Course Catalogue 2025-2026

This course provides an introduction and overview to the core issues, approaches, and players in faith- based community development, within Canadian and international settings. This course is interactive, and learner-driven, and is designed for non-profit, church and NGO leaders and practitioners. This course helps students build a theoretical and practical platform for their engagement with neighbourhood wellbeing, community change, issues of justice, and organizational development.

This course introduces Emmanuel College Basic Degree students to the project of theological education in a multi-religious setting. Students will solidify the narratives of their professional and spiritual paths within a variety of spiritual-professional paths, build relationships with their cohort, and connect with faculty in small group settings. They will learn about their own spiritual/religious tradition while engaging several of other major religious/spiritual traditions (including Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism and traditional Indigenous understandings). They will consider their own and other spiritual/religious traditions through respective practices, yearly cycles and rituals. They will develop capacity in multi-religious cooperation and leadership in the public sphere. They will gain knowledge in intercultural competence and assess their own need for growth in this area. They will begin to develop their plan for spiritual/religious leadership in dialogue with classmates.

In this foundational pastoral course, participants will reflect on understandings of God's mission, the Church's part in that mission, and their own sense of call in relation to these. The course will draw on texts from Genesis, Isaiah, Luke and Romans, as well as patristic, liturgical, spiritual writings and sermonic writing. Examining the history of mission and the church, and contemporary congregational mission theory, we will consider alternative images and paradigms of mission. Lectures and book discussion sessions will seek to build participants' critical skills particularly in relation to conflict, healing, culture, pluriformity, and proclamation as part of mission. Participants will be required to meet and interview individuals involved in diverse forms of ministry in the community to develop their own vocational discernment and gain practical awareness of the issues, challenges and skills involved in a differing forms of Spirit-led developments as congregations seek to participate and live God's mission.

This course explores the practice of intercultural engagement within the framework of the Christian notion of the church as a diverse entity. It is designed to facilitate discussions on how churches can navigate diversity and fulfill the responsibilities of fostering healthy intercultural experiences within their communities. In light of the post-Christendom landscape, which has underscored cultural diversity as a fundamental characteristic of the church, the course also addresses broader issues such as framing identity relations, negotiating the unity-diversity dynamic, and developing sustainable practices for building relationships among diverse Christian congregations. Students will engage with theological frameworks to analyze models of gospel-culture relations, focusing on how these models can assist churches in addressing the cultural impacts on the Christian experiences of members from diverse backgrounds. Furthermore, the course will explore the categories of otherness and identity construction, particularly their roles in shaping migration discourse, their implications for the ethnic segmentation within ecclesial contexts, and the opportunities they present for envisioning intercommunal dialogues within the church and the larger the broader society.

This course explores the practice of intercultural engagement within the framework of the Christian notion of the church as a diverse entity. It is designed to facilitate discussions on how churches can navigate diversity and fulfill the responsibilities of fostering healthy intercultural experiences within their communities. In light of the post-Christendom landscape, which has underscored cultural diversity as a fundamental characteristic of the church, the course also addresses broader issues such as framing identity relations, negotiating the unity-diversity dynamic, and developing sustainable practices for building relationships among diverse Christian congregations. Students will engage with theological frameworks to analyze models of gospel-culture relations, focusing on how these models can assist churches in addressing the cultural impacts on the Christian experiences of members from diverse backgrounds. Furthermore, the course will explore the categories of otherness and identity construction, particularly their roles in shaping migration discourse, their implications for the ethnic segmentation within ecclesial contexts, and the opportunities they present for envisioning intercommunal dialogues within the church and the larger the broader society.

This course surveys the diverse ideals, practices, and traditions of Buddhism in its formative period in India. By reading primary and secondary sources central to Buddhism, we will examine key concepts, doctrines, and practices in the Theravada, Mahayana, and Tantric traditions. Having acquired a solid understanding of the history and doctrine of Buddhism, students will learn to apply these understandings to critically analyze contemporary issues from a Buddhist perspective.

In a post-Christian and multi-cultural society there is a growing need for interfaith leadership from spiritual leaders who are grounded in their own tradition but knowledgeable and respectful of the ways people experience God/Divine and/or adhere to diverse beliefs. Spiritual leaders are called upon to offer support and spiritual guidance to Individuals and with communities In times of crisis, distress, transition and celebration. This course recognizes the importance of developing the knowledge, skills and aptitude of students who study theology, spirituality and psychotherapy. In order to provide leadership through public prayer, ritual and or ceremony. These are now considered essential skills for people who find themselves as chaplains, spiritual care practitioners, religious congregational leaders, social service agency providers, psycho-spiritual therapist and para church workers. This course will help students to understand the current religious and spiritual landscape In Canada along with providing a brief foundation to the major religious and cultural groups In the GTA and across Canadian society. Students will learn about the importance of developing rituals and ceremonies to bring healing and hope. We will work to confront our own biases. Students will learn about the contexts of leadership and how to reflect theologically and spiritually upon our practice

A survey of selected topics from the 1983 Code of Canon Law: history, sources and structure of the Code; people of God; hierarchical structures in the Church; consecrated and apostolic life; teaching, sanctifying and governing functions in the Church; temporal goods; sanctions and processes in the Church.

A survey of selected topics from the 1983 Code of Canon Law: history, sources and structure of the Code; people of God; hierarchical structures in the Church; consecrated and apostolic life; teaching, sanctifying and governing functions in the Church; temporal goods; sanctions and processes in the Church.

This course is an introduction to the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), the most influential Catholic theologian of the last millennium. No previous knowledge of Aquinas or of philosophy is presumed. We will start by looking at Aquinas' program of remaking Christian theology in light of the best philosophy and science of his day; then we will examine his views on human action, human nature, human knowing and philosophical theology.

This an introduction to the main concepts and terminology developed by thinkers between the fifth and fourteenth centuries. Special attention is given to scholastic philosophy. We will cover topics such as the relation between faith and reason, the existence and nature of God, human life and happiness, virtue and vice, and the difference between divine and human law.

This an introduction to the main concepts and terminology developed by thinkers between the fifth and fourteenth centuries. Special attention is given to scholastic philosophy. We will cover topics such as the relation between faith and reason, the existence and nature of God, human life and happiness, virtue and vice, and the difference between divine and human law.