Beloved Community ONLINE

Catalog description

Taught by PSR (ONLINE). What distinctive contributions can theological ideas make to communities of faith committed to social change? How can we think in explicitly theological ways about the cultural and political constructions of race, gender, and sexuality, especially as these intersect and intertwine? Can religious leaders effectively critique the social systems in which whey they are embedded and the (religious) institutions on which they often rely for support? Drawing on various forms of social analysis, this course invites constructive theological work rooted in Josiah Royce's notion of "the Beloved Community," around which Martin Luther King, Jr., shaped his own work for civil rights and social transformation. We will aim to think theologically about the ethical challenges in sustaining counter-cultural expressions of the Beloved Community in diverse contexts. Lectures, discussion, and presentations will culminate in a final project suitable for a variety of vocational paths.