Archives
Spring 2012 Courses
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THEO 83102 - Section 01: Hebrew Bible Seminar: Daniel (CRN 25990) Long Title: Hebrew Bible Seminar: The Book of Daniel Professor Michael Segal |
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Course Description: This course will analyze the book of Daniel, the latest of the books in the Hebrew Bible. Special attention will be paid to a close analysis and interpretation of the biblical text, including comparison between the different versions. The second half of the book, chapters 7-12, will be studied as an exemplar of apocalyptic literature, and placed in the context of contemporaneous Jewish apocalypses from the Pseudepigrapha and the Dead Sea Scrolls. In addition to the twelve chapters of the Masoretic version of the book, the course will include the Additions to Daniel found in the Septuagint. |
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THEO 83111 - Section 01: New Testament Seminar (CRN 25992) Long Title: New Testament Seminar: Parables Professor John Meier |
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Course Description: This seminar will focus on Luke-Acts |
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THEO 83204 - Section 01: Early Christianity Seminar (CRN 25996) Long Title: Early Christianity Seminar: Augustine Professor John Cavadini |
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Course Description: It is hard to overestimate the importance of Augustine in Western (Latin) Theology. An introduction to the main themes in Augustine's theology serves not only to introduce students to Augustine, therefore, but also to some of the most important theological concerns and preoccupations of the West. Still, it is to Augustine himself that this course will attend, and primarily to his theology, though the overall goal is to familiarize students with enough of the Augustinian corpus so that they continue to work on their own in whatever field of specialization their interests have taken them. Augustine is usually useful to scholars of other fields only in and through a familiarity with his work precisely as theological. While the course does not formally presuppose previous specialized work in Augustine, students with such familiarity will find it more manageable. |
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THEO 83403 - Section 01: Medieval Liturgies (CRN 28496) Professor Michael Driscoll |
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Course Description: The purpose of this seminar is to examine the various sacramental rites in the Middle Ages, especially the Eucharistic liturgy, and to attempt to reconstruct them within the context of liturgical enactment, architectural space, artistic and musical decoration, etc. The seminar must necessarily deal with liturgical texts, but this is only a first step for understanding the broader dimensions of the liturgy. Architectural, artistic and musical components will be taken into consideration. Numerous commentaries on the liturgy are also an important source for garnering the medieval understanding of the liturgy, especially in its allegorical interpretation. A tangential but key element for the understanding is the devotional and spiritual practices that grew up alongside the official liturgy. Therefore, some attention will be given to these dimensions, including liturgical drama. |
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THEO 83405 - Section 01: Modern Liturgy Seminar (CRN 28497) Professor Margot Fassler |
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Course Description: The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the movements, documents, issues, and personalities that gradually coalesced to form what is commonly called (in Europe and North America) "the modern liturgical movement." The period covered stretches from ca.1600 to 2000 C.E., and deals with historical developments in both post-Reformation Europe and North America, and among both Roman Catholic and Protestant churches. |
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THEO 83622 - Section 01: Theo and Class Social Theory (CRN 28498) Long Title: Thology and Classical Social Theory Professor Todd Whitmore |
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Course Description: This course examines the thought of three classic social theorists: Marx, Weber, and Durkheim. It then addresses, in particular, their views on religion. Finally, it investigates theologians who have appropriated aspects of the social theorists' thought: Gutierrez (Marx), Gustafson (Weber), and M.L. King (Durkheim). We will ask how and under what terms theologians and social theorists can appropriate each other's terms and modes of inquiry. |
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THEO 83648 - Section 01: Ecological Ethics (CRN 28499) Professor Margaret Pfeil |
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Course Description: This course will explore the growing body of literature on ecology from the standpoint of theological ethics, attending to issues of ethical method and epistemology, systems theory, sacramentality, social location, gender, environmental racism, sustainability, and resource conflicts. It will hold contemporary theological approaches to nature and creation in conversation with patristic and medieval conceptions. Requirements include seminar presentations, short essays, and a major research paper. |
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THEO 83809 - Section 01: Systematic Sem:Theo Anthroplgy (CRN 28500) Long Title: Systematic Seminar: Theological Anthropology Professor Catherine Hilkert |
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Course Description: Questions of theological anthropology lie at the heart of highly disputed theological, ecclesial, ethical, and political issues, yet the discipline itself is in question. This seminar will focus on diverse contemporary approaches to the field of (Christian) theological anthropology. The goal of this survey of selected Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox theologians will be to identify the questions and resources within the tradition that are most in need of critical engagement and constructive development today.Issues to be engaged include: 1) the nature/grace disputes in the Catholic tradition at the beginning of the 20th century and their ongoing influence; 2) the relationship between anthropology, christology, and trinitarian theology and the appropriate starting point for theological anthropology; 3) theological understandings of personhood; 4) the impact of global human suffering and ecological devastation on Christian understandings of what it means to be human; 5)human differences, structural inequalities, and the possibility of human solidarity.In addition to regular seminar preparation and participation, students will be expected to write a final research paper of 20-25 pages or two review-essays of 10-12 pages offering critical analysis, evaluation, and comparison of required texts. |
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THEO 83813 - Section 01: Comparative Theology Seminar (CRN 28501) Professor Brad Malkovsky |
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Course Description: The purpose of this seminar is to introduce students of systematic theology to recent developments in the theological dialogue between Christianity and other religions, and to deepen their theological understanding of God, christology, grace, eschatology and religious experience through the encounter with three specific faiths: Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. This course presupposes no previous knowledge of other religions; it is designed to provide the student with a solid theological foundation for further scholarly research or for incorporation in the classroom. Required: oral presentation, class discussion, two analytical papers. |
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THEO 83829 - Section 01: Phenomenology (CRN 28931) Long Title: Phenomenology of Religions Professor Larry Sullivan |
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Course Description: The course has a primary focus on a body of case materials on the religious life of specific communities approached through various methodological lenses: ethnography, history, cultural analysis, theology, philosophy. The aim of the course is to draw out, identify, and analyze the underlying orientations taken toward religious phenomena and to evaluate both the fact as reported as well as the interpretations of them. In the end, the course should develop both a morphological map of the religious ideas and practices of given communities as well as the hermeneutical map of the methods through which the investigators obtained their understandings. |