Course Catalogue 2024-2025

This course is geared to enrolment in the Artists' Workshop of the Institute for Christian Studies' ART in Orvieto offerings in Orvieto, Italy. It aims to integrate, through the writing of a major paper, the practical experience gained in these arts workshops with the more theoretical knowledge obtained through academic courses in the area of art, religion and theology. Building upon the activities undertaken in the workshop (discussion, visual journals, presentation of work and feedback) as well as the arts project accomplished, the paper will serve as a summative statement of what the student learned. It should demonstrate the student's analytical and interpretive skills as it seeks to find the points of intersection between artistic practice and the life of faith.

Few methods have been more foundational to the scholarly study of religion, or more subject to searching criticism, than the practice of comparison. This seminar offers an advanced introduction to comparative method in the contemporary academy by means of a close study of 4-6 significant comparative projects published in the last decade. Examples will be drawn from different sub-disciplines of theology and religion, including but not limited to ritual studies, philosophy of religion, comparative theology and/or ethnography. Students will engage various foundational questions of comparative method, including the presuppositions of the comparativist, the skillful construction of comparative examples, and the role of theory.

This seminar is an introduction to Sharia, the Islamic ethical-legal tradition or, more precisely, Sharia’s interpretation (fiqh). Of primary concern are the methodologies of its derivation, including its core principles, such as the Qur?an, the Prophet’s tradition (Sunna), consensus (ijm??), and reasoning by analogy (qiyas). The course will also introduce students to the theory of the objectives of the law (maq??id al-shar??a) and legal maxims (al-qaw??id al-fiqhiyya al-kulliyya), which are important resources in contemporary Islamic ethical-legal reasoning. It will examine Sharia’s institutions, the historical development of its schools of thought (madh?hib), and the processes by which ethical-legal decisions are made. Students will also have the opportunity to examine its applications in case studies of contemporary significance, mainly in the areas of biomedical ethics and sexual ethics.

This course explores creativity and its theological significance, drawing from interdisciplinary sources to consider the imagination, creative process and the arts in relation to the life of faith and spiritual practice. Even though creativity is often associated with intentional artistic endeavours, the capacity to imagine, improvise, innovate, and make/construct is intrinsic to human life e.g., in daily routines and relationships, rituals, stories, spiritual identity, personal resilience, empathy, community building, and peace and justice building. By paying attention to various dimensions of creativity, human and divine, the course investigates the making and perceiving of beauty in the world as an orientation toward value and personal and communal transformation. It thus seeks move beyond cognitive and entrepreneur models of creativity as well as dichotomies of action vs. reflection in theology. Particular consideration is given to visual arts and music.

This unit explores lgnatian mystical spirituality as a resource for the construction of religious narratives that contribute to intentional, social transformation in a post-secular context. Drawing principally on the lgnatian appropriation of monastic adaptation of rhetoric in the practice of mental prayer and the narrative theory of Paul Ricoeur, the course engages contemporary social theory to address issues of racism and other forms of systematic injustice. Students develop a transdisciplinary approach to ecological, social, cultural and ecclesial reconciliation. They also develop an understanding of the evolution of a religious and cultural recognition of the autonomous rights of indigenous peoples. Elements of recognition theory and transitional justice are introduced through a discussion of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Indian Residential Schools. Authors include: Marie Battiste, Judith Butler, Glen Sean Coulthard, Cynthia Crysdale, Nancy Fraser, Priscilla Hayner, Axel Honneth, Bernard Lonergan, Ronald Niezen, Paul Ricoeur, and Charles Taylor.

A practical and theoretical in-depth critical analysis of some of the most difficult contemporary ethical dilemmas humanity faces today. This course builds on the tools, skills, and insights gained in the introduction to Ethics courses. Students will engage in critical discussion and dialogue with their classmates, drawing on the wisdom of their own cultural and religious traditions. Students will gain crucial skills in dealing with ethical issues, and gain insight in the main themes and specific methodologies other religious traditions offer to the study of ethics. Particular attention will be paid to examining the ethical issues that arise in relation to human identity (class, race and ethnicity, dis/ability, gender and sexuality, etc.) as well as other critical contemporary ethical issues like Indigeneity, neo/colonialism, interfaith/interculturality, and food sovereignty.