Course Information

Course Description

This course surveys the history of Christianity from the late first century to the eve of the Reformation. Doctrinal and ecclesial developments will be considered within wider cultural contexts, with special attention to different ways of interpreting the biblical witness to Christ and life in Christ, and how they contribute to a shared, yet dynamic, Christian theological heritage.

Professor

Kenneth Woo

Time

Fall Semester 2025-2026, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:00-11:15 a.m., In Person

Full Course Description

Course Description

This course surveys the history of Christianity from the late first century to the eve of the Reformation. Doctrinal and ecclesial developments will be considered within wider cultural contexts, with special attention to different ways of interpreting the biblical witness to Christ and life in Christ, and how they contribute to a shared, yet dynamic, Christian theological heritage.

Professor

Ryan Ramsey

Time

Fall Semester 2025, Mondays and Fridays, 12:00-1:15 p.m., Hybrid

Full Course Description

Course Description

An introduction to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John (with the Johannine Epistles), and Acts showing their significance in the Church and the world today. Special attention is given to the specific content of these books, to their genres and connections with ancient biography or history, to various theological and historical portraits of Jesus, and to the various methods used in critical study of the Gospels.

Professor

Tucker Ferda

Time

Fall Semester 2025-2026, Wednesdays, 6:30-9:15 p.m.,  Hybrid

Full Course Description

Course Description

This course is an introduction to the books of Genesis through Esther. The course will explore factors that gave rise to and helped shape this material, and it will focus on the canonical shape of the books and their contribution to the theology and life of the church.

Professor

Kimberly Russaw

Time

Fall Semester 2025-2026, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8:30-9:45 a.m., In Person

Full Course Description

Course Description

In this course students will be introduced to and practice a variety of spiritual disciplines, grounded in historic Christian spiritual traditions. Students will reflect on their own life of prayer, practice of vocational discernment, and begin developing the skills to lead communal spiritual practices.

This course description applies to both the fall and spring semesters of Spiritual Formation (SP110A and SP110B)—the readings and assignments are spread across two semesters, both of which must be taken for credit.

Professor

L. Roger Owens

Time
SP 110-A1 Spiritual Formation - Odd Weeks Wednesday, 10:00-11:15 a.m., In Person
SP 110-AH1  Spiritual Formation - Odd Weeks Monday, 6:30-7:45 p.m., Hybrid
SP 110-AH2  Spiritual Formation - Odd Weeks Monday, 8:00-9:15 p.m., Hybrid

Weekend Intensive 
All Sections Week 12 - Sat., Dec. 5, 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m., Online

Full Course Description

Course Description

An introduction to the study of the practices of Christian worship with attention to the ways the Bible, theology, tradition, and context shape what Christian communities do when they gather to worship God. Led by faculty representing a variety of theological disciplines and perspectives, each section of WS 110 considers particular dimensions of Christian worship, promoting theological reflection, historical and socio-cultural awareness, intellectual curiosity, and participation in the worship life of the seminary community and the wider church. The course is also designed to introduce the resources, tools, and skills that contribute to effective written communication at the master's level. 

Professor

TBD

Time

Fall Semester 2025-2026, Tuesdays, 6:30-9:15 p.m., Hybrid

Full Course Description

Course Description

An introduction to the study of the practices of Christian worship with attention to the ways the Bible, theology, tradition, and context shape what Christian communities do when they gather to worship God. Led by faculty representing a variety of theological disciplines and perspectives, each section of WS 110 considers particular dimensions of Christian worship, promoting theological reflection, historical and socio-cultural awareness, intellectual curiosity, and participation in the worship life of the seminary community and the wider church. The course is also designed to introduce the resources, tools, and skills that contribute to effective written communication at the Master's level. 

Professor

Jerome Creach

Time

Fall Semester 2025-26, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:30-2:45 p.m., In person

Full Course Description

Course Description

Middler course language option

This course introduces the process of Old Testament exegesis and gives students opportunity to practice exegesis of various Old Testament passages from the English Bible. Students will learn to identify and evaluate the literary, social, historical, and canonical contexts of passages and to articulate the meaning of those passages as Christian Scripture. Students will also learn to identify appropriate scholarly resources for Old Testament interpretation.

