What is Christian Literacy?


Literacy refers to the ability to use a language - to know what words means, to be able to use grammar, sentence structure, to be able to converse in that language is to be literate.

Religious literacy means having the ability to understand and speak about our faith intelligently. It’s the ability to communicate the basic tenets of our religion.

I'm very grateful to B.U. Professor Stephen Prothero for his excellent book, "Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know and Doesn't." This book, along with my desire to teach the faith, served as the inspiration for this effort.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Gospel


What's in a word? In this case, a lot.

Mark begins his account of the life of Christ with these words:

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  - Mark 1:1

The word, "gospel," means "good news." It's not just any good news. It's the good news of Jesus Christ - his life, his teachings, his sacrifice, his resurrection and his ongoing presence in the world and in our lives. This message is good news for the world and good news for each of us. So if the gospel we proclaim is not truly good, wonderful news, then we've misunderstood its essence.

Question:  In what way is the gospel of Christ good news for the world today? In what way is the gospel of Christ good news for you today?

Prayer: Lord, help me understand the beauty of the gospel. Help me to marvel at your sacrificial love and to live out this good news with joy and gratitude. Amen.


Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)