Course Catalogue 2026-2027

Introduction to modern historical criticism of the Old Testament, with special attention given to the formation of scripture from ancient traditions and its implications for history of Jewish and Christian interpretation.

This course is Part One of a two-part introductory survey. It aims to acquaint students with issues that scholars have found significant in New Testament interpretation, including textual criticism and the world of the New Testament, with special focus on the canonical Gospels - the most well-known stories of Jesus. It also aims to help students understand the relevance of this kind of study for their ministry.

This course is Part Two of a two-part introductory survey course. It aims to acquaint students with the literary structure, rhetorical argument, and certain socio-cultural issues in the Pauline Corpus, General Writings, and Revelation and help students understand the relevance of these issues for their ministry. Emphasis is placed on acquiring familiarity with the texts and ability to converse critically about the particular problems that these texts both seek to solve and have created.

This course is an introduction to the Quran and will familiarize students with the hallmarks of both traditional Muslim and western scholarships. It will cover topics such as the collection of the Quran, abrogation, mysterious letters and the Quranic sciences. Students will become acquainted with some of the main classical and modern commentaries and will learn to identify poetic figures and organizational techniques that structure the Qur'anic text. Knowledge of Arabic, though useful, is not required.

Interfaith dialogue has many avenues, of which reading each other's sacred texts is one of the most conducive to building understanding. The scriptures of Islam, Judaism and Christianity are particularly suited to this venture, because of the shared narratives, which demonstrate both commonalities and profound differences. This course focuses on narratives shared between the Bible and the Quran and how major Muslim, Christian, and Jewish scholars have approached the relationship between the texts across the ages. The course examines scholars such as Tabari (d. 923), Ibn Kathir (d. 1373), Abraham Geiger (d. 1874), W. St. Clair Tisdall (d.1929), Angelika Neuwirth and others. Students will learn the difference between author- and reader-oriented approaches, influence theory and intertextuality, and how different presuppositions can impact how the texts and their relationship are read. Students will also have the opportunity to engage in scripture-based interfaith dialogue and to experience first-hand how some of the established and developing approaches are practiced.

In this course, we engage methodologies of narrative criticism and performance criticism to study, contextualize, and embody the details of the Gospel of Mark as story, bringing its ancient meaning and oral origins alive to a modern audience. We become storytellers of scripture by learning a gospel text by heart, memorized word for word, and telling it to a live audience as an embodied practice. This approach interacts with exegetical study of the text to deepen our understanding of its message and connects to various aspects of ministry and/or vocation, with particularly robust connections to homiletics.

This seminar studies the life of the Prophet Muhammad as it is presented in the earliest biographical and historical Muslim accounts. It introduces the sira and Hadith literatures, in addition to classical and modern critical methods used to determine their authenticity and historical reliability. Topics include the first revelations, emigration from Mecca, the Constitution of Medina, and succession to Muhammad's leadership. Students will learn about Muslim concepts of prophethood, the significance of the prophet in the ethical-legal and mystical traditions, and women in Hadith scholarship. They will study the life of Muhammad and relate it to his spiritual as well as temporal experience to explore modern-day concerns. This course is cross-listed and counts as a "Bible" course, as well as a history course, at Emmanuel College.

This is a required course for all MDiv students, normally to be taken in the second semester of full-time study. The course is in a semi-intensive format, meeting six times over the course of a semester, with six hours of instruction and/or site visit learning per session. 

An introduction to the history, theology and practice of Christian public worship, with particular reference to the practices of Reformed and Methodist liturgical traditions, set in the context of ecumenical developments and in relation to resources of The United Church of Canada. Topics include orders of service, forms of prayer, calendar, lectionary, liturgical space, eucharist, baptism, funerals, weddings, pastoral liturgies and ritualization. Biblical, historical, theological and pastoral dimensions will be explored. (Fulfills testamur requirement for United Church of Canada candidates for ordered ministry and admissions.)

This course is designed to provide students with a solid foundation for biblical preaching by exploring the implications of preaching a text and preaching the gospel. Preaching the gospel is considered from historical, biblical, theological, pastoral and creative perspectives with a view to producing sermons that engage the world and offer hope. A four-step methodology is taught that can be adapted to various sermon forms.

This course will engage students in the educational ministry theories and practices in relation to intercultural leadership both within and beyond the United Church of Canada (UCC). Perspectives from intercultural, critical race, decolonial, and postcolonial theories will be studied. Students will develop strategies for anti-oppressive forms of education and practice, in terms of scriptural interpretation, contextual analysis, and leadership for community empowerment.

This course introduces theories and practices common to the practice of counselling and spiritual care as it routinely occurs in the course of the ongoing institutional life (hospitals, military, prisons, nursing homes, religious communities, counselling centres etc.) and in spiritually-integrated psychotherapy. The course focusses on developing microskills and skills for spiritually-integrated practices of counselling and interfaith spiritual care, and is divided into four 3-week modules: 1. Self Awareness - the cornerstone for interculturally competent spiritual care; 2. Microskills for spiritual care & counselling; 3. Meaning-making skills for spiritually-integrated care; 4. Contexts of care for spiritually-integrated practice.