2008 Summer Courses for Week 5

Chris Anderson
Visual Artist. BA (Scripps College), MFA (Claremont Graduate University).

Chris’s art has been exhibited widely in the US and abroad.

“A wonderful addition to Regent; great to have her share about art from a Christian perspective.”

Till We Have Faces: Drawing the Portrait

Till We Have Faces: Drawing the Portrait will explore the human face in a wide range of important drawing methods, styles and materials. Guided class exercises will give students the opportunity to develop further their drawing abilities not only in traditional representation, but also in interpretive and contemporary figuration. The course includes not only studio work, but also critical discussion on the topic of the Christian as the face of God in today’s culture and practical issues facing the Christian in the arts today.

This course is intensive and will require at least five hours of in-studio time a day, including class instruction time and the investment of approximately $400 for course materials.

INDS 609: July 14-August 1, 8:30-11:00 am
3 graduate credit hours
Maximum Enrollment: 22 students.
Refer to Fine Print / Limited Enrollment
Not available for audit.

Peter Shaw
Executive coach, facilitator and writer. BSc (Durham University), MSc (Bradford University), MCS (Regent College).

Peter is a Partner in Praesta Partners, a specialist executive coaching organization. He coaches senior leaders in the private, public and voluntary sectors, and his books include The Four Vs of Leadership, Finding Your Future and Mirroring Jesus as Leader.

The Christian Leader in the Secular World of Work

This course is designed to equip Christian leaders to be inspirational and effective in the secular world of work. It starts from mirroring Jesus as visionary, servant, teacher, coach, radical and healer. It looks at the power of conversation as a leader, drawing from examples of Jesus’ conversations. We will look at making difficult decisions and the moments that count as a leader. We will examine key leadership concepts and discuss them in the context of Christian values. It will draw from the practical experience of Christian leaders in diverse worlds. The course will equally be relevant to Christian ministers working with leaders in the secular world.

INDS 548: July 28-August 1, 1:15-4:15 pm
1 or 2 graduate credit hours

Download the course information sheet in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format (142 kb)

Markus Bockmuehl
Fellow of Keble College and Professor of Biblical and Early Christian Studies, Oxford. BA (Univ. British Columbia), MCS, MDiv (Regent College), PhD (Cambridge).

Markus previously taught at the Universities of St. Andrews and Cambridge. Among his authored books are The Epistle to the Philippians, Jewish Law in Gentile Churches and Seeing the Word.

“Brilliant— obviously a great scholar—very comfortable up front and easy to listen to. He was intellectually stimulating.”

Simon Peter Remembered: From Bethsaida to Rome

Far from the anemic, vacillating and ultimately irrelevant character traditional Protestant biblical criticism has sometimes supposed him to be, St. Peter emerges in recent scholarship as the key pivotal figure who unites in his teaching and ministry the gospel of Jesus for Jews and Gentiles. We will examine the way his astonishing movement from Bethsaida to Rome is remembered in the wide range of New Testament and second-century sources. Students will encounter a rich diversity of historical and textual evidence for the church’s development in its Jewish and Graeco-Roman settings, and become acquainted with Peter’s remarkable impact on the faith and life of the early church.

BIBL 570: July 28-August 1, 8:00-11:00 am
1 or 2 graduate credit hours

George Marsden
Professor, History, University of Notre Dame. BA (Haverford College), BD (Westminster Theological Seminary), MA, PhD (Yale University).

George’s books include Fundamentalism and American Culture, Reforming Fundamentalism: Fuller Seminary and the New Evangelicalism, The Soul of the American University, The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship and Jonathan Edwards: A Life.

Jonathan Edwards: His Life and Thought

Jonathan Edwards, who is widely considered the greatest theologian in the history of North America, presents us with a remarkable combination of piety, practical leadership and intellect. This course will provide an introduction to his spirituality, his theology, his responses to the challenges of the enlightenment, his analysis of revivals, his understanding of authentic Christian experience, his work as pastor and missionary, his understanding of the mission of the church in his eighteenthcentury setting and his life and family. Students will have an opportunity to engage with a leading figure in the history of the church, much of whose thought is still relevant and inspiring today.

HIST 615: July 28-August 1, 8:00-11:00 am
1 or 2 graduate credit hours

Scott Cairns
Professor, Director of Creative Writing, Director of the Center for Literary Arts (University of Missouri). BA (Western Washington), MA (Hollins College), MFA (Bowling Green State University), PhD (University of Utah).

Scott is an author of six volumes of poetry and a memoir.

