Previous Years' Course Catalogues

Where was God when this happened?! How can religious people commit such atrocities?! What can a religious leader say after such a horrendous event?! This course explores such questions by analyzing theological responses to human tragedy and cultural shock. Discussion will attend to issues of theodicy, religious terrorism and natural disasters through the perspectives of systematic theology, ethics, and practical theology. The course focuses on popular reactions to the terrorist attacks on the USA in 2001, but includes attention to the First World War, the Holocaust, Hurricane Katrina, Fukushima, and contemporary terrorism. Attention will be given to themes such as the meaning of suffering, the function of religious discourse in the face of tragedy, the nature of ideology, and the relationship between religion and violence. The course concludes by moving from these analyses to an exploration of the peril and promise of speaking of God in times of terror.

This course endeavours to acquaint students with the theology of the human person. It focuses on theological issues that bear upon such questions as “What does it mean to be a human being?”, “What is meant by the ‘image of God’?”, “How is the Person of God related to the personhood of human beings?” Students will probe the theological understanding of the human (explicit, and more commonly implicit) in fiction, poetry, drama, lyrics, film, and the social sciences.

A practical, interactive introduction to the pmiicularities of Christian preaching from the Old Testament. Special emphasis will be placed on biblical exegesis, hermeneutics, and preaching with sensitivity to the varied forms of OT literature-narrative, saga, law, prophetic oracles, wisdom material, etc. Students will exegete passages, prepare sermons (preaching twice), learn new skills and ideas and interact with the sermons of others, both peers and role models.

The human person in our contemporary culture has a fluid spectrum of interpretation. Biblical precedents suggest a certain Judaeo-Christian hermeneutic while cultural mores reference alternatives. This course looks to explore the Roman Catholic tradition in identifying the graced human person and contemporary papal guidelines stressing the inherent dignity of the human person. Accordingly, time will be spent considering biblical foundations and questions posed by the text of Genesis and the Noahic covenant. Aquinas and key documents from Vatican II assist our exploration. The question of whether we are discerning the human person or designing humans arises. Identity and the sense of self are important issues raised with reference to both the Qumran community and the work of Charles Taylor. Hans Urs von Balthasa's reclaiming of personhood and the ecclesial person bridges into consideration of the way in which contemporary papacies have identified the human person and the concomitant dignity of every human being made in the image of God.

The human person in our contemporary culture has a fluid spectrum of interpretation. Biblical precedents suggest a certain Judaeo-Christian hermeneutic while cultural mores reference alternatives. This course looks to explore the Roman Catholic tradition in identifying the graced human person and contemporary papal guidelines stressing the inherent dignity of the human person. Accordingly, time will be spent considering biblical foundations and questions posed by the text of Genesis and the Noahic covenant. Aquinas and key documents from Vatican II assist our exploration. The question of whether we are discerning the human person or designing humans arises. Identity and the sense of self are important issues raised with reference to both the Qumran community and the work of Charles Taylor. Hans Urs von Balthasa's reclaiming of personhood and the ecclesial person bridges into consideration of the way in which contemporary papacies have identified the human person and the concomitant dignity of every human being made in the image of God.

The human person in our contemporary culture has a fluid spectrum of interpretation. Biblical precedents suggest a certain Judaeo-Christian hermeneutic while cultural mores reference alternatives. This course looks to explore the Roman Catholic tradition in identifying the graced human person and contemporary papal guidelines stressing the inherent dignity of the human person. Accordingly, time will be spent considering biblical foundations and questions posed by the text of Genesis and the Noahic covenant. Aquinas and key documents from Vatican II assist our exploration. The question of whether we are discerning the human person or designing humans arises. Identity and the sense of self are important issues raised with reference to both the Qumran community and the work of Charles Taylor. Hans Urs von Balthasa's reclaiming of personhood and the ecclesial person bridges into consideration of the way in which contemporary papacies have identified the human person and the concomitant dignity of every human being made in the image of God.

The human person in our contemporary culture has a fluid spectrum of interpretation. Biblical precedents suggest a certain Judaeo-Christian hermeneutic while cultural mores reference alternatives. This course looks to explore the Roman Catholic tradition in identifying the graced human person and contemporary papal guidelines stressing the inherent dignity of the human person. Accordingly, time will be spent considering biblical foundations and questions posed by the text of Genesis and the Noahic covenant. Aquinas and key documents from Vatican II assist our exploration. The question of whether we are discerning the human person or designing humans arises. Identity and the sense of self are important issues raised with reference to both the Qumran community and the work of Charles Taylor. Hans Urs von Balthasa's reclaiming of personhood and the ecclesial person bridges into consideration of the way in which contemporary papacies have identified the human person and the concomitant dignity of every human being made in the image of God.

The human person in our contemporary culture has a fluid spectrum of interpretation. Biblical precedents suggest a certain Judaeo-Christian hermeneutic while cultural mores reference alternatives. This course looks to explore the Roman Catholic tradition in identifying the graced human person and contemporary papal guidelines stressing the inherent dignity of the human person. Accordingly, time will be spent considering biblical foundations and questions posed by the text of Genesis and the Noahic covenant. Aquinas and key documents from Vatican II assist our exploration. The question of whether we are discerning the human person or designing humans arises. Identity and the sense of self are important issues raised with reference to both the Qumran community and the work of Charles Taylor. Hans Urs von Balthasa's reclaiming of personhood and the ecclesial person bridges into consideration of the way in which contemporary papacies have identified the human person and the concomitant dignity of every human being made in the image of God.

This course will consider the matters of sin and evil as they are accounted for in the Christian theological tradition. Subjects to be discussed will include: the place and manner of evil’s emergence, the question of original sin, the devil and demons, personal evil, systemic evil, the relation of sin and grace, sin and culpability, sin and the will, sin/evil and God (theodicy), and hell. A major theme of the course will be the necessity of understanding sin from the vantage point of its negation in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This seminar examines the scholastic approach to the history of philosophy exemplified by Etienne Gilson against the background of its foundation in the thought of Aristotle as it was appropriated by Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century. It examines the role that philosophy or theology's history plays in the conceptual constructions of scholastic thinkers, and what they think is truly first and deepest in the history they so study.

This course will examine techniques and strategies used for reading Old Testament narratives through history. Special attention will be given to interpretations of the following bad boys and bad girls: Adam and Eve; Sarah, Abraham, and Hagar; Dinah; Rahab; Deborah, Sisera and Jael; Jephthah and his daughter; Samson and Delilah; the Levite and his concubine; David and his family members. We will ask questions about how to read and interpret texts in the church today.

This course will examine techniques and strategies used for reading Old Testament narratives through history. Special attention will be given to interpretations of the following bad boys and bad girls: Adam and Eve; Sarah, Abraham, and Hagar; Dinah; Rahab; Deborah, Sisera and Jael; Jephthah and his daughter; Samson and Delilah; the Levite and his concubine; David and his family members. We will ask questions about how to read and interpret texts in the church today.