Christian Theories of Justice
Online course: Wednesdays, 6.15pm to 9pm, January 16 to April 17, 2019
Students must have reliable Internet access to participate in the class.
What is justice? What is mercy? How do Christians make sense of the social and political problems of the day? This course explores these questions through a survey of major theories of justice from both philosophical and theological perspectives. Topics include liberal, libertarian, communitarian, feminist, and liberationist theories in conversation with Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Protestant approaches as well as theologies of restorative justice, including indigenous and womanist approaches. Current social issues will be discussed in order to make both practical use of the varied approaches to justice and to critically examine the limits and possibilities of the different theories. Social issues to be examined include: colonialism’s legacies, racisms, gender and sexual diversity, poverty and the market, war and nonviolence, and climate change. At the end of this course, students will be familiar with a spectrum of theories of justice and will be able to articulate their own theologically and philosophically based theory of justice as applied to a single current social issue.
About the instructor: Dr. Jason Crawford has a Ph.D. in religion and society from Concordia University. He currently teaches in the humanities department at Champlain College in Quebec and is an active member of Epiphany Anglican Church in Verdun.
Cost: $300 | $380 | $490