Winter 2012 Evening School

MONDAY & THURSDAY

APPL/INDS 575
Marketplace Theology (4 wk course)
R. Paul Stevens and Richard Goossen

APPL/INDS 741
Marketplace Theology Seminar (6 wk course)
R. Paul Stevens and Richard Goossen

This course aims to help students inhabit a biblical theological vision for life in the marketplace. It will seek to locate an understanding of ministry in the marketplace within the wider context of God’s mission, and the mission and ministry of the church in the world.

2 or 3 credits

3 credits
9 students max.
No auditors

TUESDAY

INDS 570
Christianity and Literature: Stories of Doubt and Faith
Loren Wilkinson

One of the major themes of the fiction of the past century has been personal struggle with Christian faith. James Joyce, perhaps the most influential early modern writers, declares through his autobiographical hero Stephen Dedalus in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man his determination to “fly past” the restricting nets of family, nationality. And religion and escape from a culture-bound, and often lifeless Christianity was the starting-point of much twentieth-century fiction. But the supposedly faith-free world into which people escaped turned out to be chaotic, absurd and destructive. The result has been a rich range of fiction in which characters discover and explore a faith in the living God, which though fragile and painful, is much deeper and more life-giving than the caricature which they left behind.

2 or 3 credits

WEDNESDAY

APPL 619
Introduction to Preaching and Worship
Ross Hastings
Includes a 1.5 hour weekly required workshop. Times TBA.

The aim of this course is the preparation of expository preachers who by means of careful exegesis of both text and contemporary culture, can, in the power of the Spirit, become agents of Christ’s addressed to the church and the world. They will thus be able to equip the whole people of God for spiritual maturity, effective ministry and participation in God’s work in the world. Three primary convictions will shape this course. The first is that if the words of the preacher are to become the words of Christ to his church in a participatory way, then preaching must be the fruit of careful exegesis of the text of Scripture. The second is that since Christ is the primary subject of Scripture, preaching will therefore always be the proclamation of the Gospel. Preaching will be good news, not just good advice. The third conviction is that preaching is an act of worship among other acts of worship, and that it is most effective when allied closely to the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The course will therefore explore some of the fundamental dynamics of corporate worship as a whole.

3 credits

INDS 560
Christian Imagination
Iwan Russell-Jones

Is there such a things as a Christian imagination? Is it just a private matter or does it have a public role? In what ways is it shaped by biblical and theological teaching? How does it relate to our experience of reality – a world of beauty and brokenness, of glory and degradation? And is it capable of challenging and re-shaping that reality?

This course explores creativity and the imagination in the light of an ancient practice of the Church. In the liturgy for Ash Wednesday, the minister marks the believer’s head with a cross of ashes and says, “Remember that you are dust.” It reminds Christians that they are creatures made in the image of God, that they live in solidarity with a fallen world, and that their hope of glory is cross-shaped. Our discussion of the creative imagination will focus on this powerful Ash Wednesday statement about the human condition.

3 credits
40 students max.
No auditors

SPIR/THEO 616
Spiritual Interpretation of Scripture in the Church Fathers
Hans Boersma

The past several decades have witnessed a resurgence of interest in spiritual or theological interpretation of Scripture. This resurgence goes hand in hand with a reappraisal of pre-modern approaches to biblical exegesis. This course explores the potential of spiritual interpretation in dialogue with the Church Fathers. To this end, students will draw on lectures, on (especially primary) readings, and on class discussion. We will read the Church Fathers not primarily out of historical interest, but in order to engage their sacramental or participatory approach to Scripture. Thus, in a spirit of congenial sympathy with the patristic outlook, this course will trace how the Church Fathers ascend through the letter of the biblical text to the spiritual purpose of life in communion with the Triune God.

3 credits

THURSDAY

APPL 595
Cross Cultural Mission and Islam
Don Curry
COURSE CANCELLED

3 credits

LANG 721
Advanced Hebrew Readings
David Clemens

This course builds upon the reading of Biblical Hebrew undertaken in LANG 610-611, by examining a more specialized corpus of texts. This semester the emphasis will lie on Biblical Hebrew poetry: Psalms, particularly the Psalms of Ascents (Pss. 120-134); major poetic texts of the Pentateuch (including Gen. 49, Ex. 15, Num. 23-24, Deut. 33); and, in the last three weeks, an introduction to Qumran literature by means of readings from the main scroll of Isaiah (1QIsaa, 40:1-11, 42:1-9, 52:13-53:12) and three non-canonical psalms. In keeping with the parameters of LANG 721, we will concentrate on translation rather than on a comprehensive interpretation of the assigned texts; however, we will aim to consider some of the fundamental characteristics of Hebrew poetry that emerge in the course of our reading and so to develop a rudimentary overview of its techniques. With this in mind, secondary literature including the recommended textbook will be introduced during the course, although this will in all cases represent optional reading.

3 credits
12 students max.
No auditors