Doctoral Program
Courses
The Department of Theology offers a wide variety of courses at the graduate level each semester. Our courses are led by prominent scholars who embrace teaching and welcome graduate students into our dynamic community.
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Ph.D. Course Descriptions - Fall 2008
(Courses and dates/times subject to change w/o notice. All courses are 3 credit-hours unless otherwise noted.)
Theo 83001 Intermediate Hebrew
CRN# 14220
D.Machiela
MW, 3:00-4:15
The primary focus of this course is on reading the text of the Hebrew Bible, at first prose narratives, then poetic sections and consonantal (unpointed) texts.
There will be a review of the grammar of Biblical Hebrew, as well as development of vocabulary and skills in using lexicons and concordances of the Hebrew Bible. There will be quizzes, a mid-term, and a final exam. Elementary Hebrew is required.
Theo 83003 Advanced Greek
CRN# 13484
M.R. D’Angelo
T, 3:30-6:00
This course is designed to assist students achieve a high level of reading proficiency in Greek texts of the Roman imperial period.. Readings will include material from the NT as well as other Greek writers of the period, including ancient Christian and Jewish writer, as well as reviews of vocabulary, syntax and forms.
Theo 83004 Advanced Hebrew
CRN# 14485
A.Winitzer
MW, 3:00-4:15
A reading-level course intended and designed for students who have successfully completed elementary- and intermediate-level courses in (Biblical) Hebrew. The aim of a reading-level course is to review what already has been completed and also to glance at what lies ahead. This indeed is our task. We shall do so by reviewing and polishing grammatical skills and vocabulary, while at the same time encountering new challenges in the study of Hebrew. Specifically, we will concern ourselves with the development of the language in the post-Biblical period, and devote ourselves to the study of the language as reflected in main
body of literature from this period: Rabbinics. As such we will spend a considerable amount of our time on the Hebrew of the Mishnah, but also that of the early Midrashim, taking particular note of the appearance of new lexemes and grammatical forms, as well as the disappearance of others, stalwarts of the Biblical period. Students will be encouraged to (re-)visit the question of the status of Mishnaic, and by extension Rabbinic, Hebrew, and to evaluate the merit of traditional delineations in modern taxonomy of the Hebrew language.
Theo 83006 Aramaic
CRN# 15986
A. Winitzer
MW, 4:30-5:45
An introduction to the grammar of one dialect of Standard Literary Aramaic, viz., that represented in the Targum of Onqelos. Toward this goal we will work through the (yet unpublished) grammar by T. Lambdin and J. Huehnergard . An Introduction to the Aramaic of Targum Onqelos_ (Cambridge, MA 2002). In addition, attention will be paid to the place of Aramaic within the Semitic-language family, especially by way of a(n inductively based) comparison of the Aramaic material with that found other Semitic languages, especially Hebrew.
Theo 83007 Elementary Akkadian I
CRN# 16156
A. Winitzer
TR, 9:30-10:45
The first in a twosemester sequence, this course provides an introduction to the grammar of Akkadian, specifically the Old Babylonian dialect of that language. Toward this goal we will work through the masterful grammar by J. Huehnergard, A Grammar of Akkadian, 2nd edition (Eisenbrauns, 2005), and make use of that volume’s answer key: Key to A Grammar of Akkadian 2nd edition (Eisenbrauns, 2005). Via the grammar and its exercises we will begin to familiarize ourselves with the some of the genres of writings from Mesopotamian civilization, a “stream of tradition” whose legacy can hardly be overestimated for students of later Near Eastern cultures and literatures. Readings will include selections from contracts and other legal/administrative texts, laws, letters, omens, royal inscriptions, prayers, and epics. Finally, we will also pay attention to the place of Akkadian wit hin the Semiticlanguage family, especially by way of a(n inductively based) comparison of the Akkadian material with that found other Semitic languages, especially Hebrew.
Theo 83102 Hebrew Bible Seminar: The Earliest Interpretations of Genesis
CRN# 10787
J. VanderKam
M, 12:50-3:50
The seminar will be center on a study of the Book of Jubilees as an interpretation of Genesis. Employing Jubilees as a base text, the members of the seminar will also study how its interpretations compare with material in other sources such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, the pseudepigrapha, Philo, Josephus, the New Testament, and midrashic texts.
Theo 83110 NT Seminar: The Apocalypse of John
CRN# 17967
D. Aune
W, 1:55-4:55
This seminar will include a close reading of the Greek text of the Apocalypse of John with a focus on text critical problems, grammatical issues and problems and the literary structure of the text. In addition, the seminar will explore the historical and literary context in which the Apocalypse of John arose (with emphasis on the apocalyptic genre), the major interpretive problems that are found in the text and the theological contribution and effects of the Apocalypse on Christianity in the early patristic period. Each student will be expected to write a term paper on a significant issue involving the interpretation of the Apocalypse.
