Course Catalogue 2025-2026

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to representative examples of major approaches to theological study in the contemporary world, engaging the categories of overall systematic outlook, historical change, Scripture, the theological discipline, ecclesial reality, cultural specificity, and mission. We will probe these themes through a careful reading of select texts by major contemporary theologians, both Protestant and Roman Catholic. Among the issues to be addressed are: how have the Enlightenment and other aspects of modernity exerted pressure on theologians to clarify their method? What is the relation of methodological reflection in theology to the being/character of the triune God? Does every method have its corresponding metaphysics? How shall theology and philosophy be related? What role does Scripture play in the process of theological reasoning, and how does it relate to the doctrines and tradition(s) of the church? By the end of the course students will be able to describe accurately some of the many and complex senses of theological “method”; relate these to matters of substantive Christian teaching; and be better equipped to confidently articulate their own theological visions, which they will do in a preliminary fashion in the final assignment.

This course examines methodological features of constructive theological reflection, focusing on hermeneutics as a strategic way of thinking about the role of texts, traditions and social location in doing theology. Taking a broadly historical approach that focuses on modern and contemporary periods, attention is given to philosophical and contextual interpretation theories in conjunction with liberal, postliberal, liberationist, feminist and other theological methodologies. The aim is to better understand how theological sources, processes, criteria, and aims are determined and become reflected in specific theological formulations, for instance, regarding the character of faith, authority, revelation, role of philosophical reflection, social justice, cultural contexts, intercultural, de/post-colonial dynamics, and religious pluralism.

This seminar offers an advanced introduction to comparative theological method. The course examines the processes by which theologians study theologies across religious boundaries and bring this learning into dialogue with home traditions through careful comparison, dialogical reflection, and nuanced theological understandings of religious belonging. Students will consider critiques and refinements of the practice of comparison, survey current methods of theological comparison, and frame a comparative research project according to their own theological interests. Because the class wrl! analyze examples from a variety of religious traditions, prior knowledge of multiple traditions is desirable but not required.

This course investigates the literary relationships among the Synoptic gospels, the Gospel of Thomas, and other early gospels. Special attention is paid to the major solutions to the Synoptic Problem current today, the revival of the Griesbach hypothesis and the Farrer hypothesis, and recent advances in the Two-Document hypothesis. A range of issues will be presented, from the assessment of minor agreements to theories of synopsis construction. The currently competing hypotheses will be tested carefully by an examination of Synoptic texts.

An examination of the idea of self in Hinduism and Islam through representative contemporary thinkers Rabindranath Tagore and Muhammad Iqbal respectively. How is self understood? What is its relation to the ideas of person and personal identity? What are the philosophical and theological presuppositions of the idea of self? Answers are supplemented by classical and other contemporary writings of the religious tradition in question, thereby accessing the worldview associated with that tradition.

This is an exploratory course and will proceed as a seminar on "modes of thought" with special attention to the changing role/value of "religious thought" with the eventual development of the modern Western epistemic tradition. Readings will deal with that tradition from the prehistory of the human mind and the stages in the evolution of human cognition to the radical historical transformations of that growth with the emergence of the new cultural value of seeking knowledge for its own sake and, finally to the emergence of the modern mind with the scientific revolution in sixteenth- and seventeenth century Europe.

This is an exploratory course and will proceed as a seminar on "modes of thought" with special attention to the changing role/value of "religious thought" with the eventual development of the modern Western epistemic tradition. Readings will deal with that tradition from the prehistory of the human mind and the stages in the evolution of human cognition to the radical historical transformations of that growth with the emergence of the new cultural value of seeking knowledge for its own sake and, finally to the emergence of the modern mind with the scientific revolution in sixteenth- and seventeenth century Europe.

Theology was established as an academic discipline in the Christian universities of the European Middle Ages. Methodologically, however, that discipline seems ill-suited for the new epistemic culture produced in the West by the Scientific Revolution and now institutionalized in the modern secular research university. This is the intellectual context in which Christian theology emerged and matured as an academic discipline and against which its ‘religious knowledge’ claims will be measured. Understanding this history is essential, therefore, in methodological discussions in all areas of the theological encyclopedia.

Theology was established as an academic discipline in the Christian universities of the European Middle Ages. Methodologically, however, the discipline seems ill-suited for the new epistemic culture produced in the West by the Scientific Revolution and now institutionalized in the modern research university. Understanding this history is essential to understanding the character and place of theology in our culture today.

Most people, when the subject of mediaeval liturgy is mentioned, think of the old service books which have the words spoken (sacramentaries, lectionaries, missals, breviaries) and descriptions of the action (ordos). There is another class of book entirely, the liturgical commentaries, which goes through the public services, explaining the elements they contain. They were also interested in the ministers of the liturgy, their orders and dress, in the structure of church and altar, in the calendar (temporal and sanctoral), and of course in the vexed question of how a priest computed the date of Easter (no diocesan journals in those days).

Challenges of religious pluralism to Christianity appearing from outside Christianity, and responses to it. How do other world religious traditions think about Christianity or religions for that matter? What are the theoretical problems of religious pluralism and the response to them from within Christianity?

This course engages students with key Old Testament interpretive methods across a broad spectrum that may include historical-critical, literary, reader-oriented, theological, inter-disciplinary, and global approaches. Working with biblical texts together with readings from practitioners enables students to assess the assumptions, methods, development, and strengths and weaknesses inherent in each interpretive method.