“Scott is outstanding! He is thoroughly knowledgeable on the subject and at the same time wonderfully encouraging to all manner of students.”

Writing with Scripture: The Gift of Enigmatic Text

We will examine key distinctions between Greek and Hebrew attitudes towards words, in general, and towards the consequent status of written texts, especially sacred texts and those subsequent texts that operate as explications/interpretations/ commentaries of such scriptures, including rabbinic midrashim. We will also discuss what it is we mean (or, perhaps, should mean) when we characterize a text as poetic. Thereafter, we will attend to examples from a long tradition of poetry that has developed as an imaginative examination of biblical narratives. Along the way, we will attempt poetic compositions of our own (probably in prose) in response to various brief and enigmatic scriptural passages, seeking to understand mystery as an invitation and a gift.

INDS 599: July 28-August 1, 8:00-11:00 am
1 or 2 graduate credits
Maximum Enrollment: 15 students. Refer to
Fine Print / Limited Enrollment

Julie Canlis
Children’s Spiritual Formation Director for Methlick Parish Church, Scotland. BA (University of Washington), MCS (Regent College), PhD (St. Andrews).

Julie was the winner of a 2007 John Templeton Award for Theological Promise for her work on Calvin’s Ladder of Ascent: Anthropology, Ascension, and Participation.

The Relational Self: Reformation Insights on What It Means to Be Human

Being Christian and being human are sometimes seen (or felt) to be at odds. So what does it mean to be human? How can we be our true selves? Do the roots of our authenticity lie within or—mysteriously—without? This course uses the doctrine of the Trinity as a springboard to understand issues of personhood, de-personalizing views of sin and salvation, and the modern desire for/addiction to uniqueness. We’ll draw on a number of historical sources, focusing especially on those Reformation giants who, like us, found themselves at a time of radical change and social upheaval. Students will gain an understanding of how a relational, trinitarian view of personhood impacts upon much of the nitty-gritty of the Christian life—sanctification, freedom, prayer, deep views of sin, faith in Christ and our quest to be our truest selves.

SPIR/THEO 529: July 28-August 1, 8:00-11:00 am
1 or 2 graduate credit hours

Marilyn McEntyre
Professor of English, Westmont College. BA (Pomona College), MA (University of California, Davis), PhD (Princeton).

Three of Marilyn’s books use poetry to reflect on art: Quiet Light: Poems on Vermeer’s Women, Drawn to the Light: Poems on Rembrandt’s Religious Paintings and The Color of Light: Poems on Van Gogh’s Late Paintings.

The Poet and the Painter

In this course we will consider how both visual and verbal arts involve us in representation, reflection and response. Every artwork is an invitation and a challenge to relocate oneself and one’s point of view. Art offers us permission, requires our consent, engages us in play and sometimes brings us to the threshold of prayer. Our primary focus will be on the forms of “conversation” to which the arts invite us, and how to enter that conversation in creative, lifegiving ways that help equip us for our work in the world as members of the Body of Christ. We will begin with a consideration of the ancient practice of lectio divina, considering how this practice of reading Scripture may be appropriated and applied in other contexts. The writing assignments will offer students an opportunity to experiment with various forms of reflective essays and/or poetry. Class time will include a few brief writing exercises as well.

INDS 572: July 28-August 1, 1:15-4:15 pm
1 or 2 graduate credit hours

C. Stephen Evans
University Professor of Philosophy and Humanities, Baylor University. BA (Wheaton), MPhil, PhD (Yale).

Stephen’s published works include Kierkegaard’s Ethic of Love: Divine Commands and Moral Obligations and The Historical Christ and the Jesus of Faith: The Incarnational Narrative as History. He is “a fantastic teacher—making someone as complex as Kierkegaard very comprehensible.… He’s quality & knows his stuff!”

Kierkegaard’s Relevance to the Contemporary Church

This course will be an overview of the philosophical and theological work of Søren Kierkegaard, focusing on issues that are important to Christians attempting to understand the contemporary situation. These issues will include Kierkegaard’s understanding of the “esthetic life” and the increasing estheticization of politics and religion, the relation between conventional morality, Christian ethics and true faith, religious truth and the relation between knowing the truth and doing the truth, an understanding of human persons as spiritual, bodily creatures, and the relation between sin and various forms of human dysfunction. Throughout we will look at the ways Kierkegaard provides criticisms of both modernism and what would later be termed “postmodernism.”

THEO 637: July 28-August 1, 8:00-11:00 am
1 or 2 graduate credit hours
Maximum Enrollment: 25 students. Refer to
Fine Print / Limited Enrollment