Previous Years' Course Catalogues

This course is designed to help students understand the "backstory" to the Bible - the history, geography, culture and practices that made up the normal everyday world of the ancient Israelites and their neighbours, but which are utterly foreign to us. Through this course, students will develop a better understanding of the physical and conceptual context of the Old and New Testaments that will help offer a foundation for understanding and interpreting the Bible.

This course is designed to help students understand the "backstory" to the Bible - the history, geography, culture and practices that made up the normal everyday world of the ancient Israelites and their neighbours, but which are utterly foreign to us. Through this course, students will develop a better understanding of the physical and conceptual context of the Old and New Testaments that will help offer a foundation for understanding and interpreting the Bible.

This course presents an overview of the geography and history of Israel and its place in the ancient Near East from the emergence of Israel in canaan to the beginning of the Roman period. Students will also be introduced to the major issues relating to historiography. Lectures and workshops. Class presentation, regular assignments, and major paper.

This course centers the experiences of children and adolescents in theological reflection on what it means to be a human person. This serves to reframe the often unreflected-upon assumption of middle-age as a norm in theological anthropology. It also introduces an “already and not yet” quality into these theological reflections, affirming that children and adolescents are already fully human and beloved of God, while recognizing that they are not yet fully grown. The course will explore some of the traditional categories of theological anthropology (such as freedom, grace, sin, and the imago Dei) in order to understand how these categories are experienced by children and adolescents and how these experiences can inform a more capacious theological perspective on all of humanity.

The bulk of this course will consist of a detailed examination of the anthropology (the doctrine of the human person) of the fourth-century Cappadocian author, Gregory of Nyssa, in relation to his theology (his doctrine of God). This will necessarily include discussion of Gregory's psychology (his doctrine of the soul), his understanding of body's relation to soul, and the importance of the right ordering of the passions in the redemption of the individual. Because Gregory's theology is a form of Christian Platonism the term will begin with a brief treatment of these themes in both pagan and Christian Platonic authors from Plato to Gregory's own day. This course will be offered fall 2015.

The course provides an exploration of how Christianity has understood the relationship among God, creation, humanity and spirituality, and how that understanding has contributed to the ecological challenges we currently face as well as can contribute to a helpful response. The course begins with an overview of our understanding of spirituality and creation during the patristic, medieval and reformation periods, then shifts to contemporary understandings drawing from current discussions of Christology, creation-centred spirituality, eco-feminism, deep ecology, and the healing of nature and the healing of self. Methods: Lectures, discussions. Evaluation: reflection paper, integration paper, class participation, practical integration.

The course provides an exploration of how Christianity has understood the relationship among God, creation, humanity and spirituality, and how that understanding has contributed to the ecological challenges we currently face as well as can contribute to a helpful response. The course begins with an overview of our understanding of spirituality and creation during the patristic, medieval and reformation periods, then shifts to contemporary understandings drawing from current discussions of Christology, creation-centred spirituality, eco-feminism, deep ecology, and the healing of nature and the healing of self.

The course provides an exploration of how Christianity has understood the relationship among God, creation, humanity and spirituality, and how that understanding has contributed to the ecological challenges we currently face as well as can contribute to a helpful response. The course begins with an overview of our understanding of spirituality and creation during the patristic, medieval and reformation periods, then shifts to contemporary understandings drawing from current discussions of Christology, creation-centred spirituality, eco-feminism, deep ecology, and the healing of nature and the healing of self.

The course provides an exploration of how Christianity has understood the relationship among God, creation, humanity and spirituality, and how that understanding has contributed to the ecological challenges we currently face as well as can contribute to a helpful response. The course begins with an overview of our understanding of spirituality and creation during the patristic, medieval and reformation periods, then shifts to contemporary understandings drawing from current discussions of Christology, creation-centred spirituality, eco-feminism, deep ecology, and the healing of nature and the healing of self.

The course provides an exploration of how Christianity has understood the relationship among God, creation, humanity and spirituality, and how that understanding has contributed to the ecological challenges we currently face as well as can contribute to a helpful response. The course begins with an overview of our understanding of spirituality and creation during the patristic, medieval and reformation periods, then shifts to contemporary understandings drawing from current discussions of Christology, creation-centred spirituality, eco-feminism, deep ecology, and the healing of nature and the healing of self. Methods: Lectures, discussions. Evaluation: reflection paper, integration paper, class participation, practicum.

The course provides an exploration of how Christianity has understood the relationship among God, creation, humanity and spirituality, and how that understanding has contributed to the ecological challenges we currently face as well as can contribute to a helpful response. The course begins with an overview of our understanding of spirituality and creation during the patristic, medieval and reformation periods, then shifts to contemporary understandings drawing from current discussions of Christology, creation-centred spirituality, eco-feminism, deep ecology, and the healing of nature and the healing of self.

Topics for the seminar will vary from year to year but will focus on issues related to approaches to spiritual formation and the relationships between individual experience, social transformation, and institutional identity in North American contexts. Seminar format involving student leadership; discussion of assigned readings, presentation of research.