The Masters of Religion course was interesting in the information that Dr. Fuchs selected. The course is actually on just one religion, Christianity, and of that he only goes into detail regarding the beliefs he considers to be legitimately Christian. He shows a definite bias against Catholicism, Lutherans, and other Christian churches, especially the newer ones. Dr. Fuchs doesn't adequately go into the fact that what he declares as Christian is just a certain type of Christianity, so that could be confusing for those who have studied little to no Christianity. Dr. Fuchs' opinions are very strong, particularly regarding the Catholic church, freely ascribing negative motives to some of their practices and translations to accuse them of idol worship, deception, perfidy and fraud. By the second lesson, his bias is crystal clear.
What was positive about the course was his listing of missing books and letters that are mentioned in scripture. It didn't bode well for his claim that the Bible was the inspired Word of God if one was to believe that so many alterations and deletions were made to the canon of scriptures. However, he maintained that half a Bible is better than no Bible, and insisted that what remained was God's Word.
I had to smile at the beginning of Lesson 5. Dr. Fuchs states, "You need to possess a Bible in order to find the Truth and to confirm your belief." This was obviously not the case for the earliest Christians who were the ones, in the end, devout to the point of torture through Roman persecution. I personally think that the early martyrs make a good case that one can be a devout Christian and not possess a Bible. It's unlikely in our society where Bibles are easily accessed, to find a Christian without a Bible. However, its necessity to find the Truth or to confirm ones belief is not necessary. Missionaries throughout the history of Christianity have taken the message of Christ to primitive cultures that were illiterate. The basics of the religion, that we have sinned, that Christ died to pay for our sins and redeem us, that He provides the bridge by which we may directly communicate with God, and through our love for Him we can lead righteous and loving lives washed anew and freed from sin that separated us from God is not really complicated. Meditating on God can be done without scriptures, without churches, and without ministers.
There are some absolutes in his descriptions of sacraments that would not be agreed upon in all churches. For instance, he taught that children could not receive communion under the age of 14. That might be true in his church, but that certainly is not the practice in most of the churches I have attended over the years. His description of the sacraments, priesthood, divorce, etc. seem to be an amalgamation of his personal beliefs and experience. They did not appear to consistently follow any specific, established theology.
Towards the end of the class, some haphazard and disputable historical information by Dr. Fuchs and a co-writer are presented. His co-writer, Patrick Schwab also contributes a choppy retelling of aspects of the New Testament with devotional-esque tie-ins. At the end, denominations are very loosely covered, mostly to point out what his particular beliefs are regarding them, with a negative take on Catholics, Lutherans, Mormons, and Jehovah's Witnesses. None of the denominations are described in a descriptive or complete way, except as the contrast to what he believes would be a true way of being Christian.
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