Theology & Ministry/Postmodern Context

Catalog description

The cultural-linguistic turn, otherwise known as postmodernism, changes everything. This course aims to enable students to recognize the effect of postmodernity on the twin tasks of doing theology and engaging in ministry. The goal will be to explore what it means to effectively contextualize the timeless message of God's work without accommodating it to the prevailing zeitgeist. Toward this end, students will evaluate various evangelical responses to postmodernism, explore what it means to do ministry in a missional rather than institutional manner, and examine the various ways in which evangelical churches have endeavored to reinvent themselves so as to minister effectively (make disciples, image the kingdom of God) in a postmodern, post-Christian context.