Course Descriptions - Department of Theology

CORE COURSES

Th110 Religious Faith in the Modern World
A critical inquiry into the possibility, the meaning, and the value of religious faith in the context of modern knowledge and experience, centered on the biblical and Christian vision of existence but including dialogue with other world views. Emphasis is on the emerging new forms of religious belief and action in the contemporary world.

Th120 Christianity in the Contemporary Era
A critical reflection on the meaning of the Christian faith as it is set forth in the New Testament, as it is found in the living tradition of the Church, as it is reflected on by modern thinkers, and as it bears on the issues of our time. Prerequisite: Th110.

REQUIRED COURSES AND ELECTIVES

These courses are open to all students. Unless otherwise noted, the prerequisites for these courses are Th110- 120. Courses marked by an asterisk will satisfy the values requirement.

Th/Po/SJ250 Faith and Praxis: An Introduction to Social Justice
A team-taught and multidisciplinary course that considers the imperative of social justice offered by the world’s major faith traditions. Analyses of the political, economic and social ways of the world will augment and ground the teachings of the faith traditions.

Th300 Methods and Sources of Theology
An inquiry into the relationship between faith and reason, modern methods of analyzing and interpreting Scripture, and the role of experience, tradition, the Magisterium, and the human sciences in theology.

Th301 Modern Christian Community: The Church*
A study of the origin, importance, significance, and activities of the Body of Christ for the disciples of Jesus in his time and our own. Special attention given to different images and structures of the Church and contemporary ecclesial issues.

Th310 The Theology of Grace*
The Christian understanding of God’s saving activity as gratuitous, transforming and empowering. The insights of formative thinkers of past and present. Application to issues facing the Christian today. Formerly titled Christian Anthropology.

Th320 Survey of the Old Testament*
A survey of the Old Testament literature with attention to its literary forms, its history, and its religious message.

Th330 Survey of the New Testament*
Reading of the New Testament literature with attention to literary forms, historical development, and theological content.

Th350 Who is Jesus Christ?*
A study of the person and significance of Jesus Christ for contemporary Christians in light of Scripture, Catholic Tradition, the Magisterium, and contemporary theologians. Formerly Th419.

Th400 The Ethical Challenge of Jesus*
The ethical teachings of Jesus, especially as seen in his parables. How they were applied to difficulties encountered by the early Church, and how they might be brought to bear on problems of our own time.

Th415 Paul’s Gospel for the Nations*
Key themes in Pauline theology studied in his main writings against the background of what Luke presents in Acts 9-28. Focus on eschatology, ministry, community, and justification by faith.

Th416 The Christian Challenge of Luke- Acts*
Study of the Third Gospel and Acts of the Apostles as these synthesize the Jesus experience and show its relevance for Christian discipleship. Emphasis on how Luke integrates themes like compassion, universal outreach, and the proper use of material possessions for people called to live in a diverse and ongoing world.

Th436 The Christian Sacraments* (Not to be offered in 2000-02.)

Th/As443 Black Religion*
The study of the origins and influence of the major religious traditions found in the American black community. May be used as a substitute for Th120.

Th444 The Religious Story of the American People*
A survey of the religious history of the United States, including Native American religion, mainline Christian and Jewish communities, utopian and other popular religious movements. Formerly titled Religious Problems in America.

Th448 Theology and Social Change*
The different ways in which the biblical faith contributes to world-wide aspirations for social change, including Liberation Theology in Latin America, black theology in the U.S., and the various "contextual" theologies in the Third World.

Th450 The Faith and Thought of Judaism*
A study of the religious vision and the intellectual perceptions of Judaism, seen in their origins and in their historical development.

Th453 The Zen Spirit*
Chinese and Japanese Buddhist scriptures. Application of Zen to modern American life. Integration of Zen and Christianity. The practice of zazen. All to be explored under the guidance of a Soto Zen Sensei ("Teacher").

Th460 Christianity and American Literature*
American novelists (Hawthorne, Wharton, Bellow), poets (Dickinson, Pound, C. Williams), and playwrights (O'Neill, T. Williams, Albee) all highlight the moral imperative: the point is to live. Students will discuss the moral implications of their works.

Th462 Dramatic Symbols and Christian Personalism*
An inquiry into the central theme of Christian personalism, God-centered friendship in the face of the isolation of impersonal society, guilt, and death as articulated by contemporary dramatists O’Neill, Williams, Friel, Anouilh, and others.

Th/Hp463 Introduction to Holocaust Studies*
An approach to remembering the Jewish Holocaust under European Fascism 1933-45 from the perspectives of church and political history, theological ethics, and the social and behavioral sciences.

Th473 Religion and Psychology*
The impact on religion and religious belief of modern psychological theories.

Th476 The Use and Abuse of Creation*
A study of the relationships between humanity and nature in view of the ecological crisis, focusing on an examination of philosophical, religious, and pragmatic considerations which would lead to an ethic of environmental responsibility.

Th477 Values in Christian Spirituality*
An examination of Christian spiritual values through the study of the varieties of mystical experiences and methods of prayer/meditation that exist in the Christian Traditions. Great writers of the past will be read in translation and discussed.

Th478 Values in Latin American Theologies* (Not to be offered in 2002-04.)

Th480 Images of Personal Value*
An investigation of workaday human values from the pragmatic, aesthetic, and personal perspectives as articulated by Anne Lindbergh, Antoine de Saint- Exupery, John Macmurray, and various playwrights.

Th481 A Theology of Human Sexuality*
Human sexuality as seen in the light of Biblical teaching; an historical survey of sexual attitudes; documents of contemporary faith communities; contributions of the behavioral sciences; and recent theological reflection, including a case-study approach to moral dilemmas.

Th482 Christian Morality Today*
Principles and issues of individual and social morality from the viewpoint of reason and faith.

Th484 Christian Medical Ethics*
Contemporary questions such as abortion, sterilization, technological reproduction, human experimentation, care of the dying, and genetic engineering, studied in the light of the Judaeo-Christian moral tradition.

Th486 Morality in the Marketplace*
An attempt to apply Judaeo-Christian principles to the decision-making process in business, given the economic realities of the market place.

Th/As487 Theology of Social and Racial Justice*
Study of major contemporary Christian documents, particularly regarding economics and poverty, administration of criminal justice, cause and responses to racism.

Th/Hp488 Seminar on Catholic Pastoral Teaching*
A review, analysis, and critique of teachings of the U.S. Catholic bishops since Vatican II. Topics include racism, sexism, militarism, economic justice, and hierarchical accountability.

Th/Ur496 Theology and Urban Problems*
A theological view of the Christian tradition on various contemporary urban problems such as poverty, injustice, racism, sexism, housing, unemployment; a study of some actual and possible responses to these problems. No prerequisites.

Th497 Saint Augustine and the Confessions*
Background, sources, reading and interpretation of this classic work in the context of Augustine’s culture and theology.

Th498 Seminar on Death and Dying*
A multi-disciplinary study of the experience of dying as shaped by contemporary attitudes. Theological reflection on the perennial mystery of death, with special attention to the adolescent myth of immortality and ethical issues surrounding death and dying.

Th/Ur499 Theology and Contemporary Public Issues*
Deals with the theological implications of various contemporary environmental and ecological issues: nuclear energy, pollution, nutrition, world hunger, genetics. No prerequisites.