In my year in the graduate theology department at Villanova, it was clear the sort of culture I had stepped into. Despite my prior belief, theology at Villanova had a different definition. Actually, it had quite a few definitions. Most commonly it was “my theology.....”

so as to say: theology was all relative. Additional to this, the classroom environment fostered a very “objective” ideology of what we were studying. In my mind, theology was faith seeking understand. But to my professors and classmates, theology was looking at the fascinating

ways Christians viewed the world, whether they be right or wrong. I actually had to take a class that taught theology students how to speak with devout Christians. “I believe you *think* you saw that. I believe you *think* that is true.” were sentences we were taught to say.

I had classmates question the Resurrection, remarking that “what if it was all one big fraud? There’s no historical evidence for this.” I had people claiming that to be a Christian does not mean to trust or follow Jesus’ teachings. Christianity was somewhat of a relative term.

At Villanova, Christianity and Theology were words to be played with. Nothing could be proven as fact. In class, we merely looked at the Church and said “this is what THEY believe.”

It was a shocking and saddening experience for me; I had previously thought that studying theology was just Catholics in a room together, excited to look more deeply into their faith and understand it in different ways. I was so excited to read what I anticipated to be

Doctors of the Church, Scripture, and encyclicals. Instead, I got secondary sources slandering the Church and labeling Doctors of the Church as racists and ignorant old white men.

Except for one (special and lone wolf) professor who had an amazing course, Villanova posed a risk to my faith, as it did for all my classmates who I saw fade further away from the Church.

My experience at Franciscan University has been quite the 180. Immediately for my first class, my professor expressed that Theology was, indeed, using our faith enlightened by our reason to look at God. The famous quote “theology is faith seeking understanding” was brought back

into the room. I am among students and professors who are a part of the “they” who believe what the Church believes.

For class this week, we’re diving into Christology. Before we did so, my professor wanted to expose some supposed obstacles that might get in the way of studying Christology. The #1 obstacle was the claim that one ought to not study Christology if they have a presupposition.

In this case, Catholics must not presuppose that Jesus actually is Divine; that Jesus is the Son of God. If one were to do this, then their study would be biased and flawed. Someone who studies Christology must not actually have faith.

My professor took time to explain that this was incorrect. First of all, presuppositions are inescapable. And secondly, Jesus’ divine identity is impossible to know with certitude without faith. In fact, to study Christology in its most fulfilled sense is to utilize our faith

to seek to understand what we already know! And what we already know is what our Catholicism teaches us. He continued to expose 4 other ways that people object to how one might study Christology, and showed how they were all wrong. At Franciscan, we study theology in its trueness

We already know it’s true. We have faith. We just seek to understand it more. And that’s exactly how it should be :) For anyone who is at a “Catholic” institution who suffered my same experienced at Villanova, if you have the opportunity, I urge you to transfer out.

Don’t let this be taken from you. Studying theology can be as exciting as it seems.