Courses

• STH TO 835: Current Issues in Biblical Interpretation
  Examination and evaluation of several current methods and approaches. Students are encouraged to develop a generally valid and fruitful approach. Emphasis on working with specific biblical texts. (Requires TO 704 or equivalent)
• STH TO 838: Biblical Interpretation from Hispanic and Latin American Perspectives
  This course provides an introduction to the contexts, assumptions, and methods of Hispanic and Latin American Biblical exegesis and its major contributions to Biblical and Religious Studies. The course's objectives are: 1. To develop an awareness of the Hispanic and Latin American approaches to the Bible, their differences and points of contact.; 2. To understand the different assumptions of the Hispanic and Latin American interpretation of the Bible; 3. To develop intercultural exegetical skills and cross-cultural sensitivity; 4. To experience and develop an understanding of the reality of US Hispanics and Latin Americans through learning about its history, economy, political, social, and religious context. Selected passages from the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament will be analyzed in terms of the cultural and historical situation of Latin Americans and Hispanic peoples in the United States. (Requires TO 704 or equivalent)
• STH TO 841: The Book of the Twelve
  Expositional overview of the Book of the Twelve (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi). The goal of the course is to promote a deeper awareness of the various trends of interpretation of the Book and of its relevance for the personal and communal life. (Requires TO 704 or equivalent)
• STH TO 844: Ancient Egyptian Magic and Religion
  A survey of the religion and magical practices of ancient Egyptians from the time of the pyramids through the Greco-Roman period (ca. 2600 BCE -- 400 CE). The course offers an insight into the ancient Egyptian gods, religious thought, and ideas through the analysis of texts, iconography, and objects used in religious / magical practices. A special focus is on the role of popular magic and religion in everyday life and in the temple. No prerequisites. Undergraduate students are welcome to register. The course also requires approximately six additional hours of class at the Museum of Fine Arts where students read/study pieces of the MFA Egyptian Collection.
• STH TO 846: Middle Egyptian 1
  An introduction to the classical stage of the Egyptian script and language spoken in Ancient Egypt during the Middle Kingdom which became the standard hieroglyphic language until the Graeco-Roman Period.
• STH TO 847: Middle Egyptian 2
  An introduction to the classical stage of the Egyptian script and language spoken in Ancient Egypt during the Middle Kingdom which became the standard hieroglyphic language until the Graeco-Roman Period.
• STH TO 851: Akkadian 1
  Akkadian grammar, including exercises in translation and composition. (Credit for STH TO 851 is given only after successful completion of STH TO 852.)
• STH TO 852: Akkadian 2
  Akkadian grammar, including exercises in translation and composition. (Credit for STH TO 851 is given only after successful completion of STH TO 852.)
• STH TR 802: The Sociology of Religion
  This course will introduce students to the basic ideas and methods with which sociologists have analyzed the relationship between religion and society. It will explore what it means to think about religious language, symbols, communities, and practices a social phenomenon. We will also explore the social processes at work in congregations and denominations, new religious movements and conversion, religious communal identity and ethnic conflict.
• STH TR 820: Narrating Black Church Studies from the Margins
  This course will examine trajectories of intellectual thought that have been missing, silenced, or marginalized in standard narratives of black church studies. Using critical race theory, we will explore counter-narratives that challenge prevailing ways of thinking about black church origins, theological and philosophical foundations, liberating discourses, and its representation in the public sphere. At the conclusion of the course, students will be equipped to reflect on the history, necessity, and trajectory of black church studies through the counter-narratives.
• STH TR 830: Values and Practices in Developing Healthy Communities
  Important theoretical and practical issues related to cross-cultural, governmental and nongovernmental and faith-based service work related to the practice of *Decent Care and its application in developing healthy communities will be surveyed. Structured according a developmental approach to health and health systems, students will be encouraged to think critically about and experience the application of values and assumptions undergirding health systems and structures of such service work as currently envisioned and practiced. Case studies, guest speakers, and multimedia offerings will enrich the context of informed disciplinary and cross disciplinary approaches. *Decent Care is a concept developed in the World Health Organization by the instructor. Decent Care bases the planning, delivery and evaluation of care on values that place individuals, in their social and cultural contexts, at the center of the caring process. The aims of decent care are to develop health systems around the primacy of persons in their own health care, and to build a bridge between the principles of human rights and the practice of medicine. By listening to and honoring the voices of the people care processes and models can be developed that respond to the needs of a community enabling human flourishing.
