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BTI Consortium | Last Updated November 17, 2025 - 3:00PM
ETHICS
School
Hartford International
IP-611
Peace, Justice, and Violence in Sacred Texts
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
Students in this course will examine sources from the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and Quran that relate to peace, justice and violence. Students will analyze sacred texts in their original socio-historical contexts, and will explore diverse ways Jewish, Christian and Muslim sources confront and interpret these texts. Students will take a case study approach to investigate how texts from all three Abrahamic traditions can and have been used to legitimate violent conflict and injustice toward others in real-life settings (e.g., empires, religious persecution, colonialism, misogyny, racism, and Anti-Semitism), as well as how they can and have been used to promote peaceful practices and just relations (peace movements, provision of care for the poor and sick by religious orders and communities, peaceable co-existence and cooperation with religious and ethnic others, liberation and justice movements).
Course fulfills the following curricular requirements:
MAIRS - Core, and Sacred Texts as Living Documents requirement
MAC - Chaplaincy Elective
MAC - Islamic Chaplaincy Elective
MAP - Elective
[Course is closed to auditors]
Professor
Class Day & Time
Robertson
T
5:00 - 6:50 PM
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
3
Online?
Y
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Hartford International
ET-631-1
Environmental Ethics: Leadership and Justice for Life on Earth
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
The Native American “Tale of Two Wolves” tells of two evenly matched wolves in a battle. One is evil – greedy, arrogant, lying, and full of fear. The other is good – filled with love, hope, compassion, and integrity. The question is: which one will win? The sage’s answer: the one we feed.
The study of environmental ethics can easily devolve into a spiral of pessimism, given the unprecedented challenges we face regarding the climate crisis and other ecological threats to the well-being of our planet. We are tempted to “feed the wrong wolf” and give into despair and a fatalistic resignation. Therefore, we will explore religious, philosophical, and environmental perspectives to help us understand the roots of the crises, as well as search for resources to help us “feed the good wolf.” This course will equip students to work toward faith-based approaches to environmental ethics focused on justice and building community.
Course fulfills the following curricular requirements:
MAIRS - Ministerial Studies: Beliefs and Practices
MAIRS - Islamic Studies: Religious Pluralism
MAIRS - Islamic Studies Elective
MAIRS - Interreligious Studies Elective
MAC - Chaplaincy Elective
MAC - Islamic Chaplaincy Elective
MAP - Elective
Professor
Class Day & Time
Dahill
W
7:00 - 8:50 PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Boston University Graduate Program in Religion
CASRN791
Classical Approaches to Religion
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
This graduate seminar revisits the classical foundations of the study of religion while reimagining how those foundations might be critically and creatively reworked for our present moment. Students will engage major figures such as Émile Durkheim, Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, and Max Weber, alongside more recent interlocutors including Talal Asad, Saba Mahmood, and Sylvia Wynter. The goal is not only to understand what these thinkers argued, but to examine how their ideas continue to shape the institutional, political, and cultural boundaries of “religion” as a modern category.
What makes this iteration distinct is its commitment to situating the classical in active dialogue with questions of race, coloniality, and power. Rather than treating the field’s canons as fixed inheritance, we approach them as living archives, frameworks to be reinterpreted, contested, and extended. Through readings, discussion, and student led inquiry, participants will consider how genealogies of the discipline might be retold from other vantage points: from the Global South, from Black and Indigenous studies, and from decolonial and feminist critique.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Hill, Jr., James H.