Professor

Daniel Frayer-Griggs

Time

Fall Semester 2025-2026, Wednesdays, 6:30-9:15 p.m., Hybrid

Full Course Description

Course Description

Middler required course.

This is the first of two consecutive courses in which students are invited into the postures, habits, and practices of theologically reflective ministry. Interdisciplinary in nature, the course pays particular attention to the integration of student experiences in field placement sites with work in contextual analysis, Christian theology, and pastoral care.

Professor

Kenneth Woo and L. Roger Owens

Times

Fall Semester 2025-2026, Wednesdays, 1:30-4:15 p.m., In Person/Woo

Full Course Description - Woo

or

Fall Semester 2025-2026, Tuesdays, 6:30-9:15 p.m., Hybrid/Owens

Full Course Description - Owens

Course Description

This course introduces students to the basics of biblical Greek and to the tools necessary for translating and interpreting New Testament Greek texts. Students will start with the Greek alphabet and learn the rudiments of grammar and syntax. They will learn basic vocabulary and develop the ability to parse and to translate simple sentences from the New Testament.

Professor

Rafael Rodriguez

Time

Fall Semester 2025-2026, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8:30-9:45 a.m., In Person

Full Course Description 

Course Description

This course introduces students to the basics of biblical Hebrew and to the tools necessary for translating and interpreting Hebrew texts. Students will learn Hebrew consonants and vowel points and the rudiments of Hebrew grammar and syntax. Students will learn basic vocabulary and begin to translate and interpret simple sentences from the Hebrew Bible.

Professor

Jerome Creach

Time

Fall Semester 2025-2026, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8:30-9:45 a.m., In Person

Full Course Description

Course Description

In this course, students will be introduced to the theology and practice of caring ministry, with special attention to pastoral self-awareness and key relational skills. The course will help students develop their capacity to understand and discern the needs of persons and communities and to determine appropriate responses. Students will also explore the intersection of leadership and care through the study of organizational dynamics and group processes.

Professor

Leanna Fuller

Time

Fall Semester 2025-2026, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:30-2:45 p.m., In Person
Fall Semester 2025-2026, Mondays, 6:30-9:15 p.m., Hybrid

Full Course Description

Course Description

MTS required course.

This course introduces students to the sources, methods, and bibliographical tools important for academic research and writing in a theological context. Students will gain familiarity with on-campus resources such as the Barbour Library and Center for Writing and Learning Support. Designed to be completed in the first year of one’s program, this course will develop skills in critical analysis as students begin engaging scholarship relevant to completing a research project.

Daniel Frayer-Griggs

Time

Fall Semester 2025-2026, Thursdays, 6:30-9:15 p.m., Online

Full Course Description

Course Description

This is the first of two courses introducing students to Christian doctrine. Students are invited to reflect theologically on the biblical narrative of election, creation, sin, Israel, and Christ's incarnation, death, resurrection and ascension as lifted up in the church's creedal confessions about Trinity and Christ. Attention will be given to how God's being and work draw us into God's mission and give shape to faithful practices and ministry within particular cultural contexts. 

Professor

Edwin van Driel

Time

Fall Semester 2025-2026, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:00-11:15 a.m., In Person 

Full Course Description

Course Description

This course equips students to reflect on the church and its relationship to its various locations, with a particular focus on national and global contexts and issues.  Students will learn to use biblical and theological resources with insight from the social sciences to analyze contexts and to identify and explore ethical issues related to cultural, economic, and social structures in which the church participates in God's mission.

Professor

AnneMarie Mingo

Time

Fall 2025-2026, Thursdays, 6:30-9:15 p.m., Hybrid

Full Course Description

Course Description

This course is designed to help students prepare to teach the Bible at the congregational level, whether that be in focused Bible studies or more thematic courses. The focus is adult education, but the material will be helpful for youth ministry as well. Course content addresses three particular areas: (1) theological exploration of hermeneutics and the nature of Scripture; (2) reflection on the role and posture of the teacher and the pros and cons of various pedagogical strategies; (3) practice designing and implementing Bible studies appropriate to diverse and specific settings.

