Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the Student Link for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• STH TT 865: Christianity and Climate
  This course explores the relationship between climate change and many facets of Christianity--including theology, activism, public statements, ethical commitments, and worship practices. Through reading, writing, and discussion, we will explore how Christian communities engage (or avoid engaging) the pressing issue of climate change through various lenses (such as stewardship, justice, and dominion). We will examine factors that promote and inhibit such engagement. By the end of this course, you will be able to explain complex issues to laypersons, and to develop your own creative response to one of the most pressing environmental issues of our time. (Clusters 1)
• STH TT 866: Feminist and Womanist Theologies
  As one of the core courses in the theology sequence at BU School of Theology, this course introduces students to feminist and womanist approaches to the study of theology. It aims to provide students with a grounding in the major ideas and methodologies of feminist and womanist theologians. The first part of the course focuses on questions of method and provides students with grounding in the early history and development of feminist and womanist theologies. The second part focuses on important theoretical engagements that mark significant reassessments of notions of the body, sexuality, agency, and subjectivity within theological work. The third part highlights new trajectories and positions students' work within the ongoing conversation of feminist and womanist discourse. (Requires TF 701/702 or equivalent) (Clusters 1 and 2)
• STH TT 871: Science Literacy and Scientific Boundary Questions
  This course introduces contemporary science to students with research and writing interests in the area of science, philosophy, and religion. It also treats scientific boundary questions, which are philosophical, ethical, and theological questions raised by science yet not answerable within science itself. This is more than a popular science course; it is the course to take when you are ready to go beyond popular science, and you are ready for integrative thinking that connects science, philosophy, history, ethics, and theology. The Fall semester lectures are on the biological sciences. That semester can be taken independently of the Spring semester on physics. The mathematics required for the Spring lectures on physics is taught through the whole year in a separate meeting. You should consult the instructor about your background and readiness to take this course prior to registering. (Clusters 1 and 2)
• STH TT 872: Science Literacy and Scientific Boundary Questions
  This course introduces contemporary science to students with research and writing interests in the area of science, philosophy, and religion. It also treats scientific boundary questions, which are philosophical, ethical, and theological questions raised by science yet not answerable within science itself. This is more than a popular science course; it is the course to take when you are ready to go beyond popular science, and you are ready for integrative thinking that connects science, philosophy, history, ethics, and theology. TT872 lectures are on physics. TT871, on the biological sciences, can be taken independently of TT872 on physics. The mathematics required for the TT872 lectures on physics is taught through the whole year in a separate meeting. You should consult the instructor about your background and readiness to take TT871 or TT872 prior to registering. (Clusters 1 and 2)
• STH TT 876: God, Good, and the Good Life
  This course explores the relations among God, good, and the good life as they have been conceived by a number of important and influential contemporary moral philosophers and religious ethicists -- theists and non-theists alike. In so doing, the course examines various ways of mapping the relations between philosophy and theology or faith and reason, while also casting doubt on efforts to neatly separate the two. The course especially attends to ways in which believers and nonbelievers alike have imagined the difference God makes (or fails to make) when it comes to ethics, considered both as an intellectual discipline and as way of being in the world. It considers too the ways these figures have inherited and transformed some of the most important pre-modern philosophical and religious traditions in their own efforts to do ethics in today's world. (Cluster 1)
• STH TT 898: 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. (Requires TF 701/702 or equivalent) (Clusters 1 and 2)
• STH TT 899: 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 Lucke (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. (Requires TF 701/702 or equivalent) (Clusters 1)
• STH TT 913: Science and Religion
  Quantum entanglement is one of the most remarkable ideas to have emerged from physics in the twentieth century. Identified as a consequence of quantum theory already in the 1920s, it was not confirmed as a physical phenomenon until the 1980s. The broader implications of living in an "entangled" world are only beginning to be felt outside the walls of physics. This course explores the significance of quantum entanglement for theological reflection on creaturely and divine relationality.
• STH TT 921: Proseminar: Religion and Science
  This doctoral level seminar provides an advanced introduction to the core literature and issues of the interdisciplinary field of religion and science. The primary texts are Ian Barbour's Religion and Science: Historical and Contemporary Issues, John Hedley Brooke's Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives, the edited collection titled Religion and Science: History, Method, Dialogue (Mark Richardson and Wesley Wildman, eds.), and the Oxford Handbook of Religion and Science (Philip Clayton, ed.). The four primary areas considering during the semester are: historical relations, comparative method, disciplinary perspectives, and theoretical debates. The course is a requirement for BU PhD students in the science and religion track of Division of Religious and Theological Studies. Advanced masters students may enroll with the instructor's permission.