M
2:30-5:15p
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
Graduate only
School
Boston College School of Theology & Ministry
TMCE7034
Critical Ethical Issues
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
This course considers critical contemporary issues from Catholic, interdenominational, interfaith, international, and cross-cultural perspectives. Attention will be given to the Wesleyan Quadrilateral (scripture, tradition, reason, and experience) and casuistry to ground a common approach in the examination and interrogation of the issues to be addressed. The principal ethical issues to be studied include: economic justice (access to health and human services), sexual ethics (just love, sexual identity, misogyny, pedophilia, and reproduction), respect life (abortion, euthanasia, hyper-incarceration and capital punishment), fanaticism and religious fundamentalism, environmental degradation and human ecology (natural disasters), and the toll of a perpetual state of war.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Iozzio, Mary Jo
W
01:00PM-03:50PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
Graduate Only
School
Boston College School of Theology & Ministry
TMCE8124
End of Life Ethics
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
The course endeavors to educate the student about the issues, perspectives, and methodologies in contemporary end of life ethics. Throughout the course the tradition of Catholic end of life ethics will be placed in dialogue with Protestant and secular positions and approaches in the field. The course begins with an exploration of the development of the Catholic end of life ethics tradition from Thomas Aquinas to the present day. Students then consider contemporary issues in end of life ethics, such as physician assisted suicide, the provision of artificial nutrition and hydration for permanently unconscious patients, the ethics of palliative care, and the provision of treatment for neonates suffering from terminal illness. This section of the course analyzes cases in clinical end of life ethics. The course also introduces students to how end of life ethics functions in hospital ethics committees.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Daly, Daniel J
F
01:00PM-04:00PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
Graduate Only; Prereq: One course in moral theology at the graduate level
School
Boston College Department of Theology
THEO5021-01
Queer Spiritualities
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
We are spiritual beings and sexual beings. Some of us are LGBTQIA+. This seminar explores intersections and collisions between sexualities and spiritualities of LGBTQIA+ persons.Open to undergraduates and graduates seeking to understand LGBQTIA+ spirituality in their lives or in relationships and pastoral work with LGBTQIA+ people. How do religious traditions create conflicts between LGBQTIA+ sexuality and spirituality? Happily, manyreligious figures overcome those conflicts showing that LGBQTIA+ persons bring special gifts to spiritual life, while some traditional spirituality also serves the LGBQTIA+ community. First-person accounts and guest speakers ground our spiritual, historical, and ethical readings in progressive and traditional Catholic, Episcopal, Protestant, and Orthodox thinkers and LGBQTIA+ leaders.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Weiss, James M
R
3:00-5:25 PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
Both Grad and Undergrad
School
Boston College Department of Theology
THEO5361-01
Contemporary Ethics in Christianity and Islam
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
This course explores contemporary issues in Christianity and Islam through the lens of ethics. We will use textual, historical, social, cultural and gender analyses to examine and reflect on the sources and frameworks of ethics in both traditions and how they are applied to major themes today, including definitions of justice, treatment and understandings of the human person and body, representation in media and other imagery, environmental responsibility, water, food and energy source use and abuse, economic and financial models, just war theory, religious violence and extremism, conflict resolution, reconciliation and forgiveness, nonviolence, peacemaking, and cyberspace and artificial intelligence.
Professor
Class Day & Time
DeLong-Bas, Natana J
MWF
10:00-10:50 AM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
Both Grad and Undergrad
School
Boston College Department of Theology
THEO8270-01
From Just War to Peacebuilding
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
The focus of this course will be contemporary theological ethics and just war, and the recent peacebuilding trajectory.We will consider the evolution of just war from Augustine through the early twenty-first century, the increasingly stringent interpretation of Catholic theorists over the past 60 years (since Vatican Council II), and the emergence of peacebuilding as a prominent Christian and interfaith approach to armed conflict,including perspectives from conflict zones and the global South. (Pacifism will be addressed but not a major focus.) Specific problems, such as the changing nature of war, noncombatant immunity,humanitarian intervention, and nuclear weaponswill be addressed.The effects of armed conflict on women and womens activism will provide an important gender lens. Case studiesfrom international contexts (e.g., Ukraine, Colombia, and Uganda) will be explored.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Cahill, Lisa
T
4:30-6:50 PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
Graduate
School
Boston University School of Theology
STHTC 840
Paradigms of Racism
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
Racism is ugly, painful, and seemingly inimical to understanding much less constructive intervention. When it comes to race, people often yell at, talk past, or simply avoid each other. Experiencing frustration, rage, and despair, some fear and may conclude that racism is intractable, even insoluble, while others "know" that racism does not exist. This course offers hope, exploring how groups of people form and defend competing systems of truth (that is, "paradigms") that hide ignorance and sustain harm. By discussing eight "paradigms" of racism and attendant forms of ignorance, we seek to enlarge our understanding as a basis for concrete practical steps that could be taken by different people in different sites.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Goto, Courtney and Chris Schlauch
M
2:30-5:15pm
Grading Option
Letter or P/F
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Boston University School of Theology
STHTS 863
Vexations: Religion and Politics in the Black Community
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
