101.01 Lesson 1
Hello,
I’m Dr. Mike Manea and I am a religion professor teaching world religions, Christian theology and Adventist theology. While my in-person classes are relatively basic, I am starting this online course as a series that will begin at a basic level and become progressively more advanced over time. It will cover theology, philosophy, science, history and many other related topics with an aim to articulate the Adventist perspective as a complete worldview amidst other common worldviews. My conviction is that the Adventist perspective has been mostly misunderstood and that it is an important contribution to Christian theology and beyond.
The purpose of a course like this is so that I can cover a large number of topics in some sort of logical sequence. Thus, if someone wants to better understand what I’m saying, they can go back to the beginning and follow the presentations in order. Over time, I expect this series to develop into a systematic theology of sorts. Because of the immense amount of subject matter to be covered, however, the best format that I can think of is something resembling a spiral: I will first introduce topics at a more general level, aiming to provide a broad overview, and then will circle back and go into the same topics in much more detail. The approach will be similar to students taking 100-level classes in their first year of college and then moving to 200-level classes, etc., and questions that might arise during the first run-through will likely be addressed more thoroughly in the higher-level courses.
As a final note, since I occasionally recommend books on this blog and am not charging for enrollment in my classes, I signed up for the Amazon Affiliate Program to help cover the cost of running the site. If you are planning to buy the books anyway, it would help if you used my affiliate links.
With that said, hope you enjoy.
Recommended Reading:
For alternative attempts at an Adventist systematic theology, see God with Us by John Peckham, written for the layperson, or
For scholars see Systematic Theology by Norman Gulley (4-volume set)
Peckham’s God With Us appears to be the intro studies to Adventism. I like your spiral idea. I’ve used similar descriptions myself for Bible study. Presenting in layers where each goes deeper. The old salesman technique is to tell the customer what they need to know. Then tell them again and finish by telling them again. Repetition is how we learn.
Good point. I’ll add a link to Peckham’s book.
Im interested in the course
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There are a list of 28 fundamental believes of the SDA Church however there are not special attention for the Gospel of Salvation by Grace. Furthermore, at the Sabbath School Weekly lessons there are more EGW opinions than Biblical, the average Padres of a Bible are 1700 and the EGW 100.000 pages. We need pure biblical Gospel to avoid to be cursed (Galatians 1:8,9).
Adventist theology and the Adventist denomination are not the same thing. Theology is a stand-alone theoretical exercise that begins with a set of assumptions and develops them logically all the way through. While we’re always trying to improve the denomination, this blog is primarily focused on the theology.