Previous Years' Course Catalogues

This course is primarily designed to improve student preaching through exposure to one of the strongest preaching traditions today. African American preaching varies widely and combines evangelical fervour with social cocern. It will be considered against the backdrop of black history and culture, theology of the Word, hermeneutics, compsoing for oral delivery, and homiletical theory and practice. This is not a course in how to preach as an African American, or in imitating the voice, gesture, or style of a culture not one's own; it is designed to stretch preachers beyond what may be familiar to help them to be more bold and imaginative in proclamation of the gospel, and to offer resources to develop their own preaching voice and style. The course will consist of video and audio clips, lectures, seminar presentations and class sermons. Evaluation: class presentations and seminar, 10%; two sermons, 70%; journal of reflections on readings and sermons, 20%.

Literature in classical and contemporary rhetoric and poetics with a view to more imaginative preaching.

Literature in classical and contemporary rhetoric and poetics with a view to more imaginative preaching.

Literature in classical and contemporary rhetoric and poetics with a view to more imaginative preaching. Lectures, seminars, essay, sermons, class presentation.

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.

Close reading of selected Psalms, according to these categories: a. Psalms in the OT that appear in the NT; b. key psalms within the structure of the Psalter; c. imprecatory psalms; d. popular psalms that do not appear in the NT. Tasks: a. Original language work in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, b. Reading (in translation) of the reception history of the Psalms, including the use of the Psalms in the NT, also c. chiefly Diodore and Theodore, Origen, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Jerome, Augustine, Aquinas, Rashi, Calvin, Luther, moderns, and d. Selected readings in hermeneutics, including Frei. Teaching Method -- two weekly seminars, with readings for discussion and analysis of the primary sources. Means of evaluation -- one major paper to be submitted at the end of the term.

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.

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.

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. In 2010, 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.

he church in many quarters has lost the ability to communicate with the cultures around it. The problem in part may be modernism, not postmodernism. Students will be encouraged creatively to engage cultures through theological engagement with the news and with two sets of arts: the arts needed to proclaim the gospel (often beyond the biblical text) and the arts of using cultural arts paintings, sculpture, dance, architecture, movies, and theatre) and artifacts in the sermon. This class will function as a preaching seminar and laboratory where discussions will cover required readings, writing assignments, and issues raised in class.

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.