Little misfortune benjamin5/17/2023 Kidnapped away from his homeland at the age of sixteen, Patrick recognized the injustice done to him as part of God’s judgment: “We deserved our fate because we had turned our backs on God and did not obey his commandments. Patrick viewed his life and past oppression through a theological lens. Patrick’s story is particularly important. In a day and age when students are habituated to look for external injustices about which to protest-often before asking what God may be teaching them or doing through those external injustices-St. In doing so, we develop what I like to call Christian creative, critical, and redemptive thinking (critical thinking is too narrow and limited a skill for Christians and Christian universities to pursue). We need to know the heroes/saints of the church’s story to learn how their thinking and actions differ from our own. Unfortunately, in one of my past studies, I found less than a dozen Christian universities require church history for their general education (but the majority did require American history). After all, if our fundamental shared identity and story involves being part of the body of Christ, it is more important for Christians to know that story than the story of one’s nation. Of course, this finding reinforces my view that every set of Christian general education requirements should include church history (even more than national history). Patrick, and every year I learn that they know little to nothing about him. And way down we go.” KALEOĮvery spring semester I ask my graduate students if they know anything about St. “ Oh, Father tell me, do we get what we deserve? Whoa, we get what we deserve.
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