Previous Years' Course Catalogues

A seminar on the language and literature of Ugarit. Knowledge of biblical Hebrew or some other Semitic language is presupposed. The texts are prepared in advance and presented by the students, with attention to grammar and syntax, and with consideration of literary and religious questions, from an historical and comparative point of view, and with reference to all the relevant scholarly literature.

This course examines questions of gender, sexuality, embodiment, and power in the Hebrew Bible and texts from Second Temple Judaism. Several biblical and Hellenistic-period texts are used to explore these epistemological and methodological questions. Students will learn various theoretical approaches such as feminist, womanist, masculinity studies, and queer theory, from scholars both inside and outside of biblical studies. These approaches will be paired with a close reading of a variety of texts from the Hebrew Bible and early Jewish literature. Collaborative and decentering frameworks will be front and centre in both course material and pedagogy.

1-2 Chronicles had little attention paid to it after the solidification of historical-critical biblical studies in the mid-19th century. This began to change in the 1980s with a new appreciation for the book as a literary whole. This course examines Chronicles in its context and in ours. Topics include: the context of Persian-period Judah, with comparative materials from elsewhere in the Persian Empire shedding light on the imperial context of Judah and Jerusalem; ancient media and scribal practice to understand textual production and reproduction; questions of individual and community identity formation (gender, ethnicity, class); how Chronicles has been read through the centuries, in both Jewish and Christian contexts. Collaborative and decentering frameworks will be front and centre in both course material and pedagogy.

This course treats either books (Job, Sirach, Ecclesiastes, Wisdom of Solomon) or thematic aspects (creation, prayer, eschatology) of the sapiential tradition as it evolved in the period 538 BCE - 70 CE with an eye to the relationship of these books to the broader swath of sapiential textual traditions of the era, including the instruction literature from Qumran. The focus will be Ben Sira, with attention to the significance of textual variants in the manuscript traditions for our understanding of the formation of the Bible. Course will be a seminar. Seminar participation, seminar presentations, major paper.

Law reflects the way in which society understands and organizes itself through common agreements and forms of restraint. This course examines the different ways religious legislation was generated in ancient Jewish communities and the different functions such legislation served in these communities. Special attention will focus on the legal codes embedded in the Torah, exploring the many similarities with and dependence upon other ancient Near Eastern legal corpora and judicial systems. Extra-canonical Jewish texts from the Second Temple and early rabbinic period will be studied as well, since they illumine the processes of scriptural exegesis and community development through which legal codes evolved.

Law reflects the way in which society understands and organizes itself through common agreements and forms of restraint. This course examines the different ways religious legislation was generated in ancient Jewish communities and the different functions such legislation served in these communities. Special attention will focus on the legal codes embedded in the Torah, exploring the many similarities with and dependence upon other ancient Near Eastern legal corpora and judicial systems. Extra-canonical Jewish texts from the Second Temple and early rabbinic period will be studied as well, since they illumine the processes of scriptural exegesis and community development through which legal codes evolved.

law reflects the way in which society understands and organizes itself through common agreements and forms of restraint. This course examines the different ways religious legislation was generated in ancient Jewish communities and the different functions such legislation served in these communities. Special attention will focus on the legal codes embedded in the Torah, exploring the many similarities with and dependence upon other ancient Near Eastern legal corpora and judicial systems. Extra-canonical Jewish texts from the Second Temple and early rabbinic period will be studied as well, since they illumine the processes of scriptural exegesis and community development through which legal codes evolved.

The book of Jeremiah is the longest of the major prophets and is the source of significant New Testament quotations. Its central focus on judgment and lament is countered by only a few chapters of hope for restored fortune. Despite the book’s complexity that lends itself to sustained critical engagement, it also serves as a profound theological and pastoral resource. This course explores the book through six key questions: what is the import of the textual variance in the Jeremianic material? does the book have a discernible structure or modes of organization? what is the role of history and of the prophetic person/persona within the book? what message does the book have and how is it communicated? how has the book been received and responded to? how does the book relate to the larger canon of scripture? Each question takes up enduring critical issues and will immerse students in deep exegetical study of the text, engage them with diverse scholarship across the ages and globe, and call them to consider the message and implications of the text in our own contexts.

An examination of selected psalms, prayers, and hymns from the Dead Sea Scrolls with an eye to their appropriation of scriptural discourse. Genre issues, social function of these texts in the Qumran community, and continuity with and differences from later Jewish and Christian liturgies also explored.

An examination of selected psalms, prayers, and hymns from the Dead Sea Scrolls with an eye to their appropriation of scriptural discourse. Genre issues, social function of these texts in the Qumran community, and continuity with and differences from later Jewish and Christian liturgies also explored.

This course will examine how Christians and Christian traditions have understood and justified the first “mark of the Church”, her unity. This will include an examination of the historical constraints on such understandings. Key writings from the early Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Western traditions (Catholic and Protestant), and ecumenical authors will be read. In addition, some political and philosophical discussions of the nature of consent and consensus will be covered.

This course explores key Eastern Christian texts in the area of liturgical and sacramental theology - from the fourth to twentieth century. We begin with the Eastern mystagogical catecheses (Cyril of Jerusalem, Chrysostom and Theodore of Mopsuestia) proceed through Byzantine patristic texts (Ps.-Dionysius, Maximus, Germanus, the Damascene, Symeon the New Theologican and Nicholas Cabasilas), then review Ukrainian scholastic texts (Mohyla and Dmitry Tuptalo) and conclude with a sampling of modem Russian and Greek Orthodox writings, including Bulgakov and Zizioulas. Two contemporary "bookends" for these classical formulations will be the seminal works of David W. Fagerberg and Jean Corbon. The latter two authors will help in the evaluation of how these texts speak to the search for meaning- both personal and communal - among contemporary seekers and believers.