Course Catalogue 2014-2015 | Page 7 | Toronto School of Theology

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Course Catalogue 2014-2015

Professional Ethics in Counselling - Cancelled on Mar 17, 2015 RGP3564HF L0101 SESSION: Summer 2015 INSTRUCTOR(S): Graduate degree students enrol in RGP6564HF COLLEGE: Regis College SCHEDULE: Mon, Thu TIME: 9:00 to 12:00 CREDITS: One Credit This course will examine a number of core issues which impact pastoral counsellors and marriage and family therapists who are currently working in a variety of private and institutional contexts. A case studies approach will be used in dialogue with the most current ethical codes of conduct outlined by several major certifying and regulating bodies in the Canada and the United States, such as the Canadian Association for Spiritual Care (CASC, formerly CAPPE), the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT/OAMFT), and the American Association of Pastoral Counselors (AAPC). The main purpose of the course will be to foster a deepening sense of the essential nature of ethical reflection and accountability to clients and the counselling profession in general. Evaluation: class participation, weekly assignments/quizzes, class presentation, major paper. This course has been pre-approved by the Canadian Association for Spiritual Care (CASC) as fulfilling the ethics requirement for their certification programs in Supervised Pastoral Education Certification (CPE & PCE). More Information
Surfing the Edge of Chaos: Leadership for Today's Church WYP3624HF L0101 SESSION: Summer 2015 INSTRUCTOR(S): Paulsen, Judy COLLEGE: Wycliffe College SCHEDULE: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri TIME: 9:30 to 16:00 CREDITS: One Credit This course will focus on identifying, developing and strengthening key leadership skills needed in the Church in North America today. Topics to be explored within a theological framework will include: introducing and managing change, leading in the midst of uncertainty, discerning health and dysfunction in faith communities, developing trustworthy leaders, cultivating a climate of risk~taking, and inculcating practices that enable perseverance. More Information
Creation Care in the City WYT3671HF L4101 SESSION: Summer 2015 INSTRUCTOR(S): COLLEGE: Wycliffe College SCHEDULE: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri TIME: 9:30 to 15:30 CREDITS: One Credit Ecological concerns have begun to permeate our collective consciousness. Rapid species extinction, poisoned air, forest clear-cutting, ozone depletion, global climate change, "climate justice" and the impact of climate "chaos" on vulnerable communities, all weigh heavily on our personal, intellectual, and spiritual lives. Christian communities are increasingly realizing that their faith and outreach must somehow speak to our present ecological crisis if they are to remain vital, and if they are to remain responsible, faithful, and relevant amidst these profound threats to the flourishing of creation. This course examines how religious and spiritual concerns interface with contemporary environmental issues. While introducing students to concerns and debates in environmental ethics and ecological theology, the course pays particular attention to the challenges posed within a Canadian post-industrial context such as Hamilton, Ontario. In recent years, a growing social and ecological awareness has been emerging in Hamilton, with A Rocha recently opening a ministry there, urban agriculture groups (e.g. Victory Gardens) sprouting up, and church involvement in the True City movement. This course proposes to interface with such groups, including guest presentations from these organizations as well as site visits. Through such interaction, as well as readings, films, class discussions, and course assignments, a variety of Christian responses to our present ecological and social challenges will be probed, including biblical andtheological notions of stewardship and creation care. As well Christian approaches to environmental racism, urban and community supported agriculture, and the nexus between the option for the poor and the option for the earth will be addressed. More Information
Religion and Philosophy at the Extremes of Human Experience ICT3708HF L6101 SESSION: Summer 2015 INSTRUCTOR(S): Kuipers, Ronald COLLEGE: SCHEDULE: Online CREDITS: One Credit John Newton, who wrote the lyrics for" Amazing Grace" in 1772, was the captain of a slave ship prior to entering the clergy. In other words, the man to whom the words "a wretch like me" originally referredwas actually a thoroughgoing wretch, a man who bought and sold human beings for profit. The grace that saved him, meanwhile, first appeared over the course of an extended brush with death: the ship he was on almost sank in a violent North Atlantic gale, then floated at the mercy of the winds and currents for nearly a month before drifting fortuitously onto the coast of Northern Ireland. We live most of our lives in a state of relative equilibrium, calmly passing through more-or-less predictable sequences of habit and custom, work and play, activity and rest. This course will explore what happens when these predictable sequences vanish, when we no longer know where we are or where we are