Courses

• STH TT 934: Schleiermacher
  The primary aim of this course is read and understand the theology of Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher, one of the most important and influential European intellectuals of the 19th century, and known variously as the Father of Romanticism, the Father of Hermeneutics, the Father of German Plato studies, the Father of Modern Protestant Theology, and the Father of Liberal Christian Theology. The course focuses on The Christian Faith (CF) but also covers some other of his writings particularly On Religion: Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers (OR) and Letters to Locke (LL) and some biographical material. The secondary aim is to help students develop their own theological ideas in detailed conversation with Schleiermacher's, a purpose for which CF is particularly well suited. The class has 800-level and 900-level designations to accommodate both advanced masters and doctoral students, respectively.
• STH TT 945: Spirituality, Medicine & Health
  The general aim of this science-religion course is to learn about the complex entanglements among religious traditions and spirituality, medical traditions and healing modalities, and norms for physical and mental health. This will involve (i) in Part 1 of the course, gaining a basic grasp on the history of the medical traditions of China, India, the Middle East, and the West, including the metaphysical frameworks that inform those traditions; (ii) in Part 2 of the course, studying the complex controversy over spirituality and health research and attempting to decide whether and how the efficacy of healing modalities is to be evaluated; (iii) in Part 3 of the course, understanding how western biomedicine interacts with the array of medical traditions and spiritually inspired healing modalities that thrive in the West; and (iv) throughout the course, addressing philosophical, theological, and ethical questions about norms for mental and physical health and comparing metaphysical frameworks for health and healing. The class is intended for advanced masters students and doctoral candidates interested in the science-religion dialogue, and particularly in spirituality and health.
• STH TT 946: Advanced Systematic Theology I: God and Creation
  A study of creations as the fundamental religious relation between God and the world, defining both. Develops an adequate Christian theology of God and explores alternate conceptions of God.
• STH TT 947: Advanced Systematic Theology II: The Human Condition
  Study of the theological dimensions of human life, examining the Christian notions of sin and salvation, and some variants and alternatives to these and other religious traditions. Develops a contemporary Christology.
• STH TT 948: Advanced Systematic Theology III: Sanctification and Religious Life
  Study of both personal and communal dimensions of the religious life. Examines the church and the religious practices of ritual, symbol making, and paths of spiritual perfection. Develops a systematic doctrine of the Holy Spirit and the church.
• STH TT 949: Hermeneutics for Teaching and Preaching
  The purpose of this course is to hone skills at the doctoral level in various tasks of hermeneutics (fancy word for interpretation) necessary for preaching and religious education. Religious life has both ultimate predicaments and ultimate ecstatic fulfillments. These can be sorted roughly into five basic problematics that take various forms in nearly all religions, although this course will focus on Christianity with some informal treatments of other religions. These problematics are (1) living under obligation, with issues of righteousness, discernment of justice and morality, guilt, and forgiveness, (2) the quest for personal wholeness, with issues of suffering, brokenness, dignity, and sanctification, (3) the engagement of others, with issues of ingroup/outgroup distinctions, loving enemies, loving in different ways, and loving nature, (4) the attainment of a value-identity in ultimate perspective, with issues of the meaning of life and coping with finitude and ambiguity, and (5) gratitude for sheer existence, with issues of radical contingency, affirmation of life and death, and union with and distance from God. Each of these problematics singly and in combination with others has been called "salvation," but the complexity of religion requires that they be thought together and each one interpreted to the others. The four domains of hermeneutics (scripture, experience, tradition, and reason) will be explored through the grid of these five religious problematics.
• STH TT 954: Scientific Approaches to Religion
  This seminar examines interpretations of religious beliefs, behaviors, and experiences deriving from the biological, evolutionary, psychological, cognitive, neurological, and medical sciences.
• STH TT 961: Varieties of Religious Naturalism
  The aim of this course is learn about varieties of religious naturalism and how they have been, and can be, incorporated into philosophical and theological reflection. The seminar will read a variety of works in contemporary religious naturalism, from twentieth-century classics to current contributions, and from theoretical analyses of the meaning of naturalism to surveys attempting to map out the territory of plausible viewpoints. We will also track the close relationship between religious naturalism and both ecologically-rooted forms of spirituality and nature-centered forms of mysticism.
• STH TT 966: Fem/Womani Theo
  
