The study of death and dying is a complex, multidimensional, and evolving field. This course draws on contemporary theory and research to explore death and dying from multiple perspectives, including religious, theological, pastoral, and psychological. Topics include societal attitudes toward death; facing one's own death; cultural features of death and dying; end-of-life issues; children and death; funerals and the use of ritual in ministry to the dying; pastoral sensitivities and skills for ministering to the dying; and pressing contemporary concerns, such as death in the workplace, institutional death, violent death, and death in global perspective.

In this foundational course, we develop an understanding of critical dimensions of competent and compassionate pastoral care and counseling today. This course has four primary foci. First, we consider theoretical perspectives that may ground this large ministerial field. Second, we study concrete methods and skills for effective pastoral care. Third, we examine some challenging realities to which all pastoral caregivers must respond at some point, including domestic violence, grief and loss, and suicide. Finally, we consider the person of the pastoral caregiver, including the necessity of resilience in ministry and next steps in developing as a pastoral caregiver. Throughout the course, we explore pastoral care/counseling from contemporary theological, psychological, and cultural perspectives. We also consider the specific roles and possible strategies of the pastoral caregiver and the faith community in supporting individuals and communities as they harness strengths and resources to negotiate challenges and create or maintain stability and well-being. This course includes lecture, readings, discussion, and exercises.

Over the course of our lives, many people suffer from serious acute or chronic illnesses, traumas, and disabilities. We all mourn the losses of loved ones. We all, at some point, confront dying, death and grief. Despite their certainty, many approach these life events with anxiety, fear, and avoidance. This course will address human sickness, trauma, disability, and the processes of dying and grieving from psychosocial, theological, clinical-pastoral, liturgical, and experiential perspectives. Building on current studies, research, and dynamics related to the care of persons who are sick, disabled, traumatized, and dying, this course will enhance the knowledge and skills needed to intervene and respond effectively to the spiritual and emotional needs of people who may look to a compassionate caregiver for guidance, comfort, and healing in times of crisis and loss. This course is intended for a diverse group of caregivers—pastoral counselors, healthcare, prison, and school chaplains, lay and ordained ministers, and other health care professionals—who provide assistance and care both in institutional settings and within families and communities.

This course explores how aesthetics and imagination shape expectations and hopes we have for our communities. The class begins with an exploration of “theopoetics,” which affirms that how we express experiences of the divine shapes what we think the divine is. Content builds from there to the role of imagination in religious reflection more broadly. Readings are profoundly interdisciplinary, with scholarship from philosophical and sociological treatments of imagination, psychology, theology, and literary criticism. Some customization of work is possible and students will be able to deepen their focus in directions of their choosing by selecting texts that speak to them.

A social construction at its core, the modern idea of race has been given power through the years. Accruing strength and mostly negative use over time it has cut across the private sphere and become a portentous social idea in the form of systemic racism, institutionalized within government, laws, medical science, religion, culture, and society. This course explores the historical foundations of race and racism, and ranges over different manifestations of institutional racism in the spheres of criminal justice, employment, housing, health care, political power, education, and religious and congregational life. It also looks into recent movements for racial justice in thought and practice, and considers ways in which theological ideas and church practices can be refocused to contribute to racial justice within the academy, ecclesial communities, and the larger landscape of society.

The dynamics of human living, including experiences of God, are multidimensional: intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, structural, cultural, and global. Given these interrelated interior and exterior dynamics, what are the sources, mediums, aims, and risks of care? This course responds to this question using the literatures of spirituality studies, peace studies, practical theology, and pastoral care.

The dynamics of human living, including experiences of God, are multidimensional: intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, structural, cultural, and global. Given these interrelated interior and exterior dynamics, what are the sources, mediums, aims, and risks of care? This course responds to this question using the literatures of spirituality studies, peace studies, practical theology, and pastoral care.

This course explores the practice of bearing faithful, visible, and embodied witness to God's commonwealth in contemporary contexts and cultures. The course covers the biblical, historical, and theological foundations of evangelism, its practice within congregational life, and contextual strategies. 

This doctoral seminar for practical theology majors introduces the primary changes that are under way in practical theology as a discipline, reviews the methodologies upon which these changes are based, and examines the implications of these changes.

Readings and discussions of important works in missiology from the 1960's to the present. This course begins where TM 930 ends. Required for doctoral students in mission studies

Spiritual care is the art of ministry, chaplaincy, and counseling as it relates to the theological, psychological, and sociocultural needs of individuals and communities of faith. This course introduces various theories, methods, and practices of spiritual care and cognate disciplines for students to interpret and examine individuals and their communities as they are shaped by their own communal and sociocultural contexts. Students will have an opportunity to explore some of the personal, interpersonal, and communal issues that spiritual caregivers encounter as they engage in the work of care within congregations, hospitals, schools, the military, workplaces, and faith-based agencies. Furthermore, because of its deep commitment to social justice, spiritual care pays close attention to how social advantages and disadvantages contribute to unjust policies and systems that produce injustices based on class, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or other aspects of one's social identity. 