This course explores the theo-ethical perspectives of selected Black Christian thinkers with special attention to how their thought intersects with and also responds to contemporary public policy issues. The challenge is to relate the essentials of Christian ethics to contemporary personal and social issues, identify basic elements of Christian ethical reflection in public discourse, consider a variety of ethical perspectives for decision making, and evaluate Black ethical thinkers as they respond to concrete social issues and public policy statements.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Townes, Emilie
R
12:30-3:15pm
Grading Option
Letter or P/F
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary-Boston
SE571
Christian Ethics & Social Issues
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
Seeks to develop the student�s theological ethical reflections,�social analysis, and types of action for ministering to crucial social issues. �Our three step approach will be:�1) clarification, 2) conceptualization, and 3) confrontation. Issues include: urbanization, economic justice,�and environmental ethics. ��� � � � � �
Professor
Class Day & Time
Price, Thomas
See notes
Sat 8:30am-4:30pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
Y
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
Module 4 Saturdays: Feb. 21, Mar. 21, Apr. 25
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2390B
Colloquium in American Religious History
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
Presentation and discussion of the research of doctoral candidates in American religious history. Available, with instructors' permission, to Harvard doctoral students in other fields of religious studies or American studies. Note: Second half of an academic year bi-weekly course. Credit will not be earned unless both the fall and spring semester of the course is completed. Course may be taken on a Sat/unsat basis only.Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 3505B.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Holland
T
06:00pm-07:59pm
Grading Option
P/F
Credits
2
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
DOCTORAL
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3106
Social Justice: Perspectives from Political Philosophy and Theology
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
In this class we will examine the concept of social justice and its deployment in political philosophy and theology, together with concrete examples of justice-oriented movements. We will open a class with a close reading of John Rawls�s A Theory of Justice and Political Liberalism, two of the most influential texts providing an account of social justice in the 20th century. We will then turn to alternative accounts of justice�which often directly challenge Rawls�s�paying special attention to those that incorporate theological and religious sources. Readings include the work of Alasdair MacIntyre, Michael Walzer, Martha Nussbaum, Jeffrey Stout, Nicholas Wolterstorff, Jean Porter, among others.This seminar offers students an opportunity to write a research paper. No prerequisites.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Zegarra
T
03:00pm-05:45pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3267
AI, Ethics, and Society
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
The radical upswing in engagement with artificial intelligence over the last several years has outpaced systematic ethical reflection about its impact, benefits, and risks. This research seminar identifies and evaluates conceptual resources for thinking through this cultural shift�ranging from the activities of AI businesses to the human, environmental, religious, and social impacts and possibilities. A distinctive throughline is a diagnostic framework for AI harms and mitigations that surfaces physical and existential threats, infrastructure-level inequities, psychosocial and cultural harms, and the narratives that normalize or conceal them. Seminar participants will work collaboratively in small groups to research particular topics, bringing bibliographies and analysis to the seminar for discussion. Final projects will concretize work on specific issues in AI and ethics (e.g., research paper, policy memo, or evidence-backed design critique) and develop current bibliography for those topics. No programming background required; technical students are welcome. Permission of the instructors required (see Canvas site to apply). Enrollment limited to 20.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Lamberth
T
03:00pm-05:45pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
No programming background required; technical students are welcome. Permission of the instructors required (see Canvas site to apply). Enrollment limited to 20. BTI STUDENTS EMAIL PROFESSOR AND REGISTRAR
School
Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology
ETHC 5115
Individualism and Secular Age
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
This course critically examines secularity as a contemporary manifestation of the interplay between faith and reason, drawing extensively on the insights of Charles Taylor. Secularity is conceptualized in two predominant forms: the subtraction theory, which posits that religion has been removed from society, and the anthropological perspective, wherein faith is merely one option among many, subject to individual choice. Central to this exploration are the nature of human reason, the essence of faith, and the manner in which their interaction engenders secularity through diverse modes of reasoning. This analysis incorporates considerations of exclusive humanism, individualism, and closed-world structures. By critically evaluating faith and reason, the course offers a new philosophical and theological interpretation and a deeper understanding of humanity
Professor
Class Day & Time
Dr. Tone Svetelj
TR
10:40 AM - 12:00 PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology
ETHC 6205 A
Social Ministries Field Ed
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
Field Education
Professor
Class Day & Time
Stavroula Gurguliatos
T
TBD
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
0
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Saint John's Seminary
MT501
Moral Theology
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
This course will introduce students to the major themes of Catholic Moral Theology. Grounded in the teaching of the 1993 encyclical Veritatis splendor, instruction will address man�s vocation to beatitude, the specification of moral objects, the dynamics of human freedom, the morality of the passions, as well as a survey of the theological and moral virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Students will examine the role of the Magisterium in moral matters as well as Catholic belief regarding sin, grace, and the moral law.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Fr. Nakkeeran
MF
10:40-11:45 AM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Hartford International
ET-631-2
Environmental Ethics: Leadership and Justice for Life on Earth
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
The Native American “Tale of Two Wolves” tells of two evenly matched wolves in a battle. One is evil – greedy, arrogant, lying, and full of fear. The other is good – filled with love, hope, compassion, and integrity. The question is: which one will win? The sage’s answer: the one we feed.
