What is true learning? Not addition.

A church person once told me that they attend church in order to learn more and "grow in their faith". When pressed on what they mean when they say "grown in their faith" this church person said to grow in faith is to be built up in the grace and knowledge of Christ.

Like creativity, growing in Christ is about subtraction.

That sounds like a great church answer. 

Of course we are looking to be shaped in the ways of Christ. But let us address something that maybe we know but forget.

Learning is not about addition↬. It is a common understanding that when we learn it is like just filling up a container (our brain) with more information and data. This is a big reason we want our children to go to college, so they can learn "more" because there is a sense of lack without that education. 

If you have attended any level of education and reflect on your experience, it is clear that leaning is about subtraction rather than addition. 

We do not come to school with a lack but with an abundance of "what we know to be true" and the challenge of education is that it asks us to not add to "what we know to be true" but calls into question "what we know to be true". Learning is, at its core, about subtraction. 

When we attend church, and if we are there to grow in the knowledge and grace of Christ, then we must be reorient ourselves away from addition and toward subtraction or (ironically) we will never grow.

*On a separate note, this is post #800!

Jones throws down, Valendy responds

Divine Incorporation by Todd Schorr

A bit ago Tony Jones challenged all progressive theo-bloggers to write something about God. I got the challenge a day before it was due and so I submitted a previous post.

Jones put my post into a Storify with other progressives who wrote something about God. 

I hope you get a chance to read some of the submissions on the Storify as many of them are really quite good.

A little help. Seriously, I am lost.

Julian of Norwich once wrote "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well".

Paul of Tarsus once said "In God we live and move and have our being."

Maya Angelou once noted "I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

These lines have been with me for weeks now and there is a "mash-up" insight in there somewhere, but I have yet to glean it.

Any thoughts? Do these speak to you at all?