This semester, I am in a class called Intro to World Religions. It is a required class for my major, and it’s pretty far outside the area of my previous experience and study. I did not know very much about a lot of religions before taking this class, but I have learned a lot of lessons from studying the people, cultures, and lifestyles of India, China, Japan, and the Middle East.
Yesterday, I worked on a project (my “reaction paper”) to wrap up the class. This “paper” has pretty broad parameters, and I actually ended up making a slideshow instead of writing a paper. The photos I took for the slideshow are of a torii, which is a part of Shintoism, a religion based in Japan. Basically, wherever kami, broadly stated as the “spark of reality” in everything living, dead, and inanimate, is sensed, a torii is to be built. A torii also marks the entrance to a Shinto shrine. So essentially, a torii marks locations where the presence of kami has been recognized. I took photos of some places where I imagine a Shinto person might build a torii (I built this makeshift torii myself, too! Don’t mind the ridiculous amount of nails I used…). Here are some of the photos I took for my slideshow.
This project really got me thinking not only about Shintoism or about other religions of the world, but about my own Christian faith as well. I wrote a little explanation paper for my professor so he would know why I chose to do this project instead of writing the full paper. Here is an excerpt:
As I was doing this, all I could think about was this question: “What if this was a cross?” What if, every time I felt the presence of God or recognized him in the beauty of creation or saw him moving in one way or another in my life, I physically built a cross? What if I started taking the time to commemorate God’s presence in a tangible way every time I experienced it? This seems radical and impractical, but I really do not believe that I am called to be either typical or practical as a Christian. I am called to take up my cross and follow Jesus, and this project with a Shinto torii has gotten me thinking about what it really means to take up my cross in a concrete way.
This project (and the class as a whole) really made me think about my own faith and how I am living it out. I am thankful for the types of classes that I have had the opportunity to take at Hope. Many of them, such as this one, have changed my life and my perspective on so many things.
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“Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.'”
– Matthew 16:24