The study of environmental ethics can easily devolve into a spiral of pessimism, given the unprecedented challenges we face regarding the climate crisis and other ecological threats to the well-being of our planet. We are tempted to “feed the wrong wolf” and give into despair and a fatalistic resignation. Therefore, we will explore religious, philosophical, and environmental perspectives to help us understand the roots of the crises, as well as search for resources to help us “feed the good wolf.” This course will equip students to work toward faith-based approaches to environmental ethics focused on justice and building community.
Course fulfills the following curricular requirements:
MAIRS - Ministerial Studies: Beliefs and Practices
MAIRS - Islamic Studies: Religious Pluralism
MAIRS - Islamic Studies Elective
MAIRS - Interreligious Studies Elective
MAC - Chaplaincy Elective
MAC - Islamic Chaplaincy Elective
MAP - Elective
Professor
Class Day & Time
Dahill
W
7:00 - 8:50 PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
Y
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Hartford International
RS-539
Human Rights in the Face of Hegemony
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
This course probes the issue of hegemony in a democratic society and its role in leveraging authority. From the framework of both an International Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA) and an Intersectional Rights-based lens, this class explores the interconnected issues that shape the complexity of human rights in the 21st century. We will examine the HRBA’s five key principles—participation, accountability, non-discrimination and equality, empowerment, and legality—in light of historical case studies and current issues. Ultimately, the course will analyze the role of religious assumptions in maintaining and/or dismantling fundamental human rights.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Watts
M
5:00 - 6:50 PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
Y
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Boston College School of Theology & Ministry
TMCE7004
The Moral Dimension of the Christian Life
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
This course provides a foundational and systematic overview of the basic components of Catholic moral theology. The content of the course is an exposition and analysis of topics traditionally treated under the heading of fundamental moral theology: moral character, moral freedom and its limits, the relationship of spirituality and morality, sin and conversion, conscience, the use of scripture in moral reasoning, natural law, the teaching authority of the church in moral matters, the development of moral norms, discernment and moral decision-making.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Scheid, Daniel P
W
06:30PM-09:00PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
Graduate Only
School
Boston College School of Theology & Ministry
TMCE8059
Social Justice and the Bible
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
This course builds on the rich tradition of Catholic social teaching found in the papal, Vatican, and conferences of bishops documentary history and brings the insights of Catholic social ethics and biblical studies to bear on the realities of social justice and human rights today. Attention will be given to primary source documents in the prophetic and wisdom literature traditions of scripture and the social encyclicals found in CST. The course (1) presents the concerns of justice making/justice breaking/justice doing in the primary literature of these traditions, (2) explores the social, economic, and educational conditions of those who are vulnerable or otherwise marginalized, and (3) considers how to realize the preferential option for those who are poor and/or otherwise vulnerable as the Gospel demand for justice.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Iozzio, Mary Jo
T
09:30AM-12:20PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
Graduate Only; Prereq: One graduate level course in either fundamental moral theology (including CST) or Scripture
School
Boston College School of Theology & Ministry
TMCE8149
Catholic Social Teaching and Ecology
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
This course provides an introduction to the development of Catholic social teaching on ecology. The first half focuses on Pope Francis landmark encyclical, Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home, and its major themes. We will examine papal and episcopal teaching prior to LS as well as how LS has been interpreted by Bishops Conferences and selected theologians from across the world. The second half of the course will draw on the Jesuit textbook Healing Earth to apply CST to various issues in ecological ethics, e.g. biodiversity, energy, water, food, and climate change.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Scheid, Daniel P
R
03:30PM-06:20PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
Graduate Only
School
Boston College Department of Theology
THEO5104-01
Do Robots Have Souls?
