Course Catalogue 2026-2027

Stewart Clegg has suggested that 'the forgetting' of power may yet be the 'fate of our time'. His caution signals how the more difficult it becomes to locate the source and nature of power amidst the complexity of social and political life, the harder it is to discern power, presence, employ it effectively, or resist it when necessary. This course addresses a 'forgetting' of power in Christian theology. Although various approaches to contemporary political theology imply differing conceptions of the workings of power, seldom is the concept itself the focus of direct analysis. Without a fully developed concept of power, efforts to advance a coherent political theology, or to resolve problems in ecclesiology more generally, leave many questions unaddressed and numerous tensions obscured. In addition to analyzing both the limitations and untapped resources regarding the concept of power within the Christian tradition, the course will also engage wider debates over the nature of power by making the concept of 'powerlessnes' a significant topic for discussion. For as contemporary scholars investigate the nature of power as both an oppressive and productive force, the Christian tradition, wrestling with the significance of being without power, and its reflections on whether this is always an inherently negative situation, promises to offer a unique contribution to debates over the nature of power.

Stewart Clegg has suggested that 'the forgetting' of power may yet be the 'fate of our time'. His caution signals how the more difficult it becomes to locate the source and nature of power amidst the complexity of social and political life, the harder it is to discern power, presence, employ it effectively, or resist it when necessary. This course addresses a 'forgetting' of power in Christian theology. Although various approaches to contemporary political theology imply differing conceptions of the workings of power, seldom is the concept itself the focus of direct analysis. Without a fully developed concept of power, efforts to advance a coherent political theology, or to resolve problems in ecclesiology more generally, leave many questions unaddressed and numerous tensions obscured. In addition to analyzing both the limitations and untapped resources regarding the concept of power within the Christian tradition, the course will also engage wider debates over the nature of power by making the concept of 'powerlessnes' a significant topic for discussion. For as contemporary scholars investigate the nature of power as both an oppressive and productive force, the Christian tradition, wrestling with the significance of being without power, and its reflections on whether this is always an inherently negative situation, promises to offer a unique contribution to debates over the nature of power.

Stewart Clegg has suggested that 'the forgetting' of power may yet be the 'fate of our time'. His caution signals how the more difficult it becomes to locate the source and nature of power amidst the complexity of social and political life, the harder it is to discern power, presence, employ it effectively, or resist it when necessary. This course addresses a 'forgetting' of power in Christian theology. Although various approaches to contemporary political theology imply differing conceptions of the workings of power, seldom is the concept itself the focus of direct analysis. Without a fully developed concept of power, efforts to advance a coherent political theology, or to resolve problems in ecclesiology more generally, leave many questions unaddressed and numerous tensions obscured. In addition to analyzing both the limitations and untapped resources regarding the concept of power within the Christian tradition, the course will also engage wider debates over the nature of power by making the concept of 'powerlessnes' a significant topic for discussion. For as contemporary scholars investigate the nature of power as both an oppressive and productive force, the Christian tradition, wrestling with the significance of being without power, and its reflections on whether this is always an inherently negative situation, promises to offer a unique contribution to debates over the nature of power.

The New Testament texts speak not only of Christ's saving work on behalf of the world but also of those who believe in him becoming one with him. That the texts speak in this way led to union with Christ becoming a central theme in the soteriology of various Christian traditions and, in turn, to those traditions interpreting differently from each other the texts responsible for the prominence of the theme. This course explores union with Christ in the New Testament through (i) detailed exegetical study of selected New Testament texts that offer different but overlapping ways of conceptualizing union with Christ (e.g., the body of Christ, the Temple, the sacraments), (ii) critical engagement with the appropriation of union with Christ in Christian theology (e.g., in the patristic era, in Orthodox theology, in Lutheran and Reformed theology), and (iii) critical engagement with union with Christ in recent New Testament scholarship (e.g., the work of Grant Macaskill). Attention will also be paid to the implications of union with Christ for Christian life and ethics. Students will form their own conclusions about the nature and significance of union with Christ in the New Testament.

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?

In both the Christian theological tradition and in historical-critical scholarship Paul was often interpreted as the apostle of grace. In the late twentieth-century this pattern was disrupted by the recognition in New Perspective scholarship that, far from being distinctive to Paul, an emphasis on grace was characteristic of Second Temple Judaism. More recently, John Barclay's influential volume Paul and the Gift (2015) has reasserted in new ways the significance of grace in Paul’s theology. In the context of these debates, this course explores grace in Paul through (i) an exploration of grace in the Greco-Roman world and more especially in Judaism, and (ii) detailed exegetical study of key Pauline texts concerning grace. Attention will be paid not only to recent interpreters of such texts but also to selected figures from reception history (e.g., Augustine, Aquinas, Luther etc.). Through such study students will critically engage key questions concerning Barclay's thesis (e.g., is incongruity indeed the principal characteristic of grace for Paul, is he distinctive in emphasizing it, does he consider that grace always demands a response from its recipients?) and responses to it, to discern its implications for interpreting Paul's theology more broadly (e.g., for Paul's Christology, for Paul's place within Judaism), and to reach their own conclusions about the part played by grace in Paul's theology.

This interdisciplinary seminar examines a variety of hermeneutical and critical theories spanning Ranke's historical realism to Dilthey's crisis of historicism in the nineteenth century, culminating in the existential phenomenology of Heidegger. The course then turns to the classical hermeneutic debate between Gadamer, Habermas and Ricoeur, and then explores the extended debate over what is an 'author' (Schleiermacher, Barthes, Foucault); the course then turns to Levinas's ethics of alterity, Derrida's differance and deconstruction, ending with Deleuze's 'rhizomatic' philosophy. Each of these theorists construct the relations between history, texts, authors and readers in different ways. This course stresses self-reflexivity and ability to discuss how theory always shapes biblical interpretation.

Are people innately evil, or do they become evil due to negative life experiences? Can a universal internal moral imperative rooted in an innate good will exist independently of self-interest? Contemporary theorists from a variety of disciplines in the humanities and sciences argue that human beings are motivated by amoral internal forces that are shaped into moral action through diverse cultural learning processes. Notions such as the nature of subjectivity, agency, relationality, and capacities for critical self reflection are brought into question. These and other issues are explored through the lenses of philosophy, social theory, psychoanalysis and religion in dialogue with relevant classical and contemporary thinkers.

This course explores the role of emotion in biblical texts both within passages and within the reader. We integrate several elements: theories of emotion and the fuzzier category of affect, the cultural specificity of emotions, the expression of emotion beyond vocabulary, specific emotions (especially those that are often identified with religiosity), and the interplay between feeling and meaning. The overall aim of the course is to facilitate richer readings of biblical texts through attention to their affective valences.

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.

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 course assists students to reflect on the multifaceted experience and reality of radical evil and suffering in light of Christian faith and theology. Drawing from the work of significant contemporary theologians, the course aims at enabling students to meet the challenge formulated in and by the experience and testimony of Jewish, African American and Indigenous individuals and communities who were subjected to extreme evil and suffering by individuals, societies and nations reclaiming the Christian faith, values and way of life. The course will encourage students to contribute to forging and living out a contemporary Christian theology enabling lifelong transformative discipleship and service where Christians learn from their Jewish, African American and Indigenous neighbours how to be faithful followers of Jesus Christ. Central theological concepts such as affliction, kenosis, incarnation, discipleship, vicarious representation, passion and crucifixion will be studied using a methodological approach combining narrative testimony and constructive analysis/interpretation.