Professor

Kimberly Russaw

Time

Fall Semester 2025-2026, Wednesdays, 1:30-4:15 p.m., In Person

Full Course Description

Course Description

This course explores World Christianity as an academic field of study by examining the histories of Christian communities in particular parts of the world. The course provides both broad overviews of regional histories as well as focused studies of particular Christian communities curated to demonstrate their diversity and ingenuity. Students will also engage key thinkers and ideas from scholars of World Christianity. In the fall of 2024, the course will focus on Christian communities in the Global South.

Professor

Ryan Ramsey

Time

Fall Semester 2025-2026, Tuesdays, 1:30-4:15 p.m., In Person

Full Course Description

Course Description

This course will examine the history, theological focus, and core values that inform ministry in the city. Attention will be given to helping students discern their vocational call in the context of city life and Christian witness in this arena.

Professor

R. Drew Smith

Time

Fall Semester 2025-2026, Wednesdays, 6:30-9:15 p.m., Online

Full Course Description

Course Description

The scope of the course includes the feminist and womanist positions for women’s clergy and lay leadership in churches; the conditions extant within society which brought about liberation movements and the extent to which it influences church women. History of the church's attitudes towards women past and present. Special attention is given to the needs of women in ministry and to the ideational and political stance(s) which inform them. Exploration of biblical and theological themes in relation to women's leadership roles in ecclesiastical institutions and other spaces for Christian ministry. While this course will primarily engage a North American perspective, women’s leadership in the church and society will be embraced globally.

Professor

AnneMarie Mingo

Time

Fall Semester 2025-2026, Tuesdays, 6:30-9:15 p.m., Online

Full Course Description

Course Description

An exploration of U.S. capitalism and the consequences for church mission and ministry. Drawing from histories of capitalist development in the United States, students will gain critical tools for thinking about the ways economic structures and practices commodify our world, while also exploring different Christian responses to capitalist or consumerist production.

Professor

Scott Hagley

Time

Fall Semester 2025-2026, Wednesdays, 12:00-1:15 p.m., Online

Full Course Description

Course Description

The apostle Paul and his letters dominate our understanding and reconstruction of the earliest generation of the Christian movement. Paul’s influence over Christian theology, especially in Reformed traditions, is rivaled only by the influence of Jesus himself. This course examines Paul’s long and most influential letter, moving beyond “Pauline theology” to explore exegetical, historical, and social aspects of his letter to the Romans as well as Christianity at its origins and in twenty-first century contexts.

Professor

Rafael Rodriguez

Time

Fall Semester 2025-2026, Wednesdays, 6:30-9:15 p.m., Online

Full Course Description

Course Description

Supralapsarian Christology holds that the incarnation is not contingent upon sin, but central to God’s fundamental intentions for creation. The last fifteen years has seen a renaissance of this approach, with a variety of new studies exploring its implications not only for Christology, but also for Biblical studies, ethics, pastoral care, and missiology. In this course we will read some of these contributions, focused on the ways in which supralapsarian Christology offers a fresh way of telling the Biblical narrative in a new missional era.

Professor

Edwin van Driel

Time

Fall Semester 2025-2026, Mondays, 6:30-9:15 p.m., Online

Full Course Description

Course Description

This course introduces students to the basics of biblical Greek and to the tools necessary for translating and interpreting New Testament Greek texts. Students will start with the Greek alphabet and learn the rudiments of grammar and syntax. They will learn basic vocabulary and develop the ability to parse and to translate simple sentences from the New Testament. 

Professor

Rafael Rodriguez

Full Course Description

Course Description

This course completes the study of introductory Greek grammar, extends vocabulary memorization, and introduces the practice of exegesis. Students will gain skills in interpreting texts by giving attention to their literary, social, historical, and canonical contexts, and by articulating the meaning of these texts as Christian Scripture. Students will also learn to identify appropriate scholarly resources for biblical interpretation.

