Course Catalogue 2025-2026

Pastoral Counselling for the non-professional counsellor engaged in ministry. The goals of the course include acquiring basic counselling skills, developing awareness of counter-transference and exploring how to refer to other professionals.

This course builds on the content of KNP1512, Foundations in Counselling and Spiritual Care, and has been designed to prepare students for practicums that integrate spiritual care and/or psychospiritual therapy. Students will gain an understanding of the impact of spiritual struggles and how spiritual listening and engagement with spiritual practices and beliefs can foster healing and wholeness. Students will be exposed to theological perspectives on spiritual care, the history of care of the soul, and ideas on the experience of spiritual pain as a force for transformation or despair. The themes of professional formation and communication styles will be discussed. Students will experience a variety of contemplative spiritual healing practices such as writing a lament, walking the labyrinth, and the practice of awe. The second half of the course will review and build on skills covered in core MPS courses with a focus on experiential learning to further prepare the student for their practicum. Skills may include but are not limited to building (and repairing) the therapeutic alliance, spiritual assessment, clinical documentation, engaging in spiritually integrated psychotherapy.

This course builds on the content of KNP1512, Foundations in Counselling and Spiritual Care, and has been designed to prepare students for practicums that integrate spiritual care and/or psychospiritual therapy. Students will gain an understanding of the impact of spiritual struggles and how spiritual listening and engagement with spiritual practices and beliefs can foster healing and wholeness. Students will be exposed to theological perspectives on spiritual care, the history of care of the soul, and ideas on the experience of spiritual pain as a force for transformation or despair. The themes of professional formation and communication styles will be discussed. Students will experience a variety of contemplative spiritual healing practices such as writing a lament, walking the labyrinth, and the practice of awe. The second half of the course will review and build on skills covered in core MPS courses with a focus on experiential learning to further prepare the student for their practicum. Skills may include but are not limited to building (and repairing) the therapeutic alliance, spiritual assessment, clinical documentation, engaging in spiritually integrated psychotherapy.

As an introduction to the major mental disorders, this course aims to prepare students for working with clients with serious mental health problems in private, institutional and community settings. The course focuses on a biopsychosocial and spiritual understanding of mental health and well-being. Utilizing the holistic approach to mental health, this course will explore classifications and symptomatology of the more severe and chronic forms of psychiatric disorder, their etiology and nature, and their diagnosis. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5 (DSM-5) will be used as a reference point. The students will also be introduced to the critical influence of culture, class, race and ethnicity, religion, and social values of the individual, family, group, and social institutions in the assessment of mental health disorders. The course will critically review current classification systems and major theories regarding the nature of mental disorders, their diagnoses and etiologies, the treatment approaches available to help people in their recovery, and culturally relevant variables. As a result, the students will be able to critically utilize terminology and concepts in the DSM-5 and identify best practices in psychotherapy practice.

This course is an exploration of the following themes in the light of Christian revelation: creation, the human person, sin, grace, and eschatology.

This course is an exploration of the following themes in the light of Christian revelation: creation, the human person, sin, grace, and eschatology.

This course is an exploration of the following themes in the light of Christian revelation: creation, the human person, sin, grace, and eschatology.

This course introduces students to the spiritual, theological, professional and ethical foundations of Christian mission and ministry. Through a careful consideration of the sources of ministry including Scripture, the teaching of the magisterium, and religious congregational documents, the course invites students to forge and live out a theology of ministry enabling lifelong service in the current ecumenical, interreligious and postmodern context. Key aspects of ministry such as calling, discernment, formation, basic skills/competencies and ethical principles will be addressed. The relationship of ministry to other areas of theology, such as Christology, pneumatology, grace, mission, ecclesiology, and the sacraments, will also be considered.

This course is an introduction to Islamic spirituality with a focus on Sufism, often referred to as the “mystical” tradition of Islam. It offers a historical and topical survey of the tradition’s foundational beliefs, practices, and diverse expressions. The course will examine the rise of Sufi orders, the experiential dimension of Sufism, “theosophical” Sufism, and, finally, the contribution of Sufism to the Islamic arts and literatures.

Apostolic preaching and its development in Gospel writing. A look at the Synoptic Question. Special introduction to first three gospels, with attention to the themes and theology of each tradition. Exegetical study of selected passages in Mark, completed with reference to accounts in Matthew and Luke.

“What is the Church?” This course addresses how Canadian Christians have viewed that fundamental question through the lens of immigration, and how they have framed the problem over the last 150 years. After an exploration of the answers given in several time periods, the course will grapple with the slippery issue of Canadian identity, focusing on the transitional years of 1960–1980 as Canada shed its British identity and considered what it meant to be a multicultural country within a bi-lingual framework. In the second half of the course, the governing question becomes “what will the Church look like twenty years in the future?” Students will explore contemporary modes of ministry that challenge churches and their members to become intercultural by embracing others and actively seeking to be transformed by the diversity of people who arrive from around the world to make their home within our borders.

“What is the Church?” This course addresses how Canadian Christians have viewed that fundamental question through the lens of immigration, and how they have framed the problem over the last 150 years. After an exploration of the answers given in several time periods, the course will grapple with the slippery issue of Canadian identity, focusing on the transitional years of 1960–1980 as Canada shed its British identity and considered what it meant to be a multicultural country within a bi-lingual framework. In the second half of the course, the governing question becomes “what will the Church look like twenty years in the future?” Students will explore contemporary modes of ministry that challenge churches and their members to become intercultural by embracing others and actively seeking to be transformed by the diversity of people who arrive from around the world to make their home within our borders.