• STH TT 974: Religious Experience
  This seminar is a multidisciplinary study of religious experience, drawing on philosophy, theology, literature, psychology, sociology, the cognitive sciences, and the neurosciences. An advanced research seminar, this course presumes significant background knowledge in theology and philosophy and is designed for doctoral students. Advanced master's students can participate with the permission of the instructor.
• STH TT 998: Theology and Trauma
  This course aims to bring the recent studies in the interdisciplinary study of trauma to bear on the field of theology. What unique challenges does the phenomenon of trauma pose to contemporary theology? The first part of the course explores recent studies in trauma, focusing on three areas of research: 1) neurobiology of trauma, 2) clinical/therapeutic studies, and 3) literary approaches to trauma. The second part of the course examines theological engagements with issues of radical suffering. The third part brings together the insights from the first two and focuses on the question of what it means to witness theologically to individual, societal, and global trauma. We will look at issues and contexts such as the criminal justice system, war, poverty, and racism. In this final part, students will be working towards constructive theological engagements with issues of trauma through interaction with a variety of mediums: art, literature, spiritual practices, and film. The course is not a counseling course. It aims to provide rich theological reflection around issues of suffering, violence, and trauma, both individual and global.
• STH TY 704: Introduction to Pastoral Care and Counseling
  This course introduces a method of pastoral care as practical theology. Students will learn to assess the experiences of loss, violence, and addiction reflected in pastoral care conversations. They will use theological, psychological, and cultural studies to reflect upon these issues of loss or violence, and develop theologically based strategies of care and justice.
• STH TY 803: The Psychology of Religion
  Examining methodological questions and issues in the psychological interpretation of religious matters by considering what is meant by 'religion' and what is involved in interpreting 'religion' psychologically.
• STH TY 806: Theories of Human Development
  Human Development Course Description: The goal of this course is to achieve an understanding of the human developmental process and how that process integrates the growth of faith and the life of the community. We will use a series of theoretical readings, broader lectures by the professor, and selected autobiographies to apply theory. As our experiences provide excellent laboratory data, there will be various opportunities to examine our own life processes as a way of seeing theory in action. Course Objectives: By the end of the class, students should: - know the primary developmental theories, including psychodynamic, cognitive, behavioral, social learning, faith development and be able to identity of variety of lesser used theories - be able to critique developmental theories using the insights of feminist theory, studies in racism and sexual identity, and the reality of globalization - be able to apply theory to case material - discuss the relationship of human development and community context
• STH TY 811: Object Relations and the Study of Religion
  Achieving familiarity with and fluency in a series of psychoanalytic theories of personality/character, development, relationships, motivation, health, and pathology, as a context in which to practice psychoanalytic interpretations of religious matters.
• STH TY 814: Womanist Psychologies of Religion
  This seminar course will "engage womanist theology and ethics, womanist pastoral and practical theology for their embedded psychologies of religion. We will examine psychological aspects of Black women's religious experience in the U.S. Of particular interest will be the place, relationship and significance of black religious experience as a particular(ized) cultural psychological construction and experience. Additionally, we will take up for consideration the theological basis for articulating a womanist psychology of religion, and the argument that womanist epistemology, theological anthropology as well as practical and pastoral theologies are embedded in psychological dynamics and require an explicit articulation of a (psychoanalytic) psychology of religion.
• STH TY 821: Psychoanalysis of/and Spirituality
  Examines the growing engagement between psychoanalysis and spirituality. Historically this has been contested ground with psychoanalytic theorists having little regard for religion and spirituality beyond the realm of a psychological interpretation. Over the last two decades, this has shifted and a number of works have been either written about psychoanalysis as spirituality; psychoanalyst's spiritual practices, and/or psychoanalysis of spirituality. The emphasis of these conversations has resulted in conferences dedicated to the topic as well as psychoanalysts specializing in spirituality. The impact on studies in spirituality has produced a more conscious interest in the relevance of psychodynamic perspectives of spirituality and spiritual direction. This course takes these shifts up while resisting the temptation to collapse the distinctions.
• STH TY 826: Psychodynamics of Marriage and Family
  This is an introductory course that includes a comprehensive overview of the field of family systems and family therapy. This course will serve as an introduction to the theory and techniques of couples and family therapy. An attempt will be made to integrate theory and practice through assignments, class activities, and personal and professional self-reflection. Students will have the opportunity to reflect upon how they might actually use course content professionally in their respective disciplines.
• STH TY 828: Womanist Approaches to Religion
  This course will provide students an opportunity to think about how womanist scholars approach the study of religion and black women's religious experience. We will take up for examination the questions: "what do womanist scholars mean by womanist approaches to religion?" And, "what constitutes religion and religious experience?" The course is interdisciplinary and interfaith in its consideration of religion. Students will be introduced to the methods, aims, approaches, sources and disciplinary locations of womanist scholarship on religion. Particular attention will be given to the widening scope of womanist research on religion interms of methodology and religions. The class will engage our concerns through lecture, discussion and site observations.
• STH TY 842: Pastoral Psychology of Healing
  Every person, in her or his personal relationships and professional activities, is guided by a complex, often tacit, theory of healing, comprised of judgments about illness/suffering (what's wrong?); health/well-being (what's possible? what's ideal?); the trajectory from one to the other (how do we get there?); and factors that enhance as well as inhibit movement along that trajectory (what should we do?). Examining and comparing a range of theories of healing--in psychology, medicine, Christian traditions, world religions, and non-Western cultures--equips us critically to reflect upon, amend, if not reconstruct our respective theories of healing..

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