Professor

Rafael Rodriguez

Full Course Description

Course Description

This course introduces students to the basics of biblical Hebrew and to the tools necessary for translating and interpreting Hebrew texts. Students will learn Hebrew consonants and vowel points and the rudiments of grammar and syntax. They will learn basic vocabulary and begin to translate and interpret simple sentences from the Hebrew Bible. 

Professor

Jerome Creach

Full Course Description

Course Description

This course completes the study of introductory Hebrew grammar and introduces the practice of exegesis. Students will gain skills in interpreting texts by giving attention to their literary, social, historical, and canonical contexts, and by articulating the meaning of these texts as Christian Scripture. Students will also learn to identify appropriate scholarly resources for biblical interpretation. 

Professor

Jerome Creach

Full Course Description

Course Description

Year 1 required course.

This course surveys the history of Christianity from the Reformation to the present. Ecclesial and doctrinal developments will be considered with special attention to the different forms that Christian life and thought have taken as the church has entered new cultural contexts and discerned faithfulness to God’s mission.

Professor

Kenneth Woo

Time

Spring Semester 2024-2025, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:00-11:15 a.m, In person

Full Course Description

Course Description

This course offers an orientation to the ways anthropological and sociological approaches to the interpretation of culture contribute to theological reflection with and within particular socio-cultural contexts. Focusing on a particular neighborhood and/or institutional environment, students will become familiar with the techniques and develop the skills to critically consider the missiological, theological, and ethical dimensions of a Christian community in relation to the wider society.

Professor

Scott Hagley or Ryan Ramsey

Time

Spring Semester 2024-2025, Wednesdays, 1:30-4:15 p.m., In person/Hagley
Mondays and Fridays. 12:00-1:15 p.m., Hybrid/Ramsey

Full Course Description

Course Description

An introduction to those books of the New Testament associated with the letter-form (the Pauline corpus, Hebrews, the Petrine epistles, Jude and Revelation), showing their significance in the Church and the world today. Special attention is given to the specific content of these books, to their particular genres, to the life and theology of Paul, and to the methods used in the critical study of these books (literary, socio-historical, rhetorical), as well as to the question of pseudepigraphy.

Professor

Rafael Rodriguez

Time

Spring Semester 2024-2025, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:30-2:45 p.m., In person

Full Course Description

Course Description

An introduction to the prophetic books (Latter Prophets), Psalter, and Wisdom literature of the Old Testament with an exploration of factors that gave rise to and helped shaped this material. In addition to examining the background of prophecy in the cultures of the ancient Near East, attention is given to the specific content of these books, to the theology of the prophetic books, to the various literary genres (e.g., oracle, hymn, lament), to methods used in the interpretation of Scripture (source, form, redaction, literary, socio-cultural, canonical, and rhetorical criticism), and to the psalms as a product of Israel’s cultic life.

Professor

Jerome Creach

Time

Spring Semester 2024-2025, Tuesdays, 6:30-9:15 p.m., Hybrid

Full Course Description

Course Description

In this course students will be introduced to and practice a variety of spiritual disciplines, grounded in historic Christian spiritual traditions. Students will reflect on their own life of prayer, practice of vocational discernment, and begin developing the skills to lead communal spiritual practices.

Professor

L. Roger Owens

Time

Weekend Intensive 
All Sections Week 12 - Saturday, May 10, 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m., Online 

SP 110-B2 Spiritual Formation - Even Weeks Wednesday, 10:00-11:15 a.m., In Person
SP 110-BH Spiritual Formation - Even Weeks Monday, 6:30-7:45 p.m., Hybrid

Full Course Description

Course Description

This course introduces the process of New Testament exegesis and gives students the opportunity to practice exegesis of various New Testament passages in the English Bible. Students will learn to identify and evaluate the literary, social, historical, and canonical contexts of passages and to articulate a faithful interpretation of the meanings of those passages as Christian Scripture. Students will also learn to identify reliable and appropriate scholarly resources for New Testament interpretation.