Achieving familiarity with and fluency in a series of psychoanalytic theories of personality/character, development, relationships, motivation, health, and pathology, as a context in which to practice psychoanalytic interpretations of religious matters.

This course introduces and explores multicultural and pluralistic approaches to providing care within spiritual communities. The Multicultural Orientation Framework and dual-factor approach will be discussed and explored. Integrative, culturally responsive perspectives will be applied to promoting growth and flourishing.

This course presents theories, techniques, and strategies for working with children, adolescents, and their families. Emphasis is placed on a multidimensional view of counseling interventions, giving attention to developmental, cognitive, behavioral, affective, cultural, educational, social, and environmental issues. Ethical and legal concerns are also considered. The course is designed to help students become more knowledgeable about current research
and approaches for working with this population.

Basic preparation for the complex task of pastoral care and counseling. The focus is upon the pastor in the congregational setting.

This is a course designed to discuss issues related to identification, intervention, and treatment of both victims and perpetrators of domestic violence and abuse. The approach and model is a comprehensive one, including: physical, emotional, cognitive, relational, and spiritual factors.  The method of instruction is an interactive, adult learning model.         

This seminar will examine the necessary developmental tasks of adolescents, while exploring the challenges to healthy emotional, psychological, cognitive, and spiritual growth. Emphasis will be placed on understanding at-risk populations in which violence, trauma, poverty, and immigration are prevalent in the lives of adolescents. Particular attention will be given to current research on intervention and advocacy in facilitating resilience in adolescents.

This course treats the history, theology, and practice of Orthodox Christian social action, beginning with the period of the Apostolic Fathers and extending to today. Besides weekly reflections on the readings, each student will also be responsible for conceiving, designing, and initiating a small project of service to the local community. Some weeks the class will, during its assigned time period, observe Boston area social entrepreneurs in action, meaning that we will hold class of campus. Students will be assigned to a social ministry site during the semester.

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Theology of Pastoral Care II is intended to build upon Theology of Pastoral Care I by presenting a framework for understanding contemporary pastoral issues through the lens of Orthodox theology of the person, sickness, healing, and salvation. This class is not intended to provide you with the 'right' answers for pastoral decisions. Rather, this course is designed, through the readings, class discussions, and assignments to develop your understanding of Orthodox pastoral care and your thinking as an Orthodox Christian and future minister/pastor. The models of Orthodox Pastors/Saints explored in the first semester class serve as witnesses to the Orthodox pastoral care framework we will develop and discuss this semester as we explore contemporary pastoral issues, and secular theories and research. Particular attention will be placed on understanding how to access and integrate current secular knowledge into an Orthodox worldview todevelop an appropriate pastoral response. Students will be invited to explore and discuss different dimensions of the pastoral care relationship and explore, independently and as a class, how one might address contemporary pastoral care issues. As in the first semester, particular emphasis will be placed
on how we work together in the classroom, and on campus, as we develop an Orthodox understanding and approach to pastoral care.

Theology of Pastoral Care II is intended to build upon Theology of Pastoral Care I by presenting a framework for understanding contemporary pastoral issues through the lens of Orthodox theology of the person, sickness, healing, and salvation. This class is not intended to provide you with the 'right' answers for pastoral decisions. Rather, this course is designed, through the readings, class discussions, and assignments to develop your understanding of Orthodox pastoral care and your thinking as an Orthodox Christian and future minister/pastor. The models of Orthodox Pastors/Saints explored in the first semester class serve as witnesses to the Orthodox pastoral care framework we will develop and discuss this semester as we explore contemporary pastoral issues, and secular theories and research. Particular attention will be placed on understanding how to access and integrate current secular knowledge into an Orthodox worldview todevelop an appropriate pastoral response. Students will be invited to explore and discuss different dimensions of the pastoral care relationship and explore, independently and as a class, how one might address contemporary pastoral care issues. As in the first semester, particular emphasis will be placed
on how we work together in the classroom, and on campus, as we develop an Orthodox understanding and approach to pastoral care.

One cannot overstate the significance of death, and preparing for death, in understanding life and, particularly, life in Christ. Pastors and ministers are certain to be called upon to minister to those facing death and those grieving the loss of a loved one. In this course, students will develop a pastoral approach to the dying and those experiencing grief through a survey the existing literature on grief and bereavement in the context of the Orthodox theology of life after death. Students will explore the art and skill of ministering to the dying and the bereaved and develop their understanding of a theological framework for caring for the dying and the bereaved. Necessarily, this topic will touch upon our own personal experiences of loss and death, and students will be invited to explore how their own beliefs and experiences can inform and enhance their pastoral approach.





This course is for THM online students. Instructor's permission is needed for all other students.

Listening is at the heart of pastoral counseling. Yet what
the pastor/minister hears is shaped by his or her theoreti
cal orientation, belief system, worldview, and lived exper
ience. This course seeks to give students the opportunity
to study different pastoral counseling theories as they go
beyond the limits of their own stories in the context of
practicing foundational counseling skills.