February 07, 2011

Shout out from Corban's Dr. Derickson!!

Dr. Derickson joined AMBEX Spring 2011 for the Christian Worldview Class in late January. The two weeks of instruction were filled with thought-provoking lectures, engaging debates and an Academic Tour to Weimar that made the classroom come alive! Thank you for your service, Dr. Derickson, we loved having you!

This is my first visit to Germany. And it has been a pleasant one. The people around Regensburg have been friendly and helpful. The youth hostel we are staying in is not just comfortable, but the staff are genuinely friendly and helpful and the food is great. We have a cook who loves to delight his guests. In fact, the problem with his cooking is that it is often so good, I have to discipline myself to keep from over eating (did that the first few days)!

The time with the students has been wonderful. I do not know what previous classes were like, but this group is a pleasure to teach as well as to hang out and dine with. These women and men also have been diligent as students as well as committed as friends. Being exposed to a new culture that is similar but different from their own, students can see more clearly the impact worldview has in their personal lives as well as their culture’s life. This could not be accomplished as effectively if they studied it at home. This is the great value of this course being taught at AMBEX.

As a group, we were able to visit towns and meet people in both West and East Germany. The long term impact of democracy and communism, freedom and repression, Christianity and atheism, could be both seen and felt. At home, the discussion would be more theoretical. The student might see it as academic. In Germany, theory becomes visible reality. It is not academic. They read articles expressing both naturalistic and secular worldviews. They are given access to the full resouces of the Regensburg University Library, where they research various worldviews before presenting their discoveries to their peers. They see firsthand the impact a naturalistic worldview had on the nation of Germany during WWII when they view a movie about a German resistance martyr and visit a concentration camp. And then, hopefully, they begin to see the expressions of various Christian and non-Christian worldviews in American society. And again, hopefully, they will walk through the rest of their lives with their worldview eyes wide open.

I have enjoyed my time at AMBEX thoroughly. I have appreciated the encouragement and help both Jerry and Kelley have provided. It has made my role as a teacher that much more enjoyable.

I'll miss everyone here when I go home!

Dr. D

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