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
Do robots have souls? Probably not. But this course thinks its a good question, and therefore explores our fundamental thinking of technology and the ways in which it overlaps with religious and philosophical thinking of animal, inanimate object, technical object, and human. The philosophic core is found in the work of Gilbert Simondon, Martin Heidegger, and Nishida Kitaro, focusing particularly on Simondons re-envisioning of the relationship between religion and technology through art and philosophy. After this core, we turn to art, movies, and novels, to explore transhumanism, posthumanism, the threat of AI, and the possibility of human and machine harmony.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Kruger, Matthew C
R
3:00-5:25 PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
Both Grad and Undergrad
School
Boston College Department of Theology
THEO7040-01
Theology, Ethics and Race
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
This seminar explores key themes at the intersections of theology, ethics and race, with a focus on the Christian tradition. It engages foundational figures and methods in Black theology and womanism, the history of Black Catholicism and the work of transnational Africana activism. It surveys the roots of structural racism and the logic and impact of thesin of white supremacy, including the complicity of Christian theology and practice.The course also analyzes contributions from Asian American, Latinx and Indigenous theologians and ethicists on questions of racial identity and trauma.Finally, thecourse invites consideration of the personal, social and institutional implications of its texts from theology and ethics.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Heyer, Kristin E
W
10:00 AM -12:25 PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
Graduate
School
Boston University School of Theology
STHTC 836
Gender, Culture, and Transformative Leadership
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
This course examines the relation between race, gender, and ethnicity from the perspective of different multicultural identities and theological understandings, evaluating how religious structures have constructed these relations and challenged these dynamics. Analyzing various church contexts and social constructions, we will aim to re-evaluate diverse theoretical and experimental discussions among different ethnic groups in a global context as well as in the American context. This course introduces students to of the multiple dynamics present between race, gender, and ethnicity in various church contexts such as White/African American/Asian/Asian American/Hispanic/other immigrant churches and multicultural congregations. It investigates how church life and ministry interact with sociopolitical and cultural structures and how these processes impact people's everyday lives. The course analyzes the issues of race, gender/sex, body, age, and class in the North American context seeking also to understand colonial and post-colonial structures within American society and beyond.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Choi, Hee An
R
3:30-6:15pm
Grading Option
Letter or P/F
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Boston University School of Theology
STHTS 834
Warrior Chants and Unquiet Spirits
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
We focus on the Christian protest tradition, in historical and contemporary contexts, through the autobiographies of people who have used their voices and actions to address and to make significant differences in church and society. Analysis of personal descriptions and basic commitments for social justice form the framework for integrating spirituality with social witness. We study the relationship of the work of such movements within and beyond church structures.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Townes, Emilie
W
8:00-10:45am
Grading Option
Letter or P/F
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary-Hamilton
ET501
Christian Ethics
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
An exploration of how Christians can make and enact good, wise, and faithful�ethical choices and develop moral character and community in the midst of a complex world. The course�will examine: (1) the foundations of Christian Ethics, especially in Holy Scripture; (2) the contexts of�contemporary ethical issues; (3) the methods of moral discernment and decision making; and (4) the�relationship of Christian ethics to that of the surrounding culture and society. �Lectures, case studies, and�discussion will be employed in an attempt to gain wisdom, understanding, character, and a prophetic voice�relative to the moral issues in church and society. ��� � � � � ��
Professor
Class Day & Time
Ridenour, Autumn
W
6-9pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
Y
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2299
Racial Liberalism and the Ethics of Law and Justice
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
The course will examine the relationship between race and liberalism in the formation of the U.S. legal system, focusing in particular on the use of moral (and religious) doctrines both to reinforce and repudiate legal codes and institutional practices designed to enslave and subjugate dispossessed and ‘disinherited’ groups in the U.S. Framed by Charles Mills’ category of “racial liberalism” -- the racialization of personhood, rights and public duties -- the course will explore through court cases, trial transcripts, first-person narratives, and political philosophy how efforts to promote a color-blind society often appeal to religious claims that undermine liberal theories of justice and equality. At issue is the role of religion and ethics in debates on law and justice. How, if at all, can religion as well as ethical frameworks explain the tension between law and justice and grapple with social matters that are legally protected but morally offensive.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Johnson
M
03:00pm-04:59pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2468
Resistance, Radicalism, and Reform: The Christian Left in America
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
