Earlham School of Religion

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Theological Studies

T-101 INTRODUCTION TO THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION
This course is an introduction to theology as language that reflects on the activity and presence of God in our lives. Using a variety of theological texts, the course will examine both classic expressions of the Christian faith as well as ones that treat contemporary questions and problems. Films and novels will also be considered as occasions for theological reflection.
3 semester hours.
T-101C INTRODUCTION TO THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION
With content similar to T-101, this course is paired with Exegeting the Call and Culture of Ministry (F-110 C) as part of the Connections program. Its format combines weekend seminars with online learning.
3 semester hours. Prerequisite: I-101 C.
T-201 CONTEMPORARY CHURCH AND CULTURE
This course is a study of the interaction between Christianity and contemporary culture as seen within the church in North America. Using literature from sociology, cultural studies, media studies, and theology it will map the interactive relationships of church and culture from the 1940s to the present and note the various changes in ecclesiology from a modern to a post-modern society. The latter half of the class will attend to contemporary ecclesiologies that are emerging from increasingly diverse (and non-institutional) Christian communities.
3 semester hours.
T-207 BRETHREN BELIEFS AND PRACTICES
This course examines major beliefs and doctrinal interpretations along with practices that shape the Church of the Brethren. The course will study Brethren beliefs and practices across the span of time, with reflection on historical theology and in ecumenical conversation with other interpretations of Christianity significant to the study. The course will engage students in discussing the present life and faith of the Church of the Brethren.
3 semester hours.
T-215 THEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE
This course will be a study of the use of scripture in theology, especially as it relates to the church. Various aspects of this process will be explored such as the process of interpretation, the understanding of revelation and authority, the nature of the text, the development of the Christian canon, the role of the interpretive community and the role of modern methods of interpretation. Several theologians will be read to see how they use scripture in their theological work and how they understand the discernment of the Christian community in relation to the text.
3 semester hours.
T-304 THEOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDINGS OF JESUS
This course will study the paradigms of christology in biblical and theological literature. It will survey various historical and contemporary portrayals of Jesus as the Christ, giving attention to the way these christologies are biblically grounded and theologically conversant with the culture. Attention will also be given to classical christological debates within each of the portrayals.
3 semester hours. Prerequisite: T/THST-101 or B/BIST-101.
T-306 FEMINIST THEOLOGY AND THOUGHT
This course will trace the development of feminist theology and biblical interpretation in the United States from 1960 to the present day through the use of primary texts and articles. It will seek to understand the underlying structures and assumptions in the work of some of the early feminist theologians and the development of thought by some who wrote subsequent to them. Attention will also be given to current critiques of white Christian feminism by womanist and mujerista theologians and by Jewish feminists.
3 semester hours.
Prerequisite: T/THST-101.
T-309 THEOLOGY AND MATERIAL CULTURE
This course will address the relationship of theology and material culture by using a variety of historical and contemporary examples. Students will be immersed in a diversity of media (visual art, dance, music, icons, novels, films) raising questions of divine/human interaction, theories of religious representation and embodiment, and different ways of conceptualizing the world.
3 semester hours.
Prerequisite: T/THST-101.
T-310 MODERNITY, POST-MODERNITY AND BELIEF
This course will trace the intellectual and religious passage to modernity through representative writings including Schleiermacher’s lectures to the modern cultured despisers of religion. Most attention, however, will be given to the “postmodern turn” in art, literary theory, philosophy and theology. For some, this turn, which is marked by the collapse of the master narratives of the modern project and the death of a metaphysical God, is seen as a threat to the future of belief. Yet a growing number of postmodern thinkers explored in this course announce the return of the poet, the mystic and the prophet, and with them, the return of a God beyond the God we have named.
3 semester hours.
Prerequisite: T/THST-101.
T-312 SEEDS, SALT AND SHEEP
The course explores current understandings of evangelism in the Church of the Brethren in multiple cultural, social, geographical and theological contexts. The course emphasizes theology more than the practice of evangelism. The course seeks to define evangelism in the church, from and for a Brethren perspective, recognizing the diversity of cultural influences in the Church of the Brethren.
3 semester hours.
T-390 SEMINAR IN THEOLOGICAL STUDIES
Specialized advanced courses will be developed on the basis of faculty and student interest. Offerings could focus on particular theologians or theological issues.
3 semester hours.
Prerequisite: T/THST-101.