Longtime activist, author, and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Rev. John Dear, will walk us through the Synoptic Gospels pointing out Jesus’ practice and teachings of nonviolence and invite us to become practitioners of creative nonviolence, based on his new commentary, “The Gospel of Peace.” We will reflect on Matthew, with the Sermon on the Mount …
View course details “The Gospel of Peace: Reading Matthew, Mark & Luke from the Perspective of Nonviolence”
This course orients students to the theology, literature, and key issues in the Old Testament. It reflects on questions of how Old Testament books are best read together as part of the Christian canon of Scripture, and their ability to shape Christian life and engagement with culture. After addressing key interpretive issues, the course explores …
View course details “Old Testament Foundations”
Acts is an exciting book, telling the story of the beginnings of the church over its first thirty to forty years. It’s in the form of ‘edited highlights’, picking out key events, key people, and key themes in the establishment and growth of the church. The story itself is strongly driven by God himself: time after …
View course details “The Book of Acts: To the End of the Earth”
This course explores the pertinence of the message of the prophets of ancient Israel for contemporary issues through reading, exegesis, and preaching. We will read significant parts of prophetic literature, asking how literary, historical, and theological lenses provide ways to see, preach, and teach its messages. We will also learn from classic preachers (e.g. John …
View course details “Preaching the Prophets”
This course is a survey course of prophets in Ancient Israel and the texts of the prophets of the Hebrew Bible. Studying the language of the prophetic corpus, we will explore the historical, social, and political contexts of the writings and their meanings for the intended audience and readers today. By the end of the …
View course details “The Prophets”
What is the New Testament’s Vision of Our Mission and Ministry? In this course, we will look again at what key parts of the New Testament have to say about the assemblies of Jesus’ disciples, which we call the church. We will explore what these assemblies were, what they did, and why they did it. …
View course details “A People’s Theology of the Church”
A survey of the teaching of the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans. We will focus on the argument of the letter and on key theological and practical issues that are significant in that argument. Class discussion will encourage students to come to their own decisions about the meaning of the text and …
View course details “The Letter to the Romans”
This course will examine women’s lives in the New Testament and the wider Greco-Roman world (including Second Temple Judaism) by studying the biblical text, literary sources, and archaeological evidence. This course extends the discussion into the second through fifth centuries of the early Church, addressing women’s participation in the intellectual, liturgical, ascetic, and monastic arenas. …
View course details “Women in the New Testament & Early Church”
We live in a world of power and politics that deeply impacts the lives of individual Christians and the Church. Often too, power and politics are at work in the actions and decisions of our churches and their leaders. It is in such a world that God is at work. In this course we look …
View course details “God & the Kings: Power, Praise, and Pragmatics in 1-2 Kings”
The course New Testament Foundations explores the literature of the New Testament (NT) with the purpose of providing a basis for engaged reading, further study, and application to life and church. The primary focus will be on reading the New Testament wisely, offering a multifaceted paradigm for reading/hearing this literature that includes a sensitivity to …
View course details “New Testament Foundations”
