Courses during the 2122-20 term

Research Design & Methodology (DM---702-, 2122-20)

Addresses basic elements of research design, including research questions, experimental and quasi-experimental methods, reliability and validity, data collection, data analysis, and ethics.

IS: African American Biblical Interpretation (BIBHB699-A, J22)

Hebrew Bible Independent Study

PhD Teaching Seminar (PH---903-, 2122-20)

The Ph.D. teaching seminar is an opportunity to reflect in a collegial and constructive environment on the vocation of teaching in seminaries and colleges. A core component of the course is engaging and reflecting on practices of teaching and learning in theological education. Our teaching practices are profoundly influenced by our experiences in classrooms, by the research procedures and content of our academic disciplines, by theological convictions and ministerial practices, and by the contexts in which we teach. In turn, teaching profoundly informs scholarship and is the primary context for the work of a scholar.

Congregational Song (LTRGY665-, 2122-20)

Analysis of congregational song in the context of worship, with special attention to patterns of worship, the church year, celebration of the sacraments, and the use of the Psalter.

Practicum in Spiritual Direction (DM---744-, 2122-20)

Focuses on the evolving challenges facing leaders engaged in spiritual formation, relying upon student projects as laboratories for defining and dealing with those challenges.Direction Module Five: Practicum, including verbatims, in-class exercises, the integration of knowledge, and assessment of the student?s direction skills

Hermeneutics of Race, Class,Gender, and Age (DM---727-, 2122-20)

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Contrary to popular belief, there is no such thing as “objective” interpretation.  In fact, it can be argued that all interpretation, especially biblical and theological interpretation and practice is a matter of and affected by the social location of the interpreter and those who are receiving the interpretation.[1]  Furthermore, Mitzi J. Smith maintains that even the selection of the piece to be interpreted is an act of interpretation because of the value the interpreter places on the object of interpretation.  This idea that everything is an interpretation, especially as they pertain to biblical, theological and artistic forms of interpretation is called hermeneutics.

In this course, we will be analyzing how race, gender, sexual orientation, class, age and ageism affect how one interprets whether as interpreter or receiver of the interpretation.  We will also discuss how important lived and living experience, as well as memory, affect interpretation (i.e., the “fluidity” of interpretation.)

This course is not a philosophical debate about the ontology of race/racism, gender/sexism/ homophobia, and class/inequality (i.e., it does not question whether these realities exist). This class begins with the assumption that these are realities which have an observable history and which have been an intimate part of the systemic whole of modernity’s distorted distribution of power, wealth and influence in the world – socially and politically. In this class we will approach the issues of gender, race, class, sexuality, oppression, power, and privilege from a theological and social-scientific perspective.

 

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Students will:

      • Acquaint themselves with biblical, theological, and philosophical approaches to hermeneutics.
      • Analyze the ways in which race, class, gender, and sexuality have been, and continue to be, socially constructed.
      • Apply the feminist theoretical lens of intersectionality to understand how race, class, gender, sexuality, ability and age integrate, overlap, and intersect to affect individuals’ lived experiences with structures of power and how these affect one’s biblical and theological interpretation and practice.
      • Understand the difference between Paolo Fieri’s “banking” and “conscientization” models of education and how these affect the interpretation and the receiving of the interpretation with regard to social movements.


COURSE OUTCOMES

At the conclusion of this course, students should be able to:

      • Hone the skill of deploying a theological hermeneutic as appropriate to their fields of scholarship and inquiry.
      • Deploy a personal working definition of hermeneutics.
      • Employ a hermeneutical spiral that incorporates a hermeneutic of suspicion and retrieval.
      • Connect wider hermeneutical concerns to their field and research interests.
      • Use a contextualized theological hermeneutic to make sense of cultural artifacts and other non-traditional “texts” so as to understand how these resources may inform or relate to “traditional” forms of biblical and theological interpretation and practice.

 


[1] Mitzi J. Smith, 14-20.

UM Studies: Wesley & the 19thCentury (DENOM603-X, 2122-20)

The foundational contribution of John Wesley to the history, doctrine, and polity of Methodism. The Methodist tradition in the U.S. through the 19th century.

Empowering Congregations forEvangelism (CL---611-Z, 2122-20)

Study of the role of the pastor and church leaders in discipling the congregation and motivating and training the laity in faith-sharing outreach ministries.