Previous Years' Course Catalogues

The course will introduce students to the text of Galatians and to issues surrounding its interpretation. A range of scholarly debates about Galatians will be introduced, reflecting the significance of the letter for
understanding Paul’s theology, especially his soteriology (justification by faith, participation in Christ), his ecclesiology (Jews and Gentiles as one people of God), and his engagement with Judaism and the law.
Attention will also be paid to the historical issues surrounding the date and destination of Galatians and to reconstructions of the crisis that prompted Galatians, especially the identity of Paul’s opponents. Other issues to be explored include Paul’s use of Scripture and the work of the Spirit in the life of the church. This course also aims to assist students in appreciating the relevance of Galatians for contemporary contexts.

The course will introduce students to the text of Galatians and to issues surrounding its interpretation. A range of scholarly debates about Galatians will be introduced, reflecting the significance of the letter for
understanding Paul’s theology, especially his soteriology (justification by faith, participation in Christ), his ecclesiology (Jews and Gentiles as one people of God), and his engagement with Judaism and the law.
Attention will also be paid to the historical issues surrounding the date and destination of Galatians and to reconstructions of the crisis that prompted Galatians, especially the identity of Paul’s opponents. Other issues to be explored include Paul’s use of Scripture and the work of the Spirit in the life of the church. This course also aims to assist students in appreciating the relevance of Galatians for contemporary contexts.

God is back', on the streets of a liberal democracy near you. But the return of public religion- its 'deprivatisation' - is generating deep anxieties among secularists who have long assumed that liberal democracy presupposes a 'secular state' and a religion-free public realm. Christians, too, are scrambling to make sense of the new but shifting spaces opening up for their own faith-based political engagement. Drawing on salient insights of contemporary political theology, the course will confront the challenges to, and opportunities for, the secular state presented by the resurgence of public religion in liberal democracies. It explores various concepts of 'secularism', 'secularization', 'the secular' and the 'post-secular', probes the nature and legitimacy of religious public reasoning, and reflects on the shape of constructive and critical religious citizenship in contemporary liberal states.

This course explores issues in the philosophy of religion, with special reference to The Brothers Karamazov. Major themes include: the existence and nature of God, religious language, religious experience, faith and reason, the problem of evil, religion and morality, and afterlife beliefs. Readings include Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov and selections from theologians and philosophers of religion.

This course explores issues in the philosophy of religion, with special reference to The Brothers Karamazov. Major themes include: the existence and nature of God, religious language, religious experience, faith and reason, the problem of evil, religion and morality, and afterlife beliefs. Readings include Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov and selections from theologians and philosophers of religion. Lectures, discussion, participation, and critical reflection papers.

This course explores issues in the philosophy of religion, with special reference to The Brothers Karamazov. Major themes include: the existence and nature of God, religious language, religious experience, faith and reason, the problem of evil, religion and morality, and afterlife beliefs. Readings include Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov and selections from theologians and philosophers of religion.

This course explores issues in the philosophy of religion, with special reference to The Brothers Karamazov. Major themes include: the existence and nature of God, religious language, religious experience, faith and reason, the problem of evil, religion and morality, and afterlife beliefs. Readings include Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov and selections from theologians and philosophers of religion.

This course explores issues in the philosophy of religion, with special reference to The Brothers Karamazov. Major themes include: the existence and nature of God, religious language, religious experience, faith and reason, the problem of evil, religion and morality, and afterlife beliefs. Readings include Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov and selections from theologians and philosophers of religion.

This course will provide students with an understanding of leadership in the context of a missional church. It will present and examine characteristics of the missional identity combined with reflection and exploration of its implications for leadership. Students will be exposed to the skills required of effective leaders in a post-modern, post-Christendom context. Students will be asked to read extensively, to engage a congregational and leader analysis, and to articulate an understanding of leadership in the contemporary parish.

This course will provide students with an understanding of leadership in the context of a missional church. It will present and examine characteristics of the missional identity combined with reflection and exploration of its implications for leadership. Students will be exposed to the skills required of effective leaders in a post-modern, post-Christendom context. Students will be asked to read extensively, to engage a congregational and leader analysis, and to articulate an understanding of leadership in the contemporary parish. This course will combine lectures, discussions, congregational analysis, and in-class presentations.

Paul's letter to the Romans is seen by many as the centrepiece of his epistles, providing a summary of his theology and the key to his thought. We will, however, read Romans as a thoroughly situational letter, written to communities shaped by the culture and beliefs of imperial Rome, struggling not only with their own social contexts, but also with the place of Judeans and the story of Israel in their midst. The social status of the believing communities in Rome, as well as the social dislocation of many residents of Rome will provide a context for reading Romans from below, as a letter to communities struggling with what it means to be faithful in a context of slavery, poverty and violent distrust of the stranger.