This course fulfills the language requirement for students who do not take Greek or Hebrew.

Professor

Daniel Frayer-Griggs

Time

Spring Semester 2024-2025, Wednesdays, 8:30-11:15 a.m., In Person

Full Course Description

Course Description

This is the first of two consecutive courses in which students are invited into the postures, habits, and practices of theologically reflective ministry. Interdisciplinary in nature, the course pays particular attention to the integration of student experiences in field placement sites with work in contextual analysis, Christian theology, and pastoral care.

Professor

John Burgess and Edwin van Driel

Times

Spring Semester 2024-2025, Wednesdays, 1:30-4:15 p.m., In Person, Burgess
or
Spring Semester 2024-2025, Mondays, 6:30-9:15 p.m., Hybrid, van Driel

Full Course Description - Burgess

Full Course Description - van Driel

Course Description

This course explores biblical, theological, and historical understandings of Christian mission and evangelism with a view toward practices for leading the church to discern and participate in God’s mission within particular contexts.

Professor

Scott Hagley

Time

Spring Semester 2024-2025, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:30-2:45 p.m., In person

Full Course Description

Course Description

This course completes the study of introductory Greek grammar, extends vocabulary memorization, and introduces the practice of exegesis. Students will gain skills in interpreting texts by giving attention to their literary, social, historical, and canonical contexts, and by articulating the meaning of these texts as Christian Scripture. Students will also learn to identify appropriate scholarly resources for biblical interpretation.

Professor

Tucker Ferda

Time

Spring Semester 2024-2025, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8:30-9:45 a.m., In person

Full Course Description

Course Description

This course completes the study of introductory Hebrew grammar and introduces the practice of exegesis. Students will gain skills in interpreting texts by giving attention to their literary, social, historical, and canonical contexts, and by articulating the interpretation of these texts as Christian Scripture. Students will also learn to identify appropriate scholarly resources for biblical interpretation.

Professor

Kimberly Russaw

Time

Spring Semester 2024-2025, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8:30-9:45 a.m., Hybrid

Full Course Description

Course Description

This course introduces students to the theology and practice of preaching, with attention to the performative skills involved in effective communication in ministry settings. Topics include: the oral interpretation of Scripture, biblical exegesis for proclamation, the role of culture and context in preaching, the structure and rhetoric of sermons, and the non-verbal dimensions of communication.

Professor

Angela Hancock

Time

Spring Semester 2024-2025, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:00-11:15 a.m., In person
Mondays and Fridays, 12:00-1:15 p.m., Hybrid

Full Course Description

Course Description

Senior required course.

This is the second of two courses introducing students to Christian doctrine. Students are invited to reflect theologically on the biblical narrative of God’s gifts through the Spirit of the risen Christ, including justification, sanctification, vocation, the church, the sacraments, and the eschatological consummation of God’s reign, as lifted up in the church’s creedal confessions. Attention will be given to how God’s being and work draw us into God’s mission and give shape to faithful practices and ministry within particular cultural contexts. 

Professor

John Burgess

Time

Fall Semester 2024, Tuesdays, 6:30-9:15 p.m., Hybrid

Full Course Description

Course Description

This course explores the development of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity. The course provides overviews of major theological developments, leaders, denominations, and traditions. Students will furthermore attend to issues of class, race, and gender in Pentecostal and Charismatic history.

Professor

Ryan Ramsey

Time

Spring Semester 2024-2025, Tuesdays, 8:30-11:15 a.m., In person

Full Course Description

Course Description

During the last century, especially the last few decades, African Christianity has experienced historic levels of numerical and geographical expansion. According to reliable estimates, the Christian population of Africa increased from approximately 10 million in 1900 to 500 million in 2000, and African Christians are expected to number one billion by 2050. African Christianity is also having a notable impact beyond the African continent as increasing numbers of Africans have emigrated to Europe, Asia, and North America, establishing vibrant churches with demonstrative reach and influence among African immigrant populations and also among non-African host populations.

