African American Religious History
This course will acquaint students with the history of African-American religious practices from slavery to the present. We will discuss the influences on these practices including African culture, the plantation experience, emancipation, migration and the civil rights movement, and urban social issues and development. The course will also introduce students to African-American religious diversity including the practice of Islam, African traditional religions (such as Yoruba, Vodun and Santeria), Buddhism, Humanism and New Thought religions.
Metaphor in/ and Theology
This class examines the use of metaphorical language in theology. We will look at the influence of narrative on theological method and content, and note how different theologians adopt, transform and/or utilize metaphor in their various constructions. Particular attention will be paid to how metaphorical language in theology overlaps with process philosophy, feminism and social justice commitments/ ecological concerns.
Advanced Topics in Black and Womanist Theologies: Critiques and New Constructions: Critiques and New Constructions
Since James H. Cone published Black Theology and Black Power in 1969, black theology has grown into a worldwide theological movement. From the early debates among Cone, Gayraud Wilmore, Charles Long and J. Deotis Roberts, black theology now encompasses succeeding generations, humanists, non-Christians and the significant critical and constructive movement of womanist religious scholarship. This course will examine specific topics or scholars in black and womanist theologies. Prerequisite: Basic knowledge of black and womanist theologies before enrolling in the class. This can be demonstrated by previous coursework or completed reading of the following books: Preferred: James H. Cone’s A Black Theology of Liberation, Delores S. Williams’s Sisters in the Wilderness; Accepted: Dwight N. Hopkins’s Introducing Black Theology of Liberation and Stephanie Mitchem’s Introducing Womanist Theology.
We will discuss briefly the history of black and womanist theologies before examining critiques of the field. This course will survey selected new constructions in black and womanist theologies with attention to how they adhere to or depart from both the historical movements in the field and the critiques. All writings discussed have a publication date within the last ten (10) years.
(Black) Women in Ministry and Justice
This course will survey black women’s historic and contemporary activity in ministry. This course will examine black women’s activity in three dimensions of ministry: (1) religious institution affiliated ministry, (2) the ministry of academia, and (3) the ministry of community justice work. This course introduces students to the various experiences of women in ministry, while also providing opportunities for students to explore and deepen their own vocational interests in ministry. Sophomores make take this class with permission of the professor.
Introduction to Theology
Theology: What you think about when you think about God. This course will introduce students to theology, the critical and constructive reflection on the great questions of human existence and the answers offered to them by religion. Although the course will deal with the human phenomenon of religion in general, it will focus specifically on Christianity and its central claims about God, humanity and the world. The course will introduce theology as an academic discipline and form of knowledge, describe its purpose, sources, norms and different schools of thought, and show how theology works in some specific contemporary contexts and applies to social issues today.
Systematic Theology
This course will “seek understanding” (fides quaerens intellectum) of these questions by exploring the variety of Christian understandings of God, God’s relation to the world, Christ, the Spirit, Trinity, creation, the intercultural and interreligious contexts of the Church, and the quest for God’s kin-dom-to-come. The class encourages students to address these topics in relation to contemporary intellectual, cultural, ethical, social and political issues, as well as its application to practice and ministerial situations.
Process Theology
Process theology is one of the major theological movements originating in the United States. Incorporating Scriptural themes with a philosophical system that emphasizes relationality, experience, agency and perception, process theologies offer new perspectives on traditional religious beliefs and substantively contribute to conversations between theology, and other disciplines (i.e. psychology, science, education, etc.). This course explores the basic concepts of process thought grounded in the philosophical thought of Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne, and its theological interpretation and articulation. Attention is given to the doctrine of God, the problem of evil, Christology, biblical interpretation, non-Christian process theologies, and the interface of process thought with liberation, feminist, womanist and ecological theological commitments. Prerequisite: Systematic Theology I and II.
Readings in Alfred North Whitehead (Religious Relevance)