Theo 83209 The Theology of Soren Kierkegaard
CRN# 17968
R. Zachman
M, 12:50-3:50
Soren Kierkegaard is best known for the writings he published during what he called his "first authorship," which include many works published by pseudonyms, such as Fear and Trembling and Philosophical Fragments. The first authorship came to an end with the publication of Concluding Unscientific Postscript, after which Kierkegaard had resolved to write no more. However, with his publication in the same year of A Literary Review: Two Ages, a Novel by the Author of a Story of Everyday Life, combined with the personal suffering created by his public dispute with the journal Corsair, Kierkegaard entered upon what he considered his "second authorship," one in which most of his publications would be in his own name.
This course will examine the major writings produced by Kierkegaard during this second authorship, beginning with A Literary Review, which presents Kierkegaard's insights into the relationship between "the established order" and "the individual," an issue which would preoccupy him for the rest of his writing career. We will look at several of the Edifying Discourses he wrote during this period, such as Purity of Heart and The Gospel of Sufferings, and focus in particular on Works of Love, The Sickness unto Death, and Practice in Christianity. We will attend in particular to Kierkegaard's understanding of the "collision" that takes place between the love of God and human compassion and sympathy, and the "possibility of offence" and the suffering that this collision creates. This course assumes no prior knowledge of the theology of Kierkegaard.
Theo 83227 Hagiography
CRN# 7969
A.Astell
F, 9:35-12:35
In recent years, a burgeoning scholarship on medieval and early modern hagiography has explored its literary conventions; its expression in a variety of forms: chronicles, romances, sermons, legenda, sequences, hymns, drama, (auto)biography, visual art, and parody; its social, cultural, and political uses; its relationship to historical and biblical writing; its complex authorship; and its depiction of gender. Less frequently has hagiography been studied in relation to specifically theological questions (biblical, moral, liturgical, and dogmatic). Drawing upon the theoretical resources of narrative theology, dialogical hermeneutics, and theo-aesthetics (in combination with the resources of other disciplines) participants in the seminar will seek answers from various perspectives to the question: “What is the theological significance of the saint’s Life?”
Theo 83228 North Africa before Augustine: Tertullian and Cyprian
CRN# 17970
B.Leyerle
T, 9:30-12:15
Christianity took root early in North Africa. In the writings of Tertullian and Cyprian, we can see the beginning of practices and beliefs that would shape the church for centuries to come. This seminar will focus on some of the pressing issues that confronted North African Christians in the late second and third century: persecution and penance, civic structures and insignia, church governance and ecclesial identity, purity and liturgical needs. Recourse to the region’s rich archaeological and art historical record will enrich our analyses of texts.
Theo 83229 On Being "Interreligious" Religiously: Inquiries into the Possibility of a Marriage of Dialogue and Apologetics
CRN# 17956
Robert Gimello
R, 9:30-12:15
The large question that looms most portentiously over all modern projects of interreligious dialogue, and that confers on the "Theology of Religions" its present urgency, is the question of whether or not attentive and respectful engagement with other religions demands of Christians the attenuation, in one way or another, of their own faith. This course will bring to bear on the theological discussion of this question certain extra-theological resources that are not always sufficiently exploited by theologians - viz., the reflections of modern thinkers who work at the intersection of philosophy and the social sciences (e.g., Ernest Gellner, Leszek Kolakowski, Charles Taylor, et al.) and the work of historians of particular religions whose fine-grained familiarity with other religions throws up necessary but also salutary barriers to hasty, albeit bien-pensant, ecumenical conclusions. Our purpose will be to suggest ways through the current impasse between "pluralism" and "triumphalism." Particular attention will be given throughout to the issue of what Christians can/should/must make of Buddhism.
Theo 83401 Early Christian Liturgies
CRN# 17971
P. Bradshaw
F, 12:50-3:50
An introduction to the liturgical sources, ancillary documents, and methodologies for the study of Christian liturgy in the Patristic period.
Theo 83404 Reformation Liturgies
CRN# 17972
N. Mitchell
W, 9:35-12:35
This course focuses on the roughly one hundred years between 1517 (the year of Luther's legendary "95 theses") and 1614 (the year when the final book of the post-Tridentine reform of the Roman rite, Rituale Romanum, appeared). Commonly, this period of Western European history is described as the "Reformation" or "Early Modern" era. It has often been assumed, moreover, that by the beginning of the 16th century, the rites of late medieval Catholicism had become incomprehensible and inaccessible to "the people;" that the Reformers of the 16th century (such as Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and Cranmer) repudiated this "superstitious heritage;" and that the Catholic Counter-Reformation which followed the Council of Trent (1545-1563) simply condemned the Reformers' sacramental theology and proposals for ritual reform tout court. But unless one is willing to make massive qualifications, not a single one of these assumptions is true. To speak of "the" Reformation is misleading. One should rather speak of three distinct but essentially related "reformations" stretching, arguably, from the beginning of the second millennium (and the attempt by Gregory VII to impose a uniform "Roman" rite on Western Europe) through the Catholic "Reformation" that reshaped Roman Catholic doctrine, ritual, devotion, and pastoral life for four centuries after the Council of Trent. Instead of focusing on the discontinuities that separate these three reformations, we will concentrate on the continuities that connect the "three reformation:" viz., "Reformations before 'the' Reformation" (Part I of the Course); "The Reformation(s) of the 16th Century;" and "The Catholic Reformation."
