Course Catalogue 2026-2027

This course is a 5000-level seminar focused on the final published volume of Barth's Church Dogmatics (CD 4.4, the doctrine of Baptism) as well as the posthumously published fragment titled The Christian Life. Together with an unwritten treatise on the Lord's Supper, these works would have crowned Barth's massive Doctrine of Reconciliation with a treatment on how Christians should live in light of Christ's achieved act of atonement. The seminar will consist primarily of close reading of the relevant texts, along with student presentations and occasional lectures. Topics to be discussed will include: Barth's ethics of divine command and its relation to other ethical models, e.g., virtue ethics; his changing views on sacraments, and his mature account on Baptism and the Lord's Supper as non-mediating human acts of witness; his teaching on the "principalities and powers," especially in light of the Church Struggle of the 1930s and post-World War II political developments, and his views on the church's responsibility to the nation-state; the theology of prayer, and Barth's specific exegesis of the Lord's Prayer as a framework for the Christian moral life.

Central ideas in the Kierkegaard corpus and their relevance to contemporary theological and philosophical concerns.

The history of interpreting the parables can be divided into several periods. Early interpretations tended to read the parables as allegorical moralisms. From roughly 1900 to the 1960s, the dominant approach understood the parables primarily as apocalyptic symbols. Contemporary scholarship often treats the parables as narrative-theological devices, emphasizing metaphor, ambiguity, and theological meaning, and focusing on what the parable does to the hearer and how it challenges prevailing assumptions. This course, however, shifts attention away from abstract theological or purely narrative readings toward the material, social, political, religious, and economic realities reflected in the stories told by Jesus between 27 and 30 CE. When read in light of these realities, the parables are interpreted as realistic narratives rather than as symbolic or purely theological constructions. The authenticity of the parables, as we have them in their literary contexts, is not assumed, and the parables are read as atypical stories of social transformation told by a Galilean social prophet. Interpreted from this perspective, the parables are not earthly stories with heavenly meanings, but earthly stories with heavy meanings. The parables Jesus told are not stories about God, but stories about God's kingdom.

The purpose of this course is to survey the contemporary trends in the theology of faith and culture with an emphasis on mission, dialogue, interculteration, and the emergence of contextual theologies. A major portion of the course will focus on understanding the paradigm shift from a classicist notion of culture to one that has given rise to the various contextual approaches and the so-called "World Christianity(ies)." We will survey some of the various models, methods, and issues involved in this paradigm shift. The course will also highlight certain tensions arising from this context such as the local-universal church tension, the dialogue-evangelism tension, the interculturation-syncretism tension, and the question of the theology of religions.

This seminar offers an advanced introduction to comparative theological method. The course examines the processes by which theologians study theologies across religious boundaries and bring this learning into dialogue with home traditions through careful comparison, dialogical reflection, and nuanced theological understandings of religious belonging. Students will consider critiques and refinements of the practice of comparison, survey current methods of theological comparison, and frame a comparative research project according to their own theological interests. Because the class wrl! analyze examples from a variety of religious traditions, prior knowledge of multiple traditions is desirable but not required.

This seminar will focus on the writings of Augustine, Aquinas, and Kant that have been and continue to be seminal texts for the contemporary discipline of moral theology/theological ethics. The goal will be to understand their conceptions of human happiness, the nature of morality, the means (actions, virtues, sin, law, grace, friendship) by which one pursues happiness or lives morally. We will also attend to their understanding of the individual and political society. While we will focus on primary sources, students will also be introduced to key interpretations of Augustine, Aquinas, and Kant by contemporary moral theologians.

An examination of the idea of self in Hinduism and Islam through representative contemporary thinkers Rabindranath Tagore and Muhammad Iqbal respectively. How is self understood? What is its relation to the ideas of person and personal identity? What are the philosophical and theological presuppositions of the idea of self? Answers are supplemented by classical and other contemporary writings of the religious tradition in question, thereby accessing the worldview associated with that tradition.

