Earlham School of Religion

228 College Avenue, Richmond, IN 47374 • 1-800-432-1ESR

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Interdisciplinary Studies

I-101C INTRODUCTION TO MINISTRY EDUCATION
This on-campus intensive seminar is for students who are beginning the Connections program. It provides an overview of Bethany’s M. Div. curriculum and an orientation to various resources and technology that will facilitate ministry education at a distance. Several faculty members will help us to experience how their disciplines can contribute to the formation of ministers. Other activities will include worshiping together, writing and reflecting on our spiritual autobiographies, and setting individual and group goals.
3 semester hours.
I-103 M.A.TH RESEARCH SEMINAR
This course is for M.A.Th. students who are developing their thesis proposal. The course is focused on teaching bibliographic research and research methodology for academic thesis writing. It follows a research structure with each student working on building his/her own focus questions, methodology, and bibliography. Class time is spent discussing and evaluating peer work.
3 semester hours.
I-350 M.A.TH THESIS SEMINAR
This course is for M.A.TH students who are writing their theses. It is built primarily to help the student stay accountable to the research and writing task. As the semester progresses, the student will be asked to share a chapter of his/her work in progress with M.A.TH peers. Class time is spent interacting with each other’s research and arguments and building the skills of critical engagement and scholarly conversation.
3 semester hours.
Prerequisite I-103.
I-201 PEACE STUDIES RESEARCH SEMINAR
The Seminar is offered each semester in conjunction with a non-credit weekly Peace Studies Forum. It offers opportunity for common reading of peace-related materials, presentation and discussion of papers, sharing from peace ministries, and dialogue with visiting peace theologians, activists, and leaders. Students may take the seminar for credit a maximum of two times.
3 semester hours.
I-201S CONFLICT RESOLUTION
This course provides the student with an introduction to the study of conflict and its resolution. We will explore the basic theoretical concepts of the field and apply this knowledge as we learn and practice skills for analyzing and resolving conflicts. The course seeks to answer the following questions at both the theoretical level, and the level of personal action: What are the causes and consequences of social conflict? How do we come to know and understand conflict? How do our assumptions about conflict affect our strategies for management or resolution? What methods are available for waging and resolving conflicts productively rather than destructively?
3 semester hours.
I-202 CONTEMPORARY PACIFIST ISSUES
Historic attitudes toward questions of peace; contemporary issues related to violence and nonviolence; definitions, theologians, biblical doctrines, and strategies all will be discussed in the context of seeking biblical and theological bases for peacemaking. May include participation in a joint seminar of the historic peace church seminaries in Washington, D.C.
3 semester hours.
I-203 TRAVEL SEMINAR: FAITH EXPLORATIONS IN CROSS-CULTURAL SETTINGS (200 LEVEL)
Each year one or more travel seminars will be sponsored enabling participants to experience the life and culture of another people. Previous travel seminars have included Nigeria, Brazil, Latin America, France, Ireland, Italy and the Mideast.
3 semester hours.
I-203 AMERC CROSS CULTURAL SEMINAR
Funded by Appalachian Ministries Educational Resource Center (AMERC), Berea, Kentucky, and conducted by member schools of the consortium. Courses focus on religious history and social issues of Appalachia, with attention given to models and strategies for small church ministry in the rural setting.
3 semester hours.
I-204 GOSPEL OF PEACE
This seminar offers a survey of biblical texts related to peace and violence. We will interpret these texts collaboratively, paying attention to their historical and literary contexts and to their meanings for readers today. We will also explore the implications of this biblical background for our understandings and practices of peacemaking.
3 semester hours.
I-225 SEMINAR: FAITH AND PEACEMAKING
Through written and oral reactions, each student will work toward a constructive articulation of a theology of peacemaking in response to essays and documents by theologians, activists, and saints who have written their rationale, theology, and perspectives on issues of violence and non-violence, war and peace, and faith and peacemaking.
3 semester hours.
I-226 VARIETIES OF CHRISTIAN PEACE WITNESS
This course introduces students to varieties of theologies and ways of practicing peace in the Christian tradition, with a concentration on the historic peace churches, Brethren, Mennonites and Friends. The course employs a variety of disciplinary approaches. In addition, the course will take up at least one Christian peace theology not from an historical peace church, and will discuss elements of Christian arguments to justify war.
3 semester hours.
I-226C VARIETIES OF CHRISTIAN PEACE WITNESS
With content similar to I-226, this course is paired with History of the Church of the Brethren (H-201C) as part of the Connections program. Its format combines weekend seminars with online learning.
3 semester hours.
I-228 RELIGION AS A SOURCE OF TERROR & TRANSFORMATION
Since September 11, 2001 there has been a renewed awareness of how religion and religious discourse can become a source of both terror and transformation. This relationship between terror and transformation is especially challenging and complicated when religion “goes public.” How do particular and prophetic religions enter pluralistic, public squares and contribute to social and political understanding and policy? Can there be credible expressions of public theology in our late modern, postmodern age? This course will explore the problems and possibilities of religious language and practice with the hope of what the prophet Jeremiah called “the peace of the city” in view.
3 semester hours.
I-450 M.A.TH INDEPENDENT STUDY
This course is open only to M.A.TH students who can register for the course anytime after the acceptance of their thesis proposal and before the submission of their thesis. The goal of this independent study is to dedicate structured time specifically to thesis research. To register for the Independent Study, the student must submit a M.A.TH Independent Study form to the Educational Policies Committee.
3 semester hours.
I-500 THESIS COMPLETION
This course grants 3 credit hours to the M.A.TH student for the successful completion of the thesis. Credit is granted when the thesis is approved by the thesis advisor and the secondary reader and three bindable copies are submitted to the Office of Academic Services in proper academic style according to the scheduled deadlines.
3 semester hours.
ELECTIVE IN INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES (200 OR 300 LEVEL)
Various courses may either be offered as a regular part of the curriculum or developed as a group reading course which fulfill one of the three interdisciplinary curriculum requirements. Previous offerings have included Peacemaking Skills: The Foreign Language of Caring, Readings in Women’s Faith and Theology, and Ethics for Ministry and Congregational Life.
3 semester hours.