Course Catalogue 2025-2026

This required first-year course for doctoral students deals with fundamental aspects of advanced research and scholarship. Students will (1) formulate their research problem for SSHRC or another granting agency in relation to relevant interdisciplinary scholarly approaches and theological sub-disciplines; (2) discuss how to identify relevant evidence and engage with relevant research methods; (3) communicate knowledge effectively in an academic, ecumenical, and multireligious context through class presentations; and (4) demonstrate an openness to dialoguing with, and learning from, people from communities, whose beliefs and practices are different from their own in their first-year cohort and with guest presenters from across the TST.

This course aims at a critical understanding of the theoretical base that informs the current practice of ministry. Theories of ministry and their practical consequences in the contemporary church are discussed.

This course aims at a critical understanding of the theoretical base that informs the current practice of ministry. Theories of ministry and their practical consequences in the contemporary church are discussed.

We all leave doctoral studies as experts in our fields and walk into classrooms full of non-expert students. What now? This course addresses the relationship between subject knowledge and teaching. Topics include issues related to course design and delivery (e.g., syllabus construction, assignments, development of outcomes; objectives) as well as to broader pedagogical issues (e.g., education for [trans]formation, relationships between classroom and context, professional identity).

This course gives an overview of qualitative research methods in light of the students' respective research theology and design. It is focused on the elaboration of the DMin thesis proposal.

This course gives an overview of qualitative research methods in light of the students' respective research theology and design. It is focused on the elaboration of the DMin thesis proposal.

This course explores the theological, philosophical, and historical contributions of Maximus the Confessor. Students will engage with Maximus’s theological and philosophical sources, his historical context, and examine his influence in the Christian theological tradition. Through critical analysis of texts and discussion, participants will gain a deeper understanding of Maximus’s role in synthesizing prior Christian authors and shaping subsequent Christian theological discourse.

The prophetic book of Isaiah has been enormously influential in shaping Judaism and Christianity. The course considers the various ways in which the role of prophecy evolved in the post-exilic period, with Isaiah as a test case. The course will focus on the exilic and post-exilic expansion of the book of Isaiah and the deployment of Isaiah traditions in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament. Several questions will provide a central focus: How is authorship, whether written or oral, related to prophecy during the Persian and Greco-Roman eras? How do understandings of the figure of Isaiah change over time? What difference does it make whether Isaianic discourse is cited explicitly as opposed to alluded to implicitly? Which aspects of Isaiah made it particularly popular at Qumran and in the New Testament?

Explores Christian Kenosis as an expression of the unconditional love of God made known in Christ. Here the mutual relations of self-giving in the Trinity may be reflected in the lives of human persons. Of key significance is Hans Urs von Balthasar's appreciation of the paschal mystery. Also in dialogue are: Sarah Coakley, John Paul II and Thomas Merton.

This course examines questions of gender, sexuality, embodiment, and power in the Hebrew Bible and texts from Second Temple Judaism. Several biblical and Hellenistic-period texts are used to explore these epistemological and methodological questions. Students will learn various theoretical approaches such as feminist, womanist, masculinity studies, and queer theory, from scholars both inside and outside of biblical studies. These approaches will be paired with a close reading of a variety of texts from the Hebrew Bible and early Jewish literature. Collaborative and decentering frameworks will be front and centre in both course material and pedagogy.

This course will examine how Christians and Christian traditions have understood and justified the first “mark of the Church”, her unity. This will include an examination of the historical constraints on such understandings. Key writings from the early Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Western traditions (Catholic and Protestant), and ecumenical authors will be read. In addition, some political and philosophical discussions of the nature of consent and consensus will be covered.

This seminar will introduce students to the thought of Lutheran theologian Robert Jenson, whose work is marked by a peculiar combination of scriptural depth, speculative power, and ecumenical scope. Students will explore Jenson’s major theological and philosophical influences, including his early formation in the school of Bultmann and his decisive encounter with the thought of Karl Barth. Particular attention will be paid to Jenson’s revisionary metaphysics, by which he sought to overcome the “unbaptized god” of Hellenism with the radically temporal God of the gospel. Other topics to be considered are Jenson’s views on the sacraments; his ecumenical engagements, grounded in his “evangelically catholic” understanding of the Reformation; and his late turn toward the figural and allegorical reading of Scripture. The primary text for the course will be Jenson’s two-part Systematic Theology, with occasional forays into his early writings (especially Story and Promise and Visible Words) as well as his commentaries on Ezekiel and the Song of Songs.