Summit Ministries

Today is Wednesday which means that we are half–way through our first week already. The amount of knowledge that we have obtained in the time that we have been here has been fantastic. Although frustrating at times, the idea that we must understand what we believe is a given. I enjoy many of the speakers, but being that this is my second year here, I notice some familiar names and faces of the speakers at Summit. Two of these are Dr. Frank Beckwith and Dr. Michael Bauman.

First, Dr. Beckwith combines a variety of extremely relevant and useful facts with dry yet witty humor in his talks dealing with moral relativism and abortion. I appreciate the jokes of Dr. Beckwith because it lightens the tense situations that may occur due to the difficult to understand—and sometimes controversial—topics. The combined effects of the humor and the facts produces a learning experience that is comfortable and challenging. Dr. Beckwith encourages us to look at controversial arguments against objective moral truths and abortion because these issues are present in real life and they challenge you to use your mind.

Also challenging is Dr. Michael Bauman. Bauman, who hails from Hillsdale College, is absolutely adamant about using our minds to discover truth rather than just receiving an answer without the ability to prove or defend our beliefs. In the topic of Augustine and Pelagius, Dr. Bauman presents tough issues regarding the nature of God and our theology. The presentation frustrated me to no end but Dr. Bauman reminded us that "I am going to challenge you because the world will challenge you." The purpose of the Summit is to discover why we believe what we believe and the first three days of Summit have done just that. I can only imagine how my experience here will only continue to get better…