Balancing the Past, Present and Future As the church navigates the complexities of post-Christendom Canada, we know that people are seeing the trends in Canada that point to hopeful futures. We invite you to join this first symposium in the new series Conversations in the Canadian Church as we explore these hopeful themes. This event …
View course details “Co-Creating Plausible Futures for the Canadian Church”

How we read may matter as much as what we read. What can we learn from the tradition about how to read the Bible spiritually? In this course, we will look in particular at Dorothy L. Sayers’s way of reading. Raised by an Anglican priest, Sayers was well-versed in the tradition’s way of reading Scripture. …
View course details “Reading as a Spiritual Practice”

For centuries many have perceived a strong bond between the work of the Spirit and artistic creativity. Talk of inspiration, spirituality, and the life of the spirit abounds when the arts are in view. This course asks why this might be so. What is it about the arts that lends themselves so easily to “spirit-talk”, …
View course details “The Holy Spirit & the Arts”

What role should the news play in the life of a disciple of Christ? This may seem like a contemporary concern, one made acute by political polarization, social media, and ubiquitous screens. And indeed we are living through a time when technological and cultural forces are causing drastic upheavals in the news industry. This course …
View course details “Reading the Times: Christian Responses to the News of the Day”

Who are we? Why are we here? How did we get in such a mess, and what should we do about it? These questions are the perennial questions of humanity in writing, philosophy, song… And they are the questions that underlying much of the Old Testament. In the wonderful, colourful stories and teaching of the …
View course details “Being Human in God’s World: How the Old Testament Helps Us Understand Our Humanity in a Complex and Broken World”

Living in modern nation-states, intensified by globalization, our personal lives and relationships and everyday activities are unavoidably embedded in the complex realities of societal racial disparities and tensions, but in ways often unrecognized and unaddressed. How should we engage Christianly with the historical, political, economic, and cultural factors that condition and either restrict or expand …
View course details “Race, Racism & Christian Identity”

Taking each of the five continents in turn, this course looks at the significant missional achievements of their Christian pioneers (both cross-cultural missionaries and local communities of believers) to embody Christian faith and practice in their cultural contexts. The course focuses on each continent’s unique cultural embodiments (such as texts, liturgies, visual arts, architecture, institutions, …
View course details “Christianity & World Cultures: A History of Contextualization”

To some extent the history of Christian ethics the history of interpretation of biblical ethical teaching. An increasingly ‘moral’ reading of Scripture emerged with the privileging of the plain (or double literal) sense during the late medieval period. As one considers the bible was looked to in Franciscan moral theology in particular then one becomes …
View course details “Learning to Think Ethically with the Christian Tradition”

Augustine of Hippo was involved in many debates over his lifetime. He took on Manichees, Donatists, versions of Arianism, and even some aspects of the Platonism of his day. But the most famous controversy associated with this most famous theologian (excepting only the gospel writers and Paul) is the Pelagian controversy, in which Augustine tackled …
View course details “Augustine & the Problem of Pelagius”

Today’s moral and social challenges are complex, and our social discourse is often contentious. Explore how artifacts (such as hip-hop and architecture) enriches our understanding of God’s grace, culture and human flourishing, and in turn, shapes our responses to these challenges. Learn about the narrative arc of Scripture that encompasses not only our personal salvation …
View course details “The Gospel, Discipleship, & Cultural Engagement”