Course Catalogue 2026-2027

This seminar explores the claim of diverse Christian traditions in South Asia to be religious traditions of South Asia, with special attention to these traditions' indigenisation and social interactions with majority Hindu traditions. Our study will begin with an overview of the historical development of Christianity in India from the first century CE to the present. In a second unit, we move to close readings of major theological articulations for and against an indigenous South Asian Christianity. Finally, our attention will tum to the concept of "ritual dialogue" in Christian practice and the ethnographic study of Christian communities in India. Most of our attention will be focused on Christian traditions in South India, but students are encouraged to choose topics related to Christianity in other parts of India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and/or Bhutan for their research papers.

Using the writings of Thomas Berry & theologians who work with the new cosmology, the course provides an introduction to eco-theology as well as the ways eco-theologians are articulating new understandings of theological anthropology, revelation, Christology, pneumatology, sin and salvation, and eschatology.

Using the writings of Thomas Berry & theologians who work with the new cosmology, the course provides an introduction to eco-theology as well as the ways eco-theologians are articulating new understandings of theological anthropology, revelation, Christology, pneumatology, sin and salvation, and eschatology.

This seminar (a combination of lecture, discussion, and case analysis format) will introduce principles and perspectives for biomedical ethics. The course is divided into two sections. The first part of the course will examine basic themes, principles, methodologies, and professional responsibilities in healthcare ethics. Special attention will be given to Catholic Church teaching and the Catholic tradition of moral reflection more generally, comparing and contrasting it with the currently dominant secular approach to bioethics. In the second section, we will examine particular ethical issues for healthcare ethics, employing the case analysis method. We will seek to bring to bear our earlier ethics and theological explorations as well as practical wisdom in our evaluations of these cases. Students will present analysis of particular problems, and others will respond to their analysis.

This course will introduce and practice general principles and dynamics of spiritual direction in the Ignatian Tradition. In service of the immediate preparation for the year-long practicum in spiritual direction under supervision, this course is designed to assist the student/director to discover, practice and develop attitudes and behaviors central to the practice of spiritual direction. Appropriation of course materials will be facilitated through lecture, in-class demonstration, practice, reflection on in-class observation and practice. The Practicum continues the on-going mutual discernment process between the student and faculty that spans the duration of the Diploma in Spiritual Direction.

The relationship between Christianity and Judaism is central to the identity of Christians and the church. Yet for much of the past two millennia, from the "parting of the ways" in the first and second centuries, the story of Christians and Jews has been difficult and troubled, culminating in the tragic events of the 20th century. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, there has been a renewed engagement between the two traditions, and with a proliferation of scholarship and deepening of knowledge of Second Temple Judaism over the last half century, a joint effort has been made by Christians and Jews to correct historical inaccuracies and prejudices and amend theological traditions that had separated Jesus and Paul from their Jewish contexts and driven a hard wedge between communities sharing faith in the one God of Israel. This course will delve into key elements of this new scholarship and rekindled dialogue, enabling students to apply these insights across their theological studies and pastoral practice.

The relationship between Christianity and Judaism is central to the identity of Christians and the church. Yet for much of the past two millennia, from the “parting of the ways” in the first and second centuries, the story of Christians and Jews has been difficult and troubled, culminating in the tragic events of the 20th century. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, there has been a renewed engagement between the two traditions, and with a proliferation of scholarship and deepening of knowledge of Second Temple Judaism over the last half century, a joint effort has been made by Christians and Jews to correct historical inaccuracies and prejudices and amend theological traditions that had separated Jesus and Paul from their Jewish contexts and driven a hard wedge between communities sharing faith in the one God of Israel. This course will delve into key elements of this new scholarship and rekindled dialogue, enabling students to apply these insights across their theological studies and pastoral practice.

The relationship between Christianity and Judaism is central to the identity of Christians and the church. Yet for much of the past two millennia, from the “parting of the ways” in the first and second centuries, the story of Christians and Jews has been difficult and troubled, culminating in the tragic events of the 20th century. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, there has been a renewed engagement between the two traditions, and with a proliferation of scholarship and deepening of knowledge of Second Temple Judaism over the last half century, a joint effort has been made by Christians and Jews to correct historical inaccuracies and prejudices and amend theological traditions that had separated Jesus and Paul from their Jewish contexts and driven a hard wedge between communities sharing faith in the one God of Israel. This course will delve into key elements of this new scholarship and rekindled dialogue, enabling students to apply these insights across their theological studies and pastoral practice.

Feminist theologies critically reflect on religious traditions from the perspective of persons who identify as women. It challenges ideas and practices that devalue women and retrieves and constructs alternatives to them. The course begins with an introduction to the methods and diverse voices in feminist theologies. Increasingly, the discipline is "intersectional" in recognition of the variety of factors that impact and shape a feminist standpoint- not only of sex and gender identity, but also race, nationality, religion, ability, sexual orientation, age, and other factors. With attention to African American (womanist), Indigenous, mujerista, Asian feminist, and transgender perspectives, we will assess some of the major topics in Christian theology: Who is God? What is the human condition? What is redemption, and are Christian narratives redemptive for women? How do we know? Seeking solidarity between women's movements, this course seeks mutual learning from Jewish, Buddhist, and Muslim feminist thinkers, from interreligious dialogue, and from the religious hybridity that often results from intersectional formations. In addition to the classical loci, the course turns to trends related to coloniality, orthodoxy, theopoetics, materiality, and the connectivity of the virtual world.

This course introduces Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) as a rigorous methodological framework for comparative philosophy of religion. Building on the work of Lakoff and Johnson and subsequent developments, the course examines how abstract religious concepts--such as truth, selfhood, liberation, faith, and transcendence--are structured by embodied, experience-based metaphors. Through comparative case studies drawn from Buddhist and Christian traditions, students will learn how CMT clarifies both convergence and divergence without reducing traditions to doctrinal equivalence. Emphasis is placed on methodological precision, hermeneutical self-awareness, and the limits of comparison, equipping students with analytical tools for cross-cultural and interreligious philosophical research.

This course offers an advanced, interdisciplinary introduction to Buddhist-Christian dialogue through close engagement with classical texts and contemporary comparative theology. Drawing on Mahayana Buddhist thought (with figures such as Nagarjuna, Tsongkhapa, Huineng, and Hsing Yun) and Christian philosophical theology (including Augustine, Kierkegaard, and Herman Dooyeweerd)--especially themes of nonduality, incarnation, subjectivity, and ethical-religious transformation--the course examines how distinct traditions articulate truth, selfhood, suffering, compassion, and liberation. Emphasis is placed on methodological questions in comparative philosophy and theology, including hermeneutics, conceptual metaphor, and the limits of translation across religious worlds. Students will develop skills in critical comparison while exploring how interreligious dialogue can foster intellectual rigor, spiritual depth, and constructive engagement in a pluralistic global context.

This class will develop further the exegetical skills of students through engagement with the Greek text of a New Testament book. By means of close reading of the text students will grow in their capacity to use Greek when interpreting the New Testament. Attention will be paid to textual criticism, translation issues, New Testament Greek syntax, and issues of historical, cultural, literary and theological context. The class will build students' ability to offer critically informed accounts of the meaning of New Testament texts in their first-century contexts, and increase students' understanding of the theological message of individual New Testament books and their contemporary implications.