God is love, and his Spirit pours his love into our hearts. Love is the greatest commandment, Jesus' new commandment, the Spirit's firstfruit, and what Paul tells us to aim for. We are what we love, and we are how we love.
This course is borne out of God's love. It testifies to God's love, explores it, subjects everything to it, aims for it, and serves it. Of course, none of that might have brought you here. You might be in Doctrine out of love of a degree, a career, your family, achievement, status, a good grade, 'learning for its own sake' ... who knows. (And why am I here? Is it God's love, or a career, supporting my family, personal status, high course evaluations, influence, 'learning for its own sake', sheer momentum, institutional loyalty, collegiality ... or some mixture of motives opaque even to me?) Higher education can be confusing. It can be disorienting. It can bait and switch. We need to be careful to guard our hearts.
How's your love? How can this course help? This assignment is an experiment in seeing how.
James K.A. Smith describes "love-shaping habits" in this lecture. Develop and use one such habit to engage the course material in ways that develop a love of God and/or neighbor. For instance, you might establish a discipline of contemplative prayer after a lecture or book chapter; you might take a moment for personal worship; if you're confused or put off, you can take that to the Lord in prayer. You might enrich your loving service to others or align it more fully with God's Kingdom in light of what you've learned. Smith's book will surely kindle other ideas.
Lead the report you submit with a description of that habit, and whether and how it was fruitful in the course of completing this assignment.
Over the course of the semester, write at least three additional entries, each of which describe the following: How (a) some aspect of the course (a lecture, a book, a written assignment, an activity) has developed that love; (b) what in your life (perhaps the course itself!) has interfered or threatened to interfere with that development; and (c) how you responded to counter or overcome that threat, perhaps (though not necessarily) using further resources from the course.
You may wish to conclude with a brief summative reflection of some kind, treating the general relationship between Christian theology and fruitful love.
Remember, I always want to see proper style, clear writing, a thorough answer to the question, and explicit citations of course materials. I hope that after this assignment you have refined your loves and maintained or restored your focus on what matters most in your life and your college education.