Theo 83413 Liturgy, Icon and Deification
CRN# 18413
D.Fagerberg
R, 12:30-3:15
This course will consider the interrelationship between liturgical icon and deification as the pinnacle of ascetical discipline. Asceticism’s purpose is union with God; the liturgy is sacramental accomplishment of this union; icon is visual representation of the deified saint. The grammar of the artistic iconic style correlates to the grammar of a life and the grammar of the liturgy. Students will read texts equally divided in the area of asceticism, deification, and iconography, and then understand these realities within the liturgical space and liturgical cult. If liturgy means sharing the life of Christ (being washed in his resurrection, eating his body), and if askesis means discipline (in the sense of forming), then liturgical asceticism is the discipline required to become an icon of Christ and make his image visible in our faces.
Theo 83602 Moral Theology Seminar: Thomas Aquinas
CRN# 17974
J. Porter
W, 12:50-3:50
In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in Aquinas's ethical thought, but without attention to the context from which it emerged. Yet Aquinas's moral thought cannot be fully understood or appreciated unless it is placed in relationship to the views of his immediate predecessors and interlocutors. Furthermore, this approach to the study of Aquinas's moral theology also provides us with a case study for examining how moral concepts develop over time, and how they are shaped by social and cultural, as well as intellectual factors.
In this course, we will examine Aquinas's writings on the natural law in the context of relevant texts from selected twelfth and thirteenth century authors, including Abelard, Gratian, William of Auxerre, Bonaventure, and Albert the Great. All texts will be made available in translation, although students who wish to read them in Latin will be given the opportunity to do so. Course requirements will include several short papers and a longer paper on a topic to be determined in consultation with the instructor.
Theo 83607 Theological Issues in Biomedical Ethic
CRN# 17975
M. Ryan
R, 12:30-3:15
This course treats methods and problems in contemporary biomedical ethics. Its particular focus is on the way religious communities and languages enter debates over public policy in the areas of science and medicine. In addition to examining contemporary disagreements over the foundation and scope of ethics in medicine, we will take up several fundamental theological issues, e.g. the meaning of suffering, the nature of claims concerning the “sanctity of life,” the limits of medical interventions in human reproduction, and the obligations of justice in the face of multiple and unequal worlds of health care.
Theo 83817 Theology of Karl Rahner
CRN# 17977
M. Ashley
W, 9:35-12:35
Karl Rahner was one of the most important theologians of the twentieth century. This course considers both Rahner’s own theological positions and the continuation of Rahnerian themes into contemporary Catholic theology. Areas of focus will include Rahner's theology of revelation, theological anthropology (especially the concept ofthe supernatural existential), Christology, and theology of the Trinity. We will attend to theological and philosophical resources on which Rahner drew, as well as his engagement with the history of Christian spirituality.
Theo 83818 Mystical Theology: Current Theological Perspectives
CRN# 17980
L. Cunningham
T, 12:30-3:15
This seminar will begin with a quick survey of the current research on mystics using William Harmless's recent Mystics (Oxford University Press). We will then read some current theological discussions in books like those of Denys Turner and Mark McIntosh. We will assume as background Bernard McGinn's survey of the literature (philosophical, psychological and theological) in the first volume of his work on the history of Western Mysticism. Students will lead discussions of the readings and make class presentations on a topic of their own choosing inspired by the readings. Such presentations will be anterior to a major paper on a topic chosen after consultation with the professor.
Theo 88101 CJA Seminar: Resources and Tools for Research
CRN# 13113
G. Sterling
TBA
The CJA program covers four distinct disciplines: Hebrew Bible, Judaism, the New Testament, and the Early Church. This seminar provides an advanced introduction to the contents, methodologies, and research resources for each of these four disciplines. We will devote three weeks to each discipline. Faculty from the four disciplines or from related disciplines will provide broad overviews of research in the fields of their specialization. Course requirements include weekly reading assignments and brief written evaluations of six major works from among the four disciplines. The goal of the seminar is to make sure that all CJA students have a working knowledge of the four disciplines in the program.
Directed Readings
(Authorization # required - see Carolyn Gamble)
Research and Dissertation
(Call number varies with instructor - see Inside ND)
Nonresident Dissertation Research
(Call number varies with instructor - see Inside ND)