Ministry and Care in the Contexts of Displacement and Loss

Catalog description

This course will prepare pastors for caregiving encounters with persons and communities facing the loss of one's 'home place.' Contexts for care include the elderly who can no longer live in their homes, situations of poverty (eviction or foreclosure), natural disasters such as hurricanes or fire, persons facing incarceration as well as first generation immigrants and refugees. Students will learn about the physical, psychological, spiritual challenges that face the unexpected crisis accompanying the loss of home as well as the ways unjust social and political systems often perpetuate this crisis. Throughout this course students will work to develop a theology of suffering relevant to the context of human displacement and begin to envision what hope might look like, practically and theologically, in each context