual life through a pursuit of knowledge of God. Or maybe you've stumbled onto this page because the Holy Spirit has led you here. Whatever brings you here, God is calling us "to seek Him, to know Him, and to love Him with all our strength" (CCC 1). 
 
As college students, we are pushed to seek the truth and analyze the world around us. Our natural appetites for knowledge need to be satiated; our minds need to be fed. We do this in some regard when we learn in our classes, furthering what we know in our chosen studies. But are we doing this in our spiritual lives?
 
We are being groomed in college to be experts in our field: we are challenging our minds through in-class discussions, absorbing information from professors, and engaging in academic lectures. Being a student keeps our minds on the edge of our seats, waiting and craving for more stimulation. In this great world that God created, there is so much to know and that includes Him! So let's do our God-given intellectual minds the justice it deserves. So do I have you sold on the necessity to feed our spiritual minds now? If so, let's dive into the depths of Truth (yes! capital "T" Truth!) - and that Truth being Christ and His Church. 
 
In conjunction with Tulane University and Tulane Catholic, The Newman Idea is offering an IKON class so that you can begin to intellectually engage your faith with what you are learning in your majors. The first course of the series is Going Global: Christian Culture in the World. This course explores the impact of Christian culture in the world – beginning with themes from scripture and the Jewish tradition to the Church’s encounters with ancient cultures and societies and civilizations to our global, modern age. The study of the Christian Culture is essential to understanding Christianity’s place in the world and helps to orient it relation to other. Through reading, writing, and conversation we hope to understand the basic development of the Church as Culture in the past to the present.
 
I'll leave you with this quote from St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein): "Anyone who seeks truth, seeks God, whether or not he realizes it."
 
I hope a lot of thoughts and questions are running through your head. Dr. Delio, the professor of the IKON Institute classes, gave me advice at the end of my first class that I will now share with you. Go for a walk. Let's these things take their course and run through your mind - allow to Holy Spirit to do its work. 
 
I cannot wait to share with you  every week how I'm bringing what I learn in the classroom into my daily life with Christ!