• STH TR 840: American Evangelicalism: Conservative Protestants in the United States
  Conservative Protestantism is a vital religious movement in North American life whose adherents make up roughly 25-35% of the American population. This course will introduce students to various streams of conservative Protestant movements- -Pentecostalism, Fundamentalism, and Neo-Evangelicalism--and their characteristic religious patterns. Taking an interdisciplinary approach with sociology as the lead discipline, students will explore the major theories that attempt to explain the vitality of these groups, examine their impact on various dimensions of social and political life, and assess the implications of the exportation of these distinctively American brands of religion abroad. The assumption that the study of Evangelicalism and its complexities in the U.S. context warrants deep and thoughtful study guides this course.
• STH TR 841: Global Evangelicalism
  The global spread of Evangelicalism is one of the most significant religious demographic events in recent history. Whether called evangelicos, Conservative Protestants, Born Agains, Charismatics, or Pentecostals, evangelicals have become the largest religious group in countries as diverse as Guatemala, Nigeria, the U.S., and South Korea. They also play a major role in public life, as seen in their controversial support of the Republican Party in the U.S. or their open criticism of government corruption in Nigeria. The aim of this course is to familiarize students with the history and diversity of Evangelical Christianity around the world, while showing how and why it can still be considered a single phenomenon. Secondly, it is to understand the popularity of Evangelicalism in the context of global inequality, post- colonialism, and globalization; and thereby demonstrate the value of a social and political analysis of religious trends.
• STH TR 850: Sociology of Congregational Life
  The overarching goal of this class is to provide students with a working knowledge of group and organizational dynamics, using congregational life as a lens. Examining congregations, religious leaders, and laity through theories of group and organizational dynamics. This is a course about how congregations and congregational life is shaped - how the laity, pastoral staff, surrounding community, and organizational processes all shape congregations in specific ways. We will examine the ways in which societal factors impact congregations and congregational life. By the end of the semester, I expect students will have a working knowledge of group and organizational dynamics, as well as research methods to examine congregational conflicts from an individual, group, and societal level.
• STH TR 900: Ethnographic Research
  This seminar aims to train students in the understanding and application of ethnographic research methods. The research methods covered in this course are qualitative in nature, focusing on projects which require practitioners to go into the field and to analyze social spaces constructed, inhabited, and maintained by particular sets of social actors. The data in focus is less readily accessible via surveys, demographic analysis, and experimental designs. Course participants will, first of all, gain a broad understanding of the traditions related to ethnography, fieldwork, and qualitative research in the field of sociology. Secondly, participants will engage key debates in sociology related to the theories and methods of ethnographic work, ultimately developing research designs that most effectively fit personal projects in progress. Thirdly, participants will expand their techniques of data collection via guided field assignments and class interactions. Fourthly, participants will develop practices of research presentation that communicate findings in a compelling and insightful manner, with the aim of making findings accessible to a broader academic audience. Throughout the course, special attention will be given to the observation of how social boundaries are constructed and maintained in particular social settings.
• STH TR 909: Sociology of Black Religions
  This course will survey major classic and contemporary themes in social scientific studies of black religion in the 20th century in the United States. Students will interrogate, among other things, popular conceptions of black religion, the black church, and black religious experience.
• STH TR 940: Advanced Seminar in Religion and Social Change
  This seminar examines the relationship between religious ideas and practices and the world of micro and macro social change. It gives attention to both the conservative and radical potential within religion, as well as to the structures that either limit or facilitate the exercise of religious power. It covers both major theoretical perspectives and relevant research literature, with focused attention on a variety of historical and contemporary cases.
• STH TR 964: Seminar in Social Theory and Religious Identity
  This seminar will explore a variety of theoretical perspectives on the social formation of modern persons, asking how those insights inform an understanding of individual and collective religious identity. Students will also participate in field research focused on the intersection of religious and social identities.
• STH TS 500: Encountering ET: Spirit, Science, and Space
  The discoveries of Copernicus/Galileo and Darwin (19th century) significantly altered scientific and religious worldviews. People experienced a sense of displacement from their previously perceived status in the universe. In the 21st century, as space explorations expand, Contact with extraterrestrial life-- including intelligent life--becomes ever more possible (some people already claim to have had visual or physical contact with UFOs and their alien occupants). Using perspectives from science, science fiction, religion, and United Nations space treaties, and narratives about peoples' claims of encounters with extraterrestrial beings, this course will discuss current and projected understandings of the human place in the cosmos; reflect on how discovery of extraterrestrial life might impact the human sense of place in the universe; and consider how the impacts of ET encounters (actual or theoretical) might be positively incorporated into human consciousness and contexts.
• STH TS 800: International Conflict and the Ministry of Reconciliation
  This course proposes a theology of reconciliation for religious peace-building in the realms of ethnic division and nationalism, race, economic injustice and environmental degradation. Churches and communities of faith are not simply local and parochial bodies but are parts of wider communities of faith and practice. The course explores such corporate practice toward a public theology for the public square for Christians to live faithfully in a world of difference.

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