Previous Years' Course Catalogues

This seminar will explore the special relationship of the arts to the concept of the imagination in the history of Western thought. It will also consider the implications this relationship was had for art's role in the areas of theology and ethics, areas in which reason has been thought to fail in providing adequate knowledge.

No serious philosopher after Kant has been able to avoid his critique of metaphysical speculations about God, the soul, and the meaning of existence. The horrors of recent history give added urgency to such questions. Theodor W. Adorno has posed these issues in dramatic and decisive ways. This seminar studies his reflections in Negative Dialectics on the status of metaphysics "after Auschwitz."

After the Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan in 313 CE, Christianity was supported by the whole apparatus of the Roman empire. This course explores how the movement survived and even thrived before that point. We will examine the challenges of life in urban centers of the empire using social scientific models and material evidence from this initial period to assess the ways in which the practices and forms of Christ movement were adapted to address these challenges and sometimes not well adapted. Along the way we will assess the state of scholarship on the "success” of early Christianity to consider alternative ways of formulating the questions it asks. Our topics will include ritual and affect, economic factors (like housing and status), social organization, health care, attitudes to suffering and the body, and ideas that helped to make life meaningful and navigable. 

This course explores the current fascination with the writings of Paul among non-Christian thinkers engaged in the study of political theology.

This course explores the current fascination with the writings of Paul among non-Christian thinkers engaged in the study of political theology.

This course will explore the different interpretations of religion emerging from the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School. First generation thinkers in this school understood religion, especially Judaism and Christianity, to be integral to modern social and cultural evolution. Religion must be studied, they felt, because it can both display forms of pathological socialization and yet be a resource for a critique of, and eventual emancipation from, oppressive social realities. After exploring key writings of the first generation of Critical Theorists, the course will examine Jürgen Habermas's evolving appreciation of religious contributions to social justice and conclude with a selection of readings on the continued relevance of religious voices in the public sphere from such third generation Critical Theorists as Seyla Benhabib and Nancy Fraser.

An examination of key issues for the understanding of the letter of James: authorship, date, historical setting, genre, manuscript tradition, and attestation. The course situates James in the context of various wisdom literatures and philosophical discourse. The focus of the course is Jewish and early Christian life in the Judaean diaspora.

This course is an introduction to Christian apologetics and its relationship to evangelism. The course will teach the biblical, theological and historical foundations of Christian apologetics. Additionally, the course will serve as a primer of cultural exegesis and cultural hermeneutics, the goal of which is to equip students with the critical analytical tools to engage contemporary of cultural issues as the relate to matters of faith. Topics include comparative worldview, science and faith, secularism, aesthetics and ethics. Through required and recommended readings, group discussions and lectures the student will gain a clearer understanding of how to navigate and respond pastorally to some of today ' s most challenging issues while at the same time formulating a cohesive Christian response to them.

This course examines the ways in which Pauline Christians and their successors in the cities of the Empire formed communities for the support and nurture of their faith and way of life. It will examine the models they adopted for communities, the ways in which they defined their ethos and set the limits of community, the ways in which outsiders viewed the emerging churches, and the internal challenges they faced.

This course examines the ways in which Pauline Christians and their successors in the cities of the Empire formed communities for the support and nurture of their faith and way of life. It will examine the models they adopted for communities, the ways in which they defined their ethos and set the limits of community, the ways in which outsiders viewed the emerging churches, and the internal challenges they faced.

This course examines the ways in which Pauline Christians and their successors in the cities of the Empire formed communities for the support and nurture of their faith and way of life. It will examine the models they adopted for communities, the ways in which they defined their ethos and set the limits of community, the ways in which outsiders viewed the emerging churches, and the internal challenges they faced.

The course will have three sections: First under the heading ‘A plan for Reform’ we will examine the practical problem of grace in the 16th and 17th cc: salvation, mission to non-christians, bible and prayer, and ecclesial integrity. This becomes specific in the matter of the reform of the convent of Port-Royal and the emergence of the Petites Écoles and their writings of a spiritual and pedagogical nature. The matter of rigorism, with Antoine Arnaud following St Cyran leads to a treatment of matters in the second section: theologies of grace. This will start with the state of post-Tridentine theology, at Leuven in particular. Jansenius’ Augustinus 1640 will be understood as emerging from within these debates. The development of the themes of human sin, infinity and grace will be considered through the lens of the famous works of Blaise Pascal. The third section will cover the outworking of theological themes in terms of biblical translation and figural interpretation, catechisms, forms of spirituality (including theatre), the miraculous and continuing opposition to the Jansenist movement in response to its political vision.