Course Catalogue 2026-2027

This course explores engaged Buddhist ethics and practice with a focus on interdependence – specifically, how this ethic of inter-mutuality informs engaged Buddhist approaches to human rights, peacebuilding, racial, gender, social, and environmental justice, and inter- and intra-faith dialogue in Asian and non-Asian contexts. The course materials are contemporary, intersectional, and diverse, and draw on academic and non-academic resources, as well as local, grassroots, and global initiatives. In addition to weekly group meetings and discussions, there will also be an opportunity to integrate individual interests in student research papers as well as individual and group presentations and projects.

This course is an exploration of the following themes in the light of Christian revelation: creation, the human person, sin, grace, and eschatology.

This course is an exploration of the following themes in the light of Christian revelation: creation, the human person, sin, grace, and eschatology.

This course introduces students to the spiritual, theological, professional and ethical foundations of Christian mission and ministry. Through a careful consideration of the sources of ministry including Scripture, the teaching of the magisterium, and religious congregational documents, the course invites students to forge and live out a theology of ministry enabling lifelong service in the current ecumenical, interreligious and postmodern context. Key aspects of ministry such as calling, discernment, formation, basic skills/competencies and ethical principles will be addressed. The relationship of ministry to other areas of theology, such as Christology, pneumatology, grace, mission, ecclesiology, and the sacraments, will also be considered.

This course introduces Humanistic Buddhism as a modern Buddhist movement that integrates classical Buddhist wisdom with contemporary ethical, social, and cultural concerns. Drawing on Mahayana Buddhism and Chinese Buddhist traditions, especially Chan Buddhism, and informed by comparative philosophy and theology, the course examines how Buddhist concepts such as compassion, nonduality, emptiness, and moral cultivation are rearticulated for lived practice in the modern world. Particular attention is given to the thought and practice of Humanistic Buddhism as articulated by contemporary figures, including Hsing Yun, and its engagement with education, social responsibility, interreligious dialogue, and global ethics. Students will critically explore how Buddhist thought functions not only as doctrine, but as a transformative framework for personal formation and social engagement.

This course introduces Humanistic Buddhism as a modern Buddhist movement that integrates classical Buddhist wisdom with contemporary ethical, social, and cultural concerns. Drawing on Mahayana Buddhism and Chinese Buddhist traditions, especially Chan Buddhism, and informed by comparative philosophy and theology, the course examines how Buddhist concepts such as compassion, nonduality, emptiness, and moral cultivation are rearticulated for lived practice in the modern world. Particular attention is given to the thought and practice of Humanistic Buddhism as articulated by contemporary figures, including Hsing Yun, and its engagement with education, social responsibility, interreligious dialogue, and global ethics. Students will critically explore how Buddhist thought functions not only as doctrine, but as a transformative framework for personal formation and social engagement.

This course focuses on personal contemplative prayer as essential for our relationship with God and the soil out of which healthy and effective ministry grows. The course covers Biblical teaching on prayer; the contemplative tradition arising from the early desert fathers and mothers; spirituality, theology and psychology of prayer; and various Christian traditions of prayer including lectio divina, Ignatian prayer, other forms of scripture prayer, centering prayer, Christian meditation, and the awareness examen. The course concludes with suggestions for planting and growing a prayer-based parish ministry. The course is offered at the SSJD convent in North York.

This course explores the relationship between religion, health, healing, and community well-being through a decolonial lens. Students examine how Indigenous, African, and Abrahamic traditions understand health not simply as a medical or biological condition, but as an expression of cosmology, relationality, land-based practice, and spiritual continuity. Drawing on public health frameworks, Indigenous health models, place-based epistemologies, and decolonial critique, the course investigates how colonialism in the Americas and Africa reshaped spiritual and medical landscapes—marginalizing traditional healing practices, severing communities from land and ceremony, and creating enduring health inequities. Through the methodological thread of storying, students analyze how communities narrate illness, suffering, resilience, and healing; how religion functions as a social determinant of health; and how the colonial vs. communal gaze shapes health-seeking behaviour, public policy, and collective flourishing. The course equips students to envision what healing and community flourishing looks like beyond empire-building aspirations—rooted in cosmology, community, and the interconnectedness of all life.

This course explores the relationship between religion, health, healing, and community well-being through a decolonial lens. Students examine how Indigenous, African, and Abrahamic traditions understand health not simply as a medical or biological condition, but as an expression of cosmology, relationality, land-based practice, and spiritual continuity. Drawing on public health frameworks, Indigenous health models, place-based epistemologies, and decolonial critique, the course investigates how colonialism in the Americas and Africa reshaped spiritual and medical landscapes—marginalizing traditional healing practices, severing communities from land and ceremony, and creating enduring health inequities. Through the methodological thread of storying, students analyze how communities narrate illness, suffering, resilience, and healing; how religion functions as a social determinant of health; and how the colonial vs. communal gaze shapes health-seeking behaviour, public policy, and collective flourishing. The course equips students to envision what healing and community flourishing looks like beyond empire-building aspirations—rooted in cosmology, community, and the interconnectedness of all life.

This course is a survey of the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles in their historical and religious background with attention to hermeneutics, the patristic exegetical heritage, and modern biblical studies. The Gospels and Acts will be read in their entirety, along with other early Christian texts and literature from the same period, commentaries by church fathers and writings by scholars and theologians through to our day. Students will explore these texts as among the most important literature of first-century Judaism, examining them within the wider corpus of Second Temple Jewish writings. The course will introduce critical tools and methodological approaches which make exegesis possible, encountering modern historical-critical methods as well as critiques and alternatives offered from narrative and other post-critical approaches. Patristic, mediaeval, Reformation, and contemporary interpretations will be placed in productive dialogue, allowing these diverse perspectives to counter-inform each other and effectively resource preaching and ministry today. Recent "within Judaism" scholarship will inform the course throughout.

This course is a survey of the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles in their historical and religious background with attention to hermeneutics, the patristic exegetical heritage, and modern biblical studies. The Gospels and Acts will be read in their entirety, along with other early Christian texts and literature from the same period, commentaries by church fathers and writings by scholars and theologians through to our day. Students will explore these texts as among the most important literature of first-century Judaism, examining them within the wider corpus of Second Temple Jewish writings. The course will introduce critical tools and methodological approaches which make exegesis possible, encountering modern historical-critical methods as well as critiques and alternatives offered from narrative and other post-critical approaches. Patristic, mediaeval, Reformation, and contemporary interpretations will be placed in productive dialogue, allowing these diverse perspectives to counter-inform each other and effectively resource preaching and ministry today. Recent "within Judaism" scholarship will inform the course throughout.

This course is a survey of the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles in their historical and religious background with attention to hermeneutics, the patristic exegetical heritage, and modern biblical studies. The Gospels and Acts will be read in their entirety, along with other early Christian texts and literature from the same period, commentaries by church fathers and writings by scholars and theologians through to our day. Students will explore these texts as among the most important literature of first-century Judaism, examining them within the wider corpus of Second Temple Jewish writings. The course will introduce critical tools and methodological approaches which make exegesis possible, encountering modern historical-critical methods as well as critiques and alternatives offered from narrative and other post-critical approaches. Patristic, mediaeval, Reformation, and contemporary interpretations will be placed in productive dialogue, allowing these diverse perspectives to counter-inform each other and effectively resource preaching and ministry today. Recent "within Judaism" scholarship will inform the course throughout.