going, what we should do, who we should strive to become. We will focus in particular on how religion and philosophy operate, both experientially and discursively, when the normal equilibrium of our lives has been shattered. This will involve a comparison between two opposing approaches to theses edges: in short, the very suffering that often seems necessary to open the soul out unto God is often cited as evidence that God cannot possibly exist, that religion is nothing more than a retreat into illusion spurred by the fear of death. Thus, beginning with a comparison between Victor Frankl's account of his experiences in the Nazi death camps, Man's Search for Meaning, and Freud's classic denunciation of religion in The Future of an Illusion, this course explores how the tension between devastation, hope, and despair has played out in various other extremes of human experience. More Information
Paul: Pastor and Theologian SMB3781HS L0101 SESSION: Summer 2015 INSTRUCTOR(S): Graduate degree students enrol in SMB6781HS COLLEGE: St. Michael's College SCHEDULE: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri TIME: 17:30 to 20:30 CREDITS: One Credit Readers of Paul's letters have long noted the diversity of the Christian communities to which he writes and the different approaches he takes towards their problems and questions. This course will study Paul's letters from the point of his role as a pastor and theologian. Paul's theology does not develop out of a philosophical or theological "system" but from the everyday encounters with the problems of the communities and people of different historical and social context whom he meets while preaching the gospel. More Information
MTS Synthesis Paper RGT3790YF L0101 SESSION: Summer 2015 INSTRUCTOR(S): COLLEGE: Regis College SCHEDULE: TBA CREDITS: Two Credits MTS Synthesis Paper More Information
Experiential Learning in Faith and the Arts ICP3851HS L0102 SESSION: Summer 2015 INSTRUCTOR(S): Smick, Rebekah Graduate degree students enrol in ICP6851HS COLLEGE: SCHEDULE: Tue, Wed, Thu TIME: 9:00 to 12:00 CREDITS: One Credit This course is geared to enrolment in the Artists' Workshop of the Institute for Christian Studies' ART in Orvieto offerings in Orvieto, Italy. It aims to integrate, through the writing of a major paper, the practical experience gained in these arts workshops with the more theoretical knowledge obtained through academic courses in the area of art, religion and theology. Building upon the activities undertaken in the workshop (discussion, visual journals, presentation of work and feedback) as well as the arts project accomplished, the paper will serve as a summative statement of what the student learned. It should demonstrate the student's analytical and interpretive skills as it seeks to find the points of intersection between artistic practice and the life of faith. More Information
Experiential Learning in Faith and the Arts ICP3851HS L0101 SESSION: Summer 2015 INSTRUCTOR(S): Smick, Rebekah Graduate degree students enrol in ICP6851HS COLLEGE: SCHEDULE: Tue, Wed, Thu TIME: 9:00 to 12:00 CREDITS: One Credit This course is geared to enrolment in the Artists' Workshop of the Institute for Christian Studies' ART in Orvieto offerings in Orvieto, Italy. It aims to integrate, through the writing of a major paper, the practical experience gained in these arts workshops with the more theoretical knowledge obtained through academic courses in the area of art, religion and theology. Building upon the activities undertaken in the workshop (discussion, visual journals, presentation of work and feedback) as well as the arts project accomplished, the paper will serve as a summative statement of what the student learned. It should demonstrate the student's analytical and interpretive skills as it seeks to find the points of intersection between artistic practice and the life of faith. More Information
Exodus in Teaching and Proclamation TRB3967HF L0101 SESSION: Summer 2015 INSTRUCTOR(S): Deller, Walter COLLEGE: Trinity College SCHEDULE: Mon, Wed TIME: 18:00 to 21:00 CREDITS: One Credit Exodus has been a central text for both Jewish and Christian raditions. It is a book with a surplus of meaning. In partnership with contemporary theory about adult learning and different approaches to preaching, we will explore different ways thinkers, both Christian and Jewish have sought to unfold this book's riches in different times and circumstances, considering and practicing how this might best be done in our present period. This course will explore a range of thinkers and texts including but not limited to: Paul, Origen, Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, The Mekhilta de Rabbi-lshmael, Rashi, Luther, Elie Wiesel, Michael Walzer, A viva Gottlieb Zornberg, John van Seters, Ellen Frankel, Carol Meyers and Jonathan Sacks; as well as works of art and music. More Information
Contextual Theology and Theological Reflection TSM5020HF L0101 SESSION: Summer 2015 INSTRUCTOR(S): Schner, Joseph G. COLLEGE: TST SCHEDULE: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri TIME: 9:00 to 12:00 CREDITS: One Credit This course focuses on the theological reflection and socio-cultural analysis of the students' respective contests of ministry and research. More Information