Previous Years' Course Catalogues

This course examines four temporally and culturally distinct examples of Christian thinking about God, self and world. It takes up one ancient, one medieval, one modern and one "postmodern" thinker and compares how they frame their thinking with respect to their scholarly world and the pre- and post-Christian elements characteristic of it. It compares their respective attempts to speak of the problematics signaled by the terms God, self and world: a. knowledge as religious, b. self as simultaneously divine image and part of a world of creatures, c. the social world as the field within which God, self and world intersect.

This course examines four temporally and culturally distinct examples of Christian thinking about God, self and world. It takes up one ancient, one medieval, one modern and one "postmodern" thinker and compares how they frame their thinking with respect to their scholarly world and the pre- and post-Christian elements characteristic of it. It compares their respective attempts to speak of the problematics signaled by the terms God, self and world: a. knowledge as religious, b. self as simultaneously divine image and part of a world of creatures, c. the social world as the field within which God, self and world intersect.

This advanced seminar will be grounded in a sociological study of ancient Israel as a basis for critical applications/appropriation of social world topics in contemporary contexts. Social scientific models have been used in biblical studies to describe, analyze and contextualize social realities such as: social groups (e.g., family, clan, tribe, elite classes); cultural relationships (e.g., honor/shame, marriage; debt servitude); patterns of behavior (e.g., sacrifice, prophecy, gender); political structures (e.g., monarchy, empire); political, economic and social change (e.g., emergence of states, changes in social stratification); historical eras (e.g., early Israel, Judah under Persian rule); and socially constructed realities (e.g., ethnicity, gender, language and rhetoric, symbolism). When practiced with post-modem and ideological criticisms, social scientific criticism also identifies the social context of the interpreter and the construction and use of models and interpretation of data in contemporary contexts and issues.
The first part of the course will cover methods and topics in the sociology of  ncient Israel, reading in the literature of social scientific criticism in the last three decades in Hebrew Bible studies. We will study the impact of social scientific  methods on Biblical research and interpretation, including perspectives that emerged in biblical studies across disciplines with literary, feminist, ideological, liberation theology, and global hermeneutical approaches. We will consider heuristic models for appropriating and critiquing insights from the study of ancient social worlds in contemporary applications. In the second half of the course, each student will give a seminar presentation that reviews one of the topics of the social world of the HB. The final research paper assigned will use a social scientific reading of an HB text to create a hermeneutic for appropriation of ancient data, and suggest connections to a contemporary social issue. Contemporary issues for student research focus can include gender, feminism, land, ecology, stratification, cities, community, empire and resistance, etc.

Study of the covenant formulary as a key to unfolding the synthesis of covenant theology represented in the Book of Deuteronomy. Major essay.

We shall discuss the origin and nature of evil by engaging various biblical, theological, and anthropological resources. Topics will include lament literature (e.g. Job), natural evil, idolatry and the demonic, original sin and the correlation between victim and agent, and the relationship between justice and mercy. The course will consist of seminars in which participants will engage key readings relevant to the practice of interdisciplinary theology.

In this interdisciplinary theology seminar, we shall probe the origin and nature of evil by engaging key biblical, philosophical, psychological, and anthropological resources. Central to our discussions will be a sapiential (wisdom-oriented) re-reading of the Fall narrative of Genesis 3–4, set against the backdrop of the good, yet largely wild, creation of Genesis 1–2. In addition to surveying a variety of contemporary theodicies read up against the challenge offered by both “protest atheism” and the biblical lament literature (especially the book of Job), we shall also pay special attention to the correlation between victim and agent in the ongoing dynamics to “original sin” and to the concomitant role of fear in the construction of culture. In attending to evil’s (arguably) anthropocentric origin as a key to its present nature—which will prompt us to revisit our understanding of the primordial conditions of possibility along with the largely overlooked biblical connections between the Satan and the absolutization (and denaturing) of Justice—we shall also look ahead, via pondering the relationship between law and grace, to the promise of a (divine and human) judgment unto salvation.

We shall discuss the origin and nature of evil by engaging various biblical, theological, and anthropological resources. Topics will include lament literature (e.g. Job), natural evil, idolatry and the demonic, original sin and the correlation between victim and agent, and the relationship between justice and mercy. The course will consist of seminars in which participants will engage key readings relevant to the practice of interdisciplinary theology.

We shall discuss the origin and nature of evil by engaging various biblical, theological, and anthropological resources. Topics will include lament literature (e.g. Job), natural evil, idolatry and the demonic, original sin and the correlation between victim and agent, and the relationship between justice and mercy. The course will consist of seminars in which participants will engage key readings relevant to the practice of interdisciplinary theology.

The presence of trauma in the world and in the sanctuary demands a response. Preachers are invited to become more trauma-sensitive and trauma-informed. This course will address themes of trauma at the intersection of homiletic theory, theological studies and trauma theory. Participants will explore the meaning of trauma, the various ways it impacts congregational life, and the manner in which preachers can respond effectively and pastorally to situations where trauma shapes the experience of listeners. Looking to scripture for guidance this course will navigate themes such as intergenerational trauma, memory, imagination, and hope. Participants will come away with a deeper understanding of the impact of trauma on pastoral ministry, strategies for preaching, and new vocabularies for naming God's presence and action in the world.

The presence of trauma in the world and in the sanctuary demands a response. Preachers are invited to become more trauma-sensitive and trauma-informed. This course will address themes of trauma at the intersection of homiletic theory, theological studies and trauma theory. Participants will explore the meaning of trauma, the various ways it impacts congregational life, and the manner in which preachers can respond effectively and pastorally to situations where trauma shapes the experience of listeners. Looking to scripture for guidance this course will navigate themes such as intergenerational trauma, memory, imagination, and hope. Participants will come away with a deeper understanding of the impact of trauma on pastoral ministry, strategies for preaching, and new vocabularies for naming God’s presence and action in the world

This course will engage students in preaching in relation to race and racism. Perspectives from critical race and postcolonial theories will be studied. Students will develop strategies for anti-racist preaching in relation to scriptural interpretation, contextual analysis and community engagement.

This course will engage students in preaching in relation to race and racism. Perspectives from critical race and postcolonial theories will be studied. Students will develop strategies for anti-racist preaching in relation to scriptural interpretation, contextual analysis and community engagement.