While touching briefly on the development of Christianity on the African continent, this course focuses mainly on the Christianity of African immigrants residing in the global North. The course examines:(1) globalizing forces and other social factors contributing to African presence in global North contexts; (2) cross-cultural challenges and opportunities experienced within global North contexts by African immigrant populations and churches; (3) theological, cultural, and socio-political bearings of African immigrant churches; (4) local and transnational networks from which African immigrant churches may derive resources and inspiration; (5) the ecclesial, missiological, and socio-cultural impact in-general of African immigrant churches within global North host contexts; and (6) implications of these globalizing patterns for the future of Christianity

Professor

R. Drew Smith

Time

Spring Semester 2024-2025, Thursdays, 6:30-9:15 p.m., Online

Full Course Description

Course Description

The Pittsburgh Metropolitan region has embodied in important ways America’s early settler adventures, difficult race relations, industrial revolution, labor strife, urban decline and redevelopment, and an evolving religious culture. Utilizing historical, sociological, and theological readings as well as lectures from key, local experts and informants, the course explores Pittsburgh’s metropolitan ethos and the role of churches in the formation and maintenance of metro-Pittsburgh’s social and religious culture. Observational and analytical tools acquired in this course will readily transfer to interpretation and analysis of local social and religious contexts beyond the metro-Pittsburgh context.

This course is requiqred for the Graduate Certificate in Urban Ministry.

Professor

R. Drew Smith

Time

Spring Semester 2024-2025, Wednesdays, 6:30-9:15 p.m., Online

Full Course Description

Course Description

Dutch society has become highly secularized, with a quarter of the population declaring themselves atheists and only a small percentage participating in church life. In such an environment, how do Christian communities function?  What have Dutch churches learned about God, themselves, and their neighbors?  What would they like to teach us, and what do they want to tell us not to do?  This course, build around a study trip to the Netherlands, engages missional redeveloping congregations, church plants, and immigrant churches. Students will be participant-observers in worship and other activities of these communities, meet with leaders and congregants, and engage in neighborhood exegesis.

Professor

Edwin van Driel

Time

Spring Semester 2024-2025, Thursdays, 3:00-5:45 p.m., Online

Full Course Description

Course Description

The Quest for the Historical Jesus investigates the centuries-long endeavor to construct Jesus as a figure in history. In addition to introducing students to the practice of historical reconstruction and the use of literary and archaeological resources in the study of the ancient world, the course explores hermeneutical developments undergirding the quest, significant reconstructions of Jesus the last two hundred years, and the presentation of the historical Jesus in contemporary popular culture. The course also attends to theological questions raised by the quest and its resultant portraits of Jesus.

Professor

Tucker Ferda

Time

Spring Semester 2024-2025, Wednesdays, 8:30-11:15 a.m., In person

Full Course Description

Course Description

This course is a study of Isaiah 40-66, commonly known as Second Isaiah. The course explores these chapters from a variety of perspectives, historical, literary, and theological. Students will be encouraged to use historicalcritical tools to inquire concerning the meaning of the text in the sixth century BCE. But to gain the fullest possible appreciation for this material’s impact on people of faith, students will also be asked to consider the rich history of the interpretation of Second Isaiah as reflected in the rabbinical literature of early Judaism and in Christian literature, from the New Testament to the Church Fathers and Reformers. Throughout the course, students will also be urged to reflect on the theological implications of Isaiah 40-55 for the church today. 

Professor

Jerome Creach

Time

Spring Semester 2024-2025, Tuesdays, 1:30-4:15 p.m., In person

Full Course Description

Course Description

Women in the Pentateuch is a 3-credit hour elective course focused on the many named and unnamed women found in the first five books of the Old Testament.  Through the course, participants will examine the role(s) and function(s) of women in the biblical world, consider interpretive methods, and explore modern-day presentations of women in the Bible.  This survey course relies heavily on student engagement through the critical reading of the biblical text and its scholarship.