• STH TT 926: Political Theology
  Recent developments across a variety of disciplines have led to deep and widespread interest in "political theology" -- a diverse range of approaches to interrogating, (re)imagining, and (de)constructing the intersection of politics, religion, and theology, present and past. Scholars have argued that dominant paradigms of sovereignty, the secular, modernity, and liberalism are themselves secularized, corrupted, or otherwise transformed versions of Jewish and Christian theology. Others contend that modern political practices and paradigms represent not the legacy of early modern secularization but the trail of an early modern reinjection of theology in political and social theory. Others still find in the practices of contemporary communities lived political theologies that subvert existing power structures and cast doubt on common conceptions of contemporary political life and possibilities. This course examines these competing developments, readings, and proposals; their interactions; and the contested histories, theories, and values that underwrite them. Considering political theology as both a historical and contemporary phenomenon and engaging a range of perspectives and figures, the course also considers relations and interactions between political theology and other approaches to questions of "religion and politics."
• STH TT 929: Thomas Aquinas
  Thomas Aquinas is one of the most important figures in the history and development of Western philosophy and Christian theology. On nearly everything he writes about -- from virtue to the sacraments, metaphysics of identity to the incarnation, war to soteriology -- he has something interesting, important, and illuminating to say. And whether one agrees with his particular conclusions or not, it is difficult to engage his work without growing as a thinker and reader. This doctoral seminar constitutes an extended engagement with Thomas's thought, primarily through attention to his Summa theologiae. Engagement with secondary sources will be sparing so as to keep our focus on the text itself. We will be reading with an eye to understanding Thomas both on his own terms and as a resource for contemporary work in philosophy, theology, and religious studies. The course's focus this year is on Thomas's ethics (especially his conceptions of virtue, habit, and human action); the relations between his ethics and his overarching theological and intellectual project; and the ongoing philosophical and theological interest of these dimensions of his thought. The course is suitable both for advanced Aquinas students as well as those new to his thought.
• STH TT 932: Paul Tillich
  Centered on one of the major theological works of the twentieth century, the Systematic Theology, this course is designed to assist students to contextualize, interpret, and analyze the thought of Paul Tillich and to assess its significance for contemporary theology.
• STH TT 933: Pragmatism & Social Practice
  This doctoral seminar considers a range of contemporary philosophers who formulate and approach questions concerning meaning, conceptual content, language, truth, 'realism,' 'social construction', justice, justification, value, and other topics by focusing on social practices and their explanatory power. Our aim will be to understand and assess the arguments of such figures and the disputes among them. We will also explore the value of such perspectives for our own philosophical and/or theological work. Among the philosophers to be considered are figures such as Robert Brandom, Donald Davidson, Hilary Putnam, Richard Rorty, Cheryl Misak, Jeffrey Stout, John McDowell, Jos? Medina, Elizabeth Anderson, and others.
• 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 936: Barth and his Interpreters
  Karl Barth is recognized as one of the most influential Christian theologians of the 20th century. The course explores his impact through an examination of the central ideas and commitments of Barth's thought. Rooting his work within the German context, we will also examine and assess the transmission of his work within the U.S. context. The first part of the course focuses on Barth's writings, paying particular attention to his rhetoric. The second part examines works that connect Barth to constructive projects and pressing questions in our current historical moment.
• STH TT 940: Ecclesiology
  This course asks the question, ?What is the church?? in dialogue with Christian theological figures and schools representing Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Christian traditions. While one of the aims of this course is that students be conversant with those voices, it ultimately aims at the student's ability to articulate the ecclesiology of his or her own community and to bring that to bear on the contemporary situation and particular problems of Christian practice in church and society. Meets with TJ940.
• 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 956: Atheisms and Theologies
  The general aim of this course is learn about varieties of atheism-older "classic atheism," so-called "new atheism" of recent years, and theologically inspired forms of atheism-and to understand the various theological responses to atheism. Questions of particular importance are: (1) How strong are traditional and new atheistic arguments? (2) Where does or should theology stand in relation to the arguments of atheism? (3) What are the origins of modern atheism? (4) Should postmodern mystical theologies and iconoclastic anti-anthropomorphic theologies that reject a determinate divine being be considered atheistic? If so how does this sort of atheism relate to other types? The class is intended for advanced masters students and doctoral candidates interested in con-temporary theology and its conceptual roots in older theological debates. Meets with STH TT 816.
• 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 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.

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