This course will introduce central theoretical concepts in psychoanalytic psychotherapy and their importance in effective clinical work. An underlying premise of the course is that therapeutic action occurs within the relationship between therapist and patient, two individuals who struggle together to reclaim and deepen their shared humanity. While theory is essential to the task of providing responsible clinical care, it is understood that it always follows deeply attentive, empathic observation, not only of the patient, but of the psychodynamic processes that occur between the therapist and patient. Theory helps to "hold" and "contain" the therapist as she enters the unique, often strange and at times disturbing inner world of the person who seeks her help. Theory must always be held lightly while it is actively operative in the mind of the therapist as he navigates his way through the world that emerges within the analytic setting. A solid grounding in psychodynamic theory helps the therapist maintain a calm receptivity to the patient in the midst of unknowing, which most often characterizes the immediacy of clinical work. It also helps the therapist cultivate and sustain a reflective use of herself that establishes a safe and supportive professional framework that holds and protects both parties in the clinical dyad.

This course examines the ways in which Pauline Christians and their successors in the cities of the Empire formed communities for the support and nurture of their faith and way of life. It will examine the models they adopted for communities, the ways in which they defined their ethos and set the limits of community, the ways in which outsiders viewed the emerging churches, and the internal challenges they faced.

Stewart Clegg has suggested that 'the forgetting' of power may yet be the 'fate of our time'. His caution signals how the more difficult it becomes to locate the source and nature of power amidst the complexity of social and political life, the harder it is to discern power, presence, employ it effectively, or resist it when necessary. This course addresses a 'forgetting' of power in Christian theology. Although various approaches to contemporary political theology imply differing conceptions of the workings of power, seldom is the concept itself the focus of direct analysis. Without a fully developed concept of power, efforts to advance a coherent political theology, or to resolve problems in ecclesiology more generally, leave many questions unaddressed and numerous tensions obscured. In addition to analyzing both the limitations and untapped resources regarding the concept of power within the Christian tradition, the course will also engage wider debates over the nature of power by making the concept of 'powerlessnes' a significant topic for discussion. For as contemporary scholars investigate the nature of power as both an oppressive and productive force, the Christian tradition, wrestling with the significance of being without power, and its reflections on whether this is always an inherently negative situation, promises to offer a unique contribution to debates over the nature of power.

Stewart Clegg has suggested that 'the forgetting' of power may yet be the 'fate of our time'. His caution signals how the more difficult it becomes to locate the source and nature of power amidst the complexity of social and political life, the harder it is to discern power, presence, employ it effectively, or resist it when necessary. This course addresses a 'forgetting' of power in Christian theology. Although various approaches to contemporary political theology imply differing conceptions of the workings of power, seldom is the concept itself the focus of direct analysis. Without a fully developed concept of power, efforts to advance a coherent political theology, or to resolve problems in ecclesiology more generally, leave many questions unaddressed and numerous tensions obscured. In addition to analyzing both the limitations and untapped resources regarding the concept of power within the Christian tradition, the course will also engage wider debates over the nature of power by making the concept of 'powerlessnes' a significant topic for discussion. For as contemporary scholars investigate the nature of power as both an oppressive and productive force, the Christian tradition, wrestling with the significance of being without power, and its reflections on whether this is always an inherently negative situation, promises to offer a unique contribution to debates over the nature of power.

Stewart Clegg has suggested that 'the forgetting' of power may yet be the 'fate of our time'. His caution signals how the more difficult it becomes to locate the source and nature of power amidst the complexity of social and political life, the harder it is to discern power, presence, employ it effectively, or resist it when necessary. This course addresses a 'forgetting' of power in Christian theology. Although various approaches to contemporary political theology imply differing conceptions of the workings of power, seldom is the concept itself the focus of direct analysis. Without a fully developed concept of power, efforts to advance a coherent political theology, or to resolve problems in ecclesiology more generally, leave many questions unaddressed and numerous tensions obscured. In addition to analyzing both the limitations and untapped resources regarding the concept of power within the Christian tradition, the course will also engage wider debates over the nature of power by making the concept of 'powerlessnes' a significant topic for discussion. For as contemporary scholars investigate the nature of power as both an oppressive and productive force, the Christian tradition, wrestling with the significance of being without power, and its reflections on whether this is always an inherently negative situation, promises to offer a unique contribution to debates over the nature of power.