This survey course will introduce students to historical developments, key figures, and institutions, within the Christian church from a global perspective. Topics such as religious movements, missionary expansion and empire, the development of spiritual practices, saints and mystics, local religious life, etc. will be examined within their historical context. Throughout the course we will reflect …
View course details “Church History: Wisdom for Mission”

This course explores the connections between spiritual disciplines, gathered worship, and lived discipleship. Students will survey biblical, historical, theological, and cultural foundations of Christian worship to help design prayers and devotional liturgies that contribute to spiritual formation and nurture the faith of Christians. There will be a special focus on how a robust spirituality of …
View course details “Spirituality of Christian Worship”

“To be sure, we need history. But we need it in a manner different from the way in which the spoilt idler in the garden of knowledge uses it, no matter how elegantly he may look down on our coarse and graceless needs and distresses. That is, we need it for life and for action….” …
View course details “Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity”

This course will explore the history of Christian churches in Canada and the United States. The written histories of the churches will be studied in dialogue with the social context of such histories and the reflections of both church and context in popular culture. The course will examine not only the writings and work of …
View course details “North American Church History”

The purpose of this course is: to introduce students to the major themes of Pauline theologies represented by New Testament texts and, where appropriate, other New Testament and extra‑canonical literature;  To situate these theologies in the social matrix of antiquity and to identify the interaction of theology and culture implicit in these theologies;  To assess …
View course details “Paul”

Instructor: John Boopalan, Assistant Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at Canadian Mennonite University We welcome guest learners to join our students in this circle. Contact [email protected] with questions and to register.

The psalms are some of the most loved scriptures and yet they come laden with violent words and images. The Revised Common Lectionary often edits out the most disturbing verses. Psalm 137 is cut off at v 6 thereby avoiding the psalmist plea for vengeance and its cry to dash babies against stones in v …
View course details “Reading the Psalms as Trauma Literature”

This course is designed to acquaint students with evolving theological expression of the Reformed Tradition in its 19th and 20th Century embodiments as it responds and interacts with the rise of modernity and late/post-modernity. (Think of the course as the good ship “Reformed” sailing from Schleiermacher to Barth and beyond.) Through the examination of theological …
View course details “Reformed Theology”

The prophets of the Old Testament offer some of the most compelling passages in all the Hebrew Scriptures. They promise a hopeful future, condemn an unjust status quo, and offer the reassurance of God’s present, and judgment to God’s people in uncertain times. This course is an orientation to and overview of the diverse body …
View course details “God’s Spokespeople: Introducing the Prophets of the Old Testament”

This course covers the history of heresy with a particular focus on the emergence of orthodoxy and heresy in the early church. The primary contents of the course include the origins of heresy and orthodoxy in Judaism and the Greco-Roman world, Paul and his opponents, unity and diversity in the early church, the emergence of …
View course details “The History of Heresy”