From the ancient through modern world, women have preached, taught, and led. Yet, for most modern Christians, knowledge of these women as well as the historical context in which they served the Church has been forgotten. This course explores not only forgotten women in Christian history but also the consequences of our historical amnesia for …
View course details “The Cost of Forgetting Church History for Women”
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”
By virtually all accounts, the Book of Ecclesiastes is a strange book and its presence in the canon, if not anomalous, is at least in need of some discussion if not formal explanation and defense. This course proceeds through Qoheleth (the book’s Hebrew name) while considering and pursuing “Qohelutian” themes in other, biblical and extra-/non-biblical …
View course details “A Skeptic in Scripture: Ecclesiastes & Its Friends”
“Striving for transformation in a personal sense requires unflinching honesty about our own thinking, and a willingness to change our mind.” (Tara Swart) Human transformation and growth are common themes in the Gospels. New Testament conversion narratives tell of people who changed their lives as a result of encountering Jesus or the message of the …
View course details “A Journey of Transformation”
All descriptions of the death of members of monastic communities in the Middle Ages have in common that music and song are part of the scenario. Nobody had to die in silence. The community accompanied their brothers and sisters on their last journey with singing. Death and dying are also important subjects in the history …
View course details “Sounds of Death and Mourning: Requiems and Funeral Songs through the Ages”
The early eighteenth-century British-American philosophical theologian Jonathan Edwards has often been called a “mystic.” Through a selected series of primary and secondary readings, supplemented by presentations and discussions, this course seeks to evaluate Edwards’ place within the mystical tradition, the contours and nature of his mysticism, and his appraisal of how mystical experience was appropriated …
View course details “Jonathan Edwards, the Mystical Tradition, and Revivalism”
This course will explore the combination of literary and conceptual elements of the most intriguing of Gospels. The gospel displays a wide variety of literary techniques, many associated with ancient drama, and it engages the reader with complex theological issues about how God is known, about what God has done in the life and death …
View course details “Salvific Drama in the Gospel of John”
Abide considers ten topics that are relevant to Christian spiritual formation. The topics are explored through readings, teachings, conversations with authors, group discussions and communal prayer. The curriculum offers an orientation for personal spiritual growth that is based on the fruit of the Holy Spirit that will be evidenced in the lives of those who …
View course details “Abide: Certificate in Spiritual Formation”
The Song of Songs, or “Song of Solomon,” is among the strangest books of the Bible. It is difficult to translate, hard to understand, and impossible to reconcile with moralistic styles of religious belief. The title of the course, “Locksmithing,” alludes to a famous Jewish saying that sums up both the enigma and attraction of …
View course details “Locksmithing: Unlocking the Song of Songs”
The poet Dana Gioia once asked in a book of this title, “Can Poetry Matter?” That question of course begs another question: matter in what ways? We may read poetry for any number of reasons, but this class considers how poetry nurtures, and enriches, our spiritual lives. By our close reading of poems together from …
View course details “Reading Poetry Devotionally: How Poems Nurture Our Spiritual Lives”