Course Offerings
Spring & Summer 2011
STU Summer Language School
Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Slavonic, Coptic
Dates: May 9-27, June 6-24
Time: 3 credits per 3 week course
Instructors: Bill Richards, TBA, Michael Putman, Anna Gersher
Course descriptions available upon request
SL/BL 340 The Hermeneutics of Exile
Dates: May 9-13, 2011; 3 credits
Time: 8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Instructor: The Rev. Dr. Vern Ratzlaff
Course Description:
The thesis of this course is based on the premise that the Bible was written, edited and shaped by a people in exile. We can be in exile even when staying in our country of birth (Klein). Exile is a sociological phenomenon that has implications for the culture, values, self-identity and religious paradigms of those exiled. This course will explore the psychological and sociological effects of exile and examine some of the religious literature that emerged from the (Babylonian) exile. We will also use ‘exile’ as a hermeneutical key for our preaching. The participants will write a paper on this hermeneutical theme, as well as developing a sermon from the lectionary texts, seeing how ‘exile’ helps shape our response to those texts.
PL 350 Turning Chaotic Differences into Creative Diversity
Dates: May 16-20, 2011; 3 credits
Instructors: Ray Friesen and Greg Nelson
Time: 8:30am to 4:30pm Monday to Friday
Course Description:
The focus of this course is on conflict resolution in congregations. The course will be taught in two parts. The first part will focus on how we resolve conflict in our own lives and situations, including in work relationships, with a special focus on conflict in church settings. The second half will be an introduction to mediation—intervening when other parties are in conflict.
The course delivery will focus on the skills and tools needed, and the training in how to use those skills and tools for successful conflict resolution. In the learning of Hebrew or Greek, students learn the language, the alphabet, sentence structure, translation, etc., instead of theories of language, and they learn by doing rather than by listening to lectures, reading books and writing papers. In a similar way, in this course, though it includes lectures and demonstrations, the emphasis will be on role plays and other ways in which the participants learn the skills needed.
PE/HE 290 Praying with the Giants: Reading Ancient Texts in Retreat
Dates: May 31 – June 5; 1.5 credits or 3 credits with a paper
Time:
Instructor: Kevin Corrigan, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities and Director of the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts, Emory University
Spiritual Director: Walter Hannam, Professor of Theology and Anglican Studies, Emmanuel and St. Chad
Topic: Integration and Fragmentation in the Spiritual Life:Evagrius Ponticus, John Cassian, and Maximus the Confessor. Learn contemplative prayer from three ancient masters of the spiritual life, with Daily Office, Eucharist, and an opportunity for Spiritual Direction. (The course is also open to anyone wishing to learn the ancient practice of lectio divina without earning academic credit.)
SA 333/433 God and the World
Dates: June 13 - 17
Time: 9:00am-4:00 pm; 3 credits
Instructor: Dr. Don Schweitzer, St. Andrew's College
Course Description:
This course explores what God means to the world and what the world means to God from within a Reformed perspective in Christian theology. The first section examines the salvific meaning of God for the world, and the increase that the world and its salvation bring to the life of God. The second section expands upon this, looking at the moral and transmoral nature of God’s relationship to the world. The third section explores questions concerning the suffering of God and creation, the nature of evil, loss and Christian hope.
BE 334/434 Agrarianism and the Bible
Dates: August 15- 19
Time: 9:00 am – 12 noon, 1:00 – 4:00 pm; 3 credits
Instructor: Dr. Matthew Thiessen, College of Emmanuel and St. Chad/Lutheran Theological Seminary
Agrarianism stresses the need for us to structure our lives in order that we might live in healthful relationship with everything around us: humans, animals, plants, and the land. The purpose of this course will be to read biblical passages in light of the recent agrarian thinking of writers such as Wendell Berry, Wes Jackson, and Norman Wirzba. How does the Bible portray humanity's relationship to the earth and other living creatures? Can we find resources within scripture to help us live more peaceably and justly with all aspects of our world? The course will focus closely on questions such as these within a specifically prairie context.
PA 318 Worship and Religious Education: A Postcolonial Feminist Approach
Dates: August 29 – September 2
Time: 9:00 am – 4:00 pm; 3 credits
Instructor: Dr. HyeRan Kim-Cragg, St. Andrew’s College
Course Description:
This course will examine the role of Story and Song as they address the need for the interplay between Christian worship and Christian education from a postcolonial feminist perspective. It is designed to gain biblical, liturgical, and pedagogical dimensions on the interdisciplinary nature of Christian worship and Christian education; to explore the praxis of intergenerational and intercultural worship and education; to engage worship and education, with reference to their relationship of cultures and Canadian church context. Students are also encouraged to discuss such contemporary theological issues as diaspora idendity, hybridity, orientalism, and inculturation, while exploring the implications for the church ministries in the 21st century. This course will consist of presentations, readings, assignments, and discussions.
PL 314/414 Rites in Crisis
Dates: August 29 – September 2; 3 credits
Time:
Instructor: Dr. Jann Boyd, Lutheran Theological Seminary
Course Description:
Participants in this seminar will reflect on the purposes and possibilities of Christian ritual for pastoral care both individual and corporate. Studying together ritual theory, liturgical theology, and sacramental practices, participants in this seminar will research individually their particular events and contexts of crisis for which there are no existing church rites in the ELCIC or their denominational traditions. Cases and proposed rites are presented in two steps, with re-working of the rites to incorporate the insights of the group participants. Participants will complete the class with a working foundation of principles for developing Christian pastoral rites; a role for the “crisis” of the choice and a set of proposals from their peers for other pastoral events and contacts.
Registration must be received 4 weeks prior to the start of each course.
To register and for further information contact the Registrar, , 306.966.7856.
For times and room assignments, please download the Timetable: fall 2010, winter 2011