This course is designed to help international student writers succeed in writing, editing, and completing a large research project specific to their discipline. This could be a research paper, journal article, literature review, dissertation chapter, grant proposal, or other relevant document. The course provides intensive help with grammar, idiomatic phrasing, and overall clarity for writers whose native language is not English. The instructor will collaborate with the Language Center of the University for additional resources.
School of Theology
This course consists of an eclectic approach, introducing students both to the traditional historical-critical methods and to more recent linguistic and literary studies. Major expressions of Israel's relationship with God, including covenant, law, the prophetic office, monarchy, temple worship, and apocalyptic thought, are covered. Some attention is given to the history of interpretation. The first semester is an introduction to the Old Testament within its ancient Near Eastern setting, to the tools of critical biblical study, and to the content of the Torah/Pentateuch and prophets/historical books.
This course is both an intermediate Biblical Hebrew class and a practical outfitter for ministers seeking to preach and teach Old Testament texts in congregational settings. Each week students prepare a set number of first readings and/or Psalms that appear in the Revised Common Lectionary Year C for study in class. Activities and assignments emphasize reinforcing Hebrew language skills and highlighting homiletical/pedagogical strategies for engaging the Old Testament This course is appropriate for Hebrew learners of all experience levels. The final grade is based on student effort, participation, and individual Hebrew learning progress.
New Testament Foundations I and II offer a literary and historical introduction to the New Testament, using the tools of critical study that were introduced in study of the Old Testament. Students look at the chief witnesses to God's work in Jesus Christ, taking note of their setting in the interlocking worlds of first-century Judaism and Hellenism. Foundations I is an introduction to the Gospels and Acts.
An introduction to the Hebrew language of the Old Testament. Our textbook favors an inductive approach; students begin translating biblical phrases already in Lesson 1, and learn vocabulary according to their frequency.
In this seminar students improve their general reading knowledge of Biblical Hebrew. This entails a more detailed study of Hebrew grammar, the further development of basic Hebrew vocabulary, and the introduction to the syntax of Hebrew prose. Course also introduces students to a number of textual matters pertaining to the critical study of the Hebrew Bible.
This course is designed to give students a working knowledge of New Testament Greek that will assist in studies in the New Testament, and also assist in understanding the Greek terms used throughout seminary studies. Students will begin to read New Testament passages, gaining insights into better understanding of the New Testament.
This third course in the Greek language sequence offers New Testament readings including Luke, Acts, and Paul's letters. Students perform text criticism and consider the role of ancient literacy genres in shaping the NT text. Overall, the course emphasizes the fundamentals of reading comprehension including vocabulary and morphology while also introducing several principles and methods of scholarship.
This course surveys the stories, rituals, and myths that surround spirit phenomena in biblical literature using examples from the Old Testament, Second Temple Jewish literature, and New Testament. Recognizing that spirit phenomena do not always fit into modern categories like “medicine,” “psychology,” or even “religion,” this course employs theoretical models developed by scholars who have studied and experienced contemporary spirit practices firsthand, including cultural anthropologists, ethnographers, and Pentecostal/charismatic theologians. A special emphasis is placed on how ministry leaders can illuminate spirit texts from the Bible in local church settings.
A close reading of Paul's magnum opus, his letter to the several assemblies of Christ-believers in Rome. Assumes both a critical introduction to the New Testament and a willingness to engage Paul's letter critically. The letter will be read in translation, though students wishing to read the letter in Greek will also be accommodated and evaluated appropriately.
A Biblical Studies topic developed by the student and a School of Theology faculty member to meet an educational goal not met through existing courses.
A Biblical Studies topic developed by the student and a School of Theology faculty member to meet an educational goal not met through existing courses.
The lay Episcopal theologians Vida Scudder, William Stringfellow, and Verna Dozier represent a distinctive ethic in US Episcopalianism. Characterized by radical biblicism, subversive anti-institutionalism, and political activism, this ethic nonetheless stands within the Anglican moral theological tradition of Maurice, Gore, and Temple. In addition to engaging deeply with each of these three original thinkers, this class situates them in that broader tradition, looking at those historical antecedents as well as later successors such as Pauli Murray, Luke Bretherton, and Kathryn Tanner.
This course examines saints, holiness, and altruism as seen through the interdisciplinary lenses of Christian church history, comparative religion, philosophy, theology, and biography. Students will gain a greater knowledge of how religious and moral exemplars function in their respective communities of faith as figures of both veneration and imitation, how various theories of altruism both build upon and wrestle with the existence of such exemplars, and how secular sainthood has emerged as a vital concept in contemporary ethics. The implications of saints for belief in divine reality will be considered along with the meaning and challenge of sainthood for today.
This course focuses on the patristic and medieval periods. It concentrates on the narrative history of the church with emphasis on doctrinal developments, major theological controversies, heresies, missionary expansion, and the development of distinctive church institutions.
Beginning with the Reformation, this course traces the origins and the development of Anglicanism. Focusing on the Church of England, it will consider the events and ideas that shaped Anglicanism, especially the Reformers, the Deists, the Evangelical revival, the Oxford Movement and Anglo-Catholicism, the Social Gospel and the Anglican Communion. This course also has the attribute of ANGL.
A Church History and Historical Theology topic developed by the student and a School of Theology faculty member to meet an educational goal not met through existing courses.
A Church History and Historical Theology topic developed by the student and a School of Theology faculty member to meet an educational goal not met through existing courses.
This course is composed of two modules: Preaching the Lesser Feasts and Fasts and Preaching the Major Pastoral Rites: Weddings and Funerals. The course will examine the particular homiletical and pastoral challenges in preaching the shorter homilies that are anticipated on such occasions. In addition to the course readings, students will analyze and critique homilies by established preachers as well as prepare and preach homilies in class, as assigned by the instructors, in response to unique liturgical or pastoral situations.