Professor

Kimberly Russaw

Time

Spring Semester 2024-2025, Mondays and Fridays, 12:00-1:15, Online

Full Course Description

Course Description

This advanced course is designed to help students develop or deepen such pastoral care and counseling skills as listening, assessing, responding, referring, and intervening in crisis situations, with special attention to the congregational context. Students will learn to differentiate the pastoral roles and tasks unique to providing pastoral care, pastoral counseling, and spiritual counsel, and the relationships among them.

Professor

Leanna Fuller

Time

Spring Semester 2024-2025, Thursdays, 8:30-11:15 a.m., In person

Full Course Description

Course Description

Through lectures, readings, and discussions students will explore the dynamics of leadership in settings of conflict, particularly that of the local parish. Current conflict theories will be explored; however, the emphasis of the class is on the identity and awareness of the leader when serving in conflicted contexts. Students will be expected to build bridges from other coursework to the material presented in this class, and to practical case studies involving conflict.

Professor

Leanna Fuller

Time

Spring Semester 2024-2025, Tuesdays, 6:30-9:15 p.m., Online

Full Course Description

Course Description

This course is designed to allow students to examine aspects of the theology, practice, and influence of Thomas Merton, a significant 20^th Century spiritual teacher. Merton’s work will be considered in ongoing dialogue with the students’ own experiences and practice of prayer. In this course students will be introduced to Merton’s life, work, and place in contemporary American Spirituality, including his prophetic writings on race and war, along with his interfaith engagements with Buddhism. Readings from Merton will be used to allow students to relate Merton’s theology and practice of Christian spirituality to their own lives of faith and the practice of ministry.

Professor

L. Roger Owens

Time

Spring Semester 2024-2025, Wednesdays, 1:30-4:15 p.m., In Person

Full Course Description

Course Description

This course explores World Christianity as an academic field of study by examining the histories of Christian communities in particular parts of the world. The course provides both broad overviews of regional histories as well as focused studies of particular Christian communities curated to demonstrate their diversity and ingenuity. Students will also engage key thinkers and ideas from scholars of World Christianity. The course will focus on Christian communities in the Global South.

Professor

Ryan Ramsey

Time

January 2025, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6:30-8:45 p.m., and Saturdays 9:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m., Online

Full Course Description

Course Description

This course invites students to reflect theologically on the ecclesial contexts in which they (will) minister: locally, denominationally, and ecumenically. Focusing on baptism, (ordained) ministry, and church unity, students will both draw on the insights of their own traditions and learn to see these traditions as embedded in a wider catholic tradition. As the shape of Christianity in North America is increasingly fragmented, this course will challenge students to ponder how we might seek common ecclesial life with those who think similarly and those who are different.

Professor

Jared Witt

Time

January Term 2024-2025, Mondays and Fridays 6:30-8:45 p.m., and Saturdays 9:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m., Online
 

Full Course Description

Course Description

An introduction to the essential elements of Presbyterian polity (the Book of Order) in light of the confessional and theological foundations (the Book of Confessions) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The course will explore ways an understanding of Presbyterian polity can support, guide, and enhance the practice of ministry in diverse congregational settings. In addition, students will be introduced to basic parliamentary procedure and the role of the moderator in planning and facilitating session meetings. This course is designed to prepare Presbyterian students for the ordination examination in church polity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Professor

Trent Hancock

Time

January Term 2024-2025, Mondays and Fridays 6:30-8:45 p.m., and Saturdays 9:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m., Online

Full Course Description

Course Description

Intercultural Experiential Learning will be organized around intercultural/experiential learning trips to reflect on hosts’ understanding of their context and the mission of the Church in that context. The course provides pre-experience orientation in cultural competence and anti-racism, intercultural communication, a theology of short-term mission engagement, area studies for the specific context to be studied, and spiritual practices for mission. After the encounters, students will reflect on their experiences and explore personal, cultural, missiological, and theological strategies for leading others in intercultural experiences.

Professors

Hunter Farrell, Emiola Oriola

Time

January Term 2024-2025, Jan. 6-8, 2025, 5:00-8:00 p.m., In person and Online
Jan. 27-29, 2025, 5:00-8:00 p.m., In person and Online

See January 2024-2025 schedule for dates of specific trips.

Full Course Description