Theology As Living Conversation

Catalog description

Taught by ABSW. In this online theology course, students will be introduced to the complex and diverse discipline of Christian theology, conceived as a living conversation that takes place across time and cultures. The course will encourage students to claim their own places in this living conversation, and to grow into their identities as valued, theological conversation contributors, self-aware of their own social and cultural locations. Students will engage various theological methods including ordinary theology, practical theology, liturgical theology, systematic/constructive theology, science and theology, and public theology. Students' understandings will be assessed through written work, online discussion forums, a media-appropriate project (for example Twitter/Storify, blog, letter to the editor, newsletter article, etc.) and an imaginative dialogue with a theologian. The course will be taught from a commitment to liberative pedagogy (see bell hooks and Paulo Friere) in which students' voices and experiences are encouraged and valued. This course is appropriate for MDiv, MCL, STM, and MA students, and satisfies the required core theology course for Junior Colloquium at American Baptist Seminary of the West. Students from across the Graduate Theological Union are most welcome and encouraged to take the course.