Is there a Christian Left in America? This course explores some of the varied justice movements of Christian traditions in the United States from the late nineteenth to early twenty-first century. These movements complicate the association of religion with conservative politics by looking at a longer trajectory of American Christianity. In roughly chronological order, the course focuses on Christians� attempts to address some of the country�s biggest problems: poverty, gender inequity, racism, and imperfect democracy. From Christian traditions including Black Protestantism, mainline Protestantism, evangelicalism, and Catholicism, these individuals and groups have endeavored to put their faith into action. Through primary and secondary texts, we will explore how Christians have brought to bear the resources of their various faith traditions including prayer, liturgy, confession, activism, and theology onto social movements. In their successes and failures, we witness the difficult work of coalescing social and political ideology around the Christian faith.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Hanson Woodruff
R
09:00am-11:45am
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3221
American Religious Ecofascism
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
The blending of climate action and resource preservation with antisemitism, antiblackness, Islamophobia, sexism, transphobia, and xenophobia�tactics typically linked to the far-right�or advocating for the destruction of the earth to "level the playing field" for all creatures, a strategy often associated with the far left, exemplifies the characteristics of ecofascism. These dangerous ideologies often masquerade as environmental consciousness.While contemporary discussions frame such rhetoric as a reaction to the growing awareness of climate change, it has deeper historical roots, particularly visible in American religious writings. Lest we forget that religion (and race) were central to the ecofascist manifestos espoused by the perpetrators of several tragic events: the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand, where a gunman targeted Muslims during Friday prayers at Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Center; the 2015 mass shooting of Black churchgoers at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina; the 2019 Walmart shooting in El Paso, Texas that targeted the Latinx community; and the 2022 attack at a grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York. In the manifestos, the shooters identified as ecofascists whose mission was to protect and preserve white Christian nationalism in the wake of climate disaster.The manifestos accompanying these attacks have brought greater visibility to ecofascism today, compelling us to examine its historical roots and current operations. Is there a longer history of American religious ecofascism? How can we characterize this history, and what insights does it provide into the functioning of ecofascism in contemporary society? How have communities resisted ecofascism?��
Professor
Class Day & Time
Hoskins
R
12:00pm-01:59pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3300
Religious Literacy and the Professions
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
Religions have functioned throughout human history to inspire and justify the full range of human agency from the heinous to the heroic. Their influences remain potent here in the 21st century in spite of modern predictions that religious influences would steadily decline in concert with the rise of secular democracies and advances in science. Professionals in a wide range of fields need to understand these complex religious influences in order to understand modern human affairs across the full spectrum of endeavors in local, national, and global arenas. In this course, we will focus on religious literacy in professions such as journalism, arts and popular culture, government, humanitarian action, education, and organizing. How can a nuanced and complex understanding of religion enhance the ability of professionals in these fields to serve their populations? Students will explore multiple methods for comprehending the ways that religions shape, and are shaped by, different social, cultural, and political contexts and will apply that method to case studies in diverse professional sectors. This course is open to all but required for those pursuing a Certificate in Religion and Public Life. Course must be taken for a letter grade if pursuing the certificate.
Professor
Class Day & Time
McKanan
MW
09:00am-10:15am
Grading Option
Letter, P/F
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology
ETHC 6205
Social Ministries
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
This course is concerned with ethical consideration of social issues and social structures through the lens of Orthodox Christianity. Social Ministries is open to all students (regardless of location or degree program) and all students are required to have an associated field education placement.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Dr. Timothy G. Patitsas
W
10:40 AM - 1:00 PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology
PAST 6052 H1
Marriage and Family
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
The course will examine the Orthodox theological understanding of marriage and family. It will include a focus on the characteristics of both healthy and unhealthy relationships. Issues which negatively affect marital and family relationships, such as addictions, as well as psychological, verbal, physical, and sexual abuse, will be examined. Attention will also be given to clergy marriages and the issue of clerical "burnout." The role of the pastoral caregiver in ministering to marriages and families will be emphasized.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Dr. Philip Mamalakis
W
2:10 - 4:30 PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Saint John's Seminary
ST502
Marriage and Family
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP26
A study of the 1983 Code of Canon Law marriage canons in their historical and doctrinal context with special consideration given to consent, covenant, and sacrament, as well as mixed and interfaith marriages and pastoral preparation and care for persons marrying.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Fr. Ferme
T
10:30-11:45 AM; 1:15-2:30 PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
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