Course Catalogue 2025-2026

A study of human sexuality, love, marriage and select related issues in light of Catholic anthropology and the Catholic moral tradition.

A study of human sexuality, love, marriage and select related issues in light of Catholic anthropology and the Catholic moral tradition.

A study of human sexuality, love, marriage and select related issues in light of Catholic anthropology and the Catholic moral tradition.

A study of human sexuality, love, marriage and select related issues in light of Catholic anthropology and the Catholic moral tradition.

This course seeks to provide both an historical and a systematic overview of the development of social ethics within the Catholic tradition, noting major themes in the tradition. The course presumes that one has completed at least an introductory course in Christian ethics at the graduate level. The purpose of the course is to assist students in forming moral arguments, engaging discussions on emerging issues, and placing debates within their historical context, including their contemporary context. All students will at the end of the course be expected to have a firm grasp of the ethical teaching of the Church, including knowledge of key magisterial documents, as well as how to apply them to situations they will face in their ministerial context. While the course will attend to major magisterial works chronologically, it will engage the issues raised by those texts as they developed over time. For example, Pope John's encyclical, Pacem in Terris, will be linked with growing attention to human rights as a foundation for world peace.

This unit explores lgnatian mystical spirituality as a resource for the construction of religious narratives that contribute to intentional, social transformation in a post-secular context. Drawing principally on the lgnatian appropriation of monastic adaptation of rhetoric in the practice of mental prayer and the narrative theory of Paul Ricoeur, the course engages contemporary social theory to address issues of racism and other forms of systematic injustice. Students develop a transdisciplinary approach to ecological, social, cultural and ecclesial reconciliation. They also develop an understanding of the evolution of a religious and cultural recognition of the autonomous rights of indigenous peoples. Elements of recognition theory and transitional justice are introduced through a discussion of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Indian Residential Schools. Authors include: Marie Battiste, Judith Butler, Glen Sean Coulthard, Cynthia Crysdale, Nancy Fraser, Priscilla Hayner, Axel Honneth, Bernard Lonergan, Ronald Niezen, Paul Ricoeur, and Charles Taylor.

This course offers an introduction to Catholic Social Teaching (CST). Drawing principally on magisterial sources, it will survey the main themes of CST, including: the dignity of the human person and the principles of CST, the family, human work, economic life, the political community, the environment, war, and peace.

This course offers an introduction to Catholic Social Teaching (CST). Drawing principally on magisterial sources, it will survey the main themes of CST, including: the dignity of the human person and the principles of CST, the family, human work, economic life, the political community, the environment, war, and peace.

A practical and theoretical in-depth critical analysis of some of the most difficult contemporary ethical dilemmas humanity faces today. This course builds on the tools, skills, and insights gained in the introduction to Ethics courses. Students will engage in critical discussion and dialogue with their classmates, drawing on the wisdom of their own cultural and religious traditions. Students will gain crucial skills in dealing with ethical issues and gain insight into the main themes and specific methodologies other religious traditions offer to the study of ethics. Particular attention will be paid to examining the ethical issues that arise in relation to human identity (class, race and ethnicity, dis/ability, gender and sexuality, etc.) as well as other critical contemporary ethical issues like Indigeneity, neo/colonialism, interfaith/interculturality, and food sovereignty.

A practical and theoretical in-depth critical analysis of some of the most difficult contemporary ethical dilemmas humanity faces today. This course builds on the tools, skills, and insights gained in the introduction to Ethics courses. Students will engage in critical discussion and dialogue with their classmates, drawing on the wisdom of their own cultural and religious traditions. Students will gain crucial skills in dealing with ethical issues and gain insight into the main themes and specific methodologies other religious traditions offer to the study of ethics. Particular attention will be paid to examining the ethical issues that arise in relation to human identity (class, race and ethnicity, dis/ability, gender and sexuality, etc.) as well as other critical contemporary ethical issues like Indigeneity, neo/colonialism, interfaith/interculturality, and food sovereignty.

The course will consider issues, documents, and ethical methods that will help the student to develop an understanding of the ecological crisis as well as ethical and theological responses to it. The limitations of a human-centered ethics, the need for an ecological justice that incorporates human justice, the implications of climate change, and the various Christian responses to the environmental issues are some of the topics that will be considered in the course.

This course in social and political theology explores the tension between the theological concepts of forgiveness, reconciliation, and justice. How does one, or should one, forgive those who have committed unjust and terrible crimes? To what extent must justice be retributive? This analysis of the difficult work of reconciliation gives particular attention to how the churches in Rwanda, Northern Ireland, and South Africa have wrestled with this issue in their own social and political contexts. Attention is also given to Canada's TRC process with indigenous peoples and the concept of "Restorative Justice." The course will explore the complexity involved in the relationship between violence and forgiveness, particularly as this relates to the concept of Justice in Christian ethics, an understanding of community, and the formation of the moral subject. Some attention will be given to the emotional and spiritual tensions that individuals face when confronted with the complexities involved in living through periods of conflict and reconciliation.