This course is a valuable resource for nonprofit organizational leaders looking to enhance their fundraising efforts amid challenging economic conditions. By focusing on the fundamentals of fund development, it equips participants with essential skills to cultivate donor relationships and strategize effectively as learning how to adapt fundraising approaches in response to global economic shifts is crucial for sustainability and impact in the nonprofit sector.
This course focuses upon the ministry of oversight that the priest shares with the bishop. It explores the nature and communal context of pastoral leadership as a dimension of servant ministry. The course seeks to develop competence and pastoral wisdom in several aspects of parish administration: working with vestries, overseeing parish finances and property, understanding and teaching stewardship, maintaining parish records, hiring staff, and recruiting and equipping lay ministries. The canons pertinent to these areas of responsibility are also studied. Toward the end of the course, we review the spiritual disciplines and patterns of holy living that are needed to sustain the priestly vocation.
This course will cover a range of topics relating to the work of a priest within a community. Two major concerns will be family systems theory and conflict management theory. The first provides insight into the forces at work within a congregation’s emotional and decision making process; the second provides perspective in working towards reconciliation or dealing with entrenched opposition. Planning as a means of prayerful and intentional leadership, effective meeting design, and approaches to a congregation's spiritual health and potential for growth will be covered as well.
This course will cover a range of topics relating to the work of a priest within a community. Two major concerns will be family systems theory and conflict management theory. The first provides insight into the forces at work within a congregation’s emotional and decision making process; the second provides perspective in working towards reconciliation or dealing with entrenched opposition. Planning as a means of prayerful and intentional leadership, effective meeting design, and approaches to a congregation's spiritual health and potential for growth will be covered as well.
This course, a continuation of the first semester course, continues along a path of linguistic and cultural proficiency combined with active participation in the weekly Oración Vespertina and the bi-weekly Santa Eucaristía services. Students officiate and read at the weekly Oración Vespertina services; and, are expected to preach in Spanish at the Santa Eucaristía services. The textbooks include ¡Continuemos!, El Libro de Oración Común (bi-lingual), the Bible in Spanish, La Violencia del Amor, and short stories written by Latin American authors. During the second half of the semester we will focus on liturgies in Spanish: La Santa Eucaristía, Bautismo and Casamiento. The course also has the attribute of LTCM.
This course provides an introduction to Latino theology and spirituality. It considers the historical context for the development of Latino theology in the United States, its contemporary sources and theological methods, and its implications for pastoral ministry. Drawing on a variety of ecumenical perspectives, it considers key issues and themes in Latino theology, such as lo cotidiano (the everyday lived experience), mestizaje (the mixing of cultures), and acompañamiento (accompaniment). Readings include texts from liberation theology, mujerista theology, and the work of several contemporary Roman Catholic and Protestant theologians. Spanish is helpful but not required.
Ecclesiology is theological reflection on the nature, mission, and life of the church. It is therefore both a foundational and a practical discipline, which can generate the entire range of issues for constructive theology. The first half of the course examines the sacramental and communal ground and nature of the church, including both historical and contemporary sacramental theology. The second half of the course focuses on the life and mission of the church. It examines a variety of contemporary issues, which challenge the church's sense of both its identity and mission in the world today. These issues include conversion, globalization (including world mission), ecumenism, and liberation.
Most classic texts of Christian spirituality are actually works of spiritual guidance. Rooted in a profound experience of God, they move from prayer to pastoral art, seeking to guide others in the ways of grace through the written word. Over the centuries, Christians in a variety of circumstances have continued to draw wisdom and insight from these spiritual mentors of the past. Through a close reading of primary texts by authors such as Benedict ofNursia, Bernard of Clairvaux, Aelred of Rievaulx, Francis of Assisi, the author of The Cloud of Unknowing, and Julian of Norwich, the course samples diverse schools of Western Christian spirituality from the sixth through the fourteenth centuries. It examines enduring polarities in spiritual theology such as the affirmative and negative ways, contemplation and service, liberty and discipline. While reading these authors critically and in their own historical context, it also explores how their teaching could inform prayer, theological vision, pastoral oversight, and spiritual counsel.
This required course for MA students in Religion and Environment allows students to integrate work done in college Environmental Studies courses with their theological coursework. For each college course, each student will present a synthesis of that course’s content with content from their theological studies at least once a semester. The gathered cohort and faculty will discuss the work and offer suggestions and their own insights.
In addition to its basic doctrines of God, Creation, and Christ, the Christian faith offers its adherents membership in a community of grace. It holds that following Christ’s resurrection and ascension the Corpus Christi or “Body of Christ” continues to exist on earth in communal form. Furthermore, this community is created, nourished, and empowered by participating in the sacraments of baptism and Eucharist as well as by the sacramental rites of confirmation, matrimony, ordination, reconciliation, and unction. This course will thus offer a theological examination of classic and contemporary understandings of ecclesiology and sacramentology.
M.A. students in the Bible, Church History, Theology, and Religion and Environment concentrations register for THEO 598 while pursuing their research project.
M.A. students in the Bible, Church History, Theology, and Religion and Environment concentrations register for THEO 598 while pursuing their research project.
This course examines all aspects of the mission of the Church, including theology and history of missions, current mission practice and experience.