Blog Post #10: Growth

1. Which event that you learned about from the Church History textbook presentations did you find most interesting and why?

I think the most interesting event that I learned about from the Church History textbook presentations is the crusades. Because I did a lot of research about the crusades, we also learned the event during our history lesson. The Crusade was a series of religious wars between Christians and Muslims started to secure control of holy sites considered sacred by both groups. There were eight major Crusade expeditions occurred between 1096 and 1291. The first crusade was the most successful one, and I found out most interesting part is the crusades also included the children crusades, I think it was so bloody and unfair to the children. Although the crusades lost in the end, there was some impact I learned from it; the Crusaders brought back to Europe, any goods and inventions, it increased the desire for trade with other parts of the world. I learned a lot of history from the crusades and how they fight for their faith and conquer another country.

2. Which person whom you learned about from the Church History textbook presentations did you find most interesting and why?

I find the most interesting person from the Church History textbook presentations is Thomas Aquinas. Thomas Aquinas was an Italian Dominican theologian, the first medieval scholastic. As a theologian, he had two masterpieces which are Summa Theologiae and the Summa contra gentiles. The Summa Theologica which is a 21 volume work in which he highlights the logical relationship between faith and reason. Thomas Aquinas explained how people can learn and understand things to an extent, but cannot understand everything. I learned a lot from him, we can’t understand everything, but we can gradually learn a little bit each day base on our faith to be a learned man.

3. If you end up being known as an influential figure in history, what do you want to be remembered for?

If I end up being known as an influential figure in history, I will always remember the original dream and goal. I will never forget the holy faith that supports me keep going and never easily give up. I will remember the person who always accompanied me to pass through all the difficulties until I become successful. I will remember the most significant events that happened in the Church History and to spread the life lesson and the truth from my faith to other people. To encourage others to believe their faith to trust God will always be with them. I will keep learning the new lessons to leads my followers with more positive attitude be a best one.

4. How have you experienced growth (either mentally, emotionally or spiritually) after your challenges in life?

No matter how old you are, everyone experiences a lot of things in their own life, and the experience can help us to grow up, to be more mature people. I am a very emotional person that I care all of my close friends. I learned a lot when I decide to study abroad; I know there is nobody can always protect me and take care of me. Without my family, I need be stronger and learn how to take care myself. Study abroad just like I already step out into the complex society, I have to distinguish which is good for me and which is terrible, and I need to keep avoiding them. Because of the distance, I lost some best friends. There is one sentence I think is right; your old friends do not know your situation right now, your new friends do not know your story in the past. The age gets older, make friends will be harder. The only things I know is just to be kind to each other, help each other and cherish each other.

The first picture represents the knowledge and the events we learned about church history.

The second picture shows the process of our growth.

Work cited

Papineni, Laxman. “12 Growth Experts to Follow.” HubSpot Blog, blog.hubspot.com/marketing/best-growth-hacker-blogs-experts.

Dueholm, Benjamin. “The Problem of Church History for Opponents of Divorce.” Religion Dispatches, 4 Aug. 2014, religiondispatches.org/problem-church-history-opponents-divorce/.