This seminar will explore recent scholarship in the history of Christianity that grapples with how to bring issues of difference vital to contemporary Western life and theory into conversation with premodern material. Toward this end, we will also read important theoretical texts in queer, trans, and disability studies, as well as work thinking theoretically and historically about race. Among the questions we will explore: what temporalities are embedded within and rendered problematic by these categories of difference? Can they be usefully deployed in a transhistorical way? If so, how? If not, how else might we get at the issues that these modern concepts raise for historians? The course will be divided into three parts. Part I will focus on theoretical readings. Part II will turn to historiographical case studies, critically evaluating some recent histories in light of these debates. Part III will provide an opportunity for students to bring these questions to bear on their own academic work and fields of study.

This interdisciplinary course examines the conceptual logic of using a settler-colonial lens to interpret the history and politics of Israel/Palestine. Our explorations will include the following: the religious dimensions of settler colonial narratives and practices and their intersections with secular, religious, and apocalyptic nationalisms; what the deployment of a settler-colonial lens illuminates, what it obscures, and why; the recent proliferation of scholarship that has taken a comparative settler colonial approach and triangulating that with the literature on Israel's Jewish identity, its meaning, and how and why those identities and meanings have shifted over the decades. We will likewise engage another set of conversations on nationalism and political theologies and identify the relevance of global anti-racism social movements and their uses and abuses of Palestinian struggles and Israeli narratives. We will finally interrogate the symbolic, semiotic, metaphorical, and theological operation of Zion and Palestine.  The three instructors for this course are grounded in multiple disciplines, including political and legal theory, religious studies, critical pedagogies, and just peace research. There are no prerequisites, and student final projects can range from a research paper on a theme relevant to our explorations to more public facing projects (such as podcasts, educational materials, or photo essays with commentary) focused on an audience related to a student's professional and/or vocational interests.

This course explores the relationship between coloniality, race and ecology through the lens of “catastrophe.” We will examine a variety of theoretical and literary sources that deploy or refute tropes of the “end of the world,” to place the current discussions in a longer historical contexts. We will also study texts that seek to highlight the connections between environmental devastation with histories of colonialism and radicalization. This course requires independent research, in addition to the readings for class. Students will write a research paper focusing on a specific place of their choice.

This course focuses on the social movement and practices utilized by spiritual, faith based and ethically communities to understand and engage in reparations as a healing, constructive and decolonial process. This journey will provide an introduction to reparations through its history and major figures and frameworks; it then explores economic, experiential, theoretical and legal bases for understanding reparations as articulated in academia, social movements, and in advocacy arenas. We will examine historical calls for reparations and the current movement and the possibilities toward reparations for Blacks in the U.S. Building on the key histories,theories and ideas that inform reparations, we will frame this contemporary discussion through the lens of spirituality and decoloniality to understand slavery, reconstruction, civil rights, truth and reconciliation, restorative and transitional justice. We will explore various understandings and approaches to reparations from organizations and individuals at the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, National African American Reparations Commission, Caribbean Reparations Commission,Reparations4Slavery, UHURU solidarity, and many others.

This course builds on Catholic social teaching found in the magisterial documentary history and brings the insights on social sin to bear on responsibility, accountability, and justice. Attention will be given to primary sources in light of the contemporary critique of abusive/sinful practices among persons with institutionalized power and authority exposed in anti-racist, post-colonial, and liberation thought. The course a) presents the common good as justice developed in these traditions, b) explores responsibility for the social, economic, educational, health, legal, and political status of vulnerable persons, and c) considers accountability by realizing the preferential option for the poor.

This course continues to expose you to a variety of ecological justice issues through a combination of excursions, on-campus events, guest speakers, films, art exhibitions, and discussions. There will be six units total. You will be required to attend four units. In addition to your attendance at these four units, you will plan and execute one of the units, including an event and discussion. Through this process, you will exercise your own ethical agency in the pursuit of ecological justice and develop your leadership skills. 

Events over the past decade have illustrated how antisemitism, racism, and Christian nationalism are intertwined ideologies. This course will offer a historical and thematic investigation into how these three ideologies emerge within Christian contexts, the ways in which Christian theologies and institutions inform them, and modes of resistance to them. A core outcome of this class will be to recover and generate theological positions that actively counter these ideologies.

This course introduces you to a variety of ecological justice issues through a combination of excursions, on-campus events, guest speakers, films, art exhibitions, and discussions. There will be 6 units total. You will be required to complete five units. Through this process, you will engage the theological, ethical, spiritual, and practical issues raised by a variety of ecological issues and by different responses to them.

This course continues to expose you to a variety of ecological justice issues through a combination of excursions, on-campus events, guest speakers, films, art exhibitions, and discussions. There will be six units total. You will be required to attend four units. In addition to your attendance at these four units, you will plan and execute one of the units, including an event and discussion. Through this process, you will exercise your own ethical agency in the pursuit of ecological justice and develop your leadership skills. 

A study of the fundamental principles and practices of restorative justice as applicable to church and society. The course explores the needs and roles of key stakeholders (victims, offenders, communities, justice systems), outlines the basic principles and values of restorative justice, introduces some of the primary models of practice, and identifies challenges to restorative justice and strategies to respond to them. The course is organized around the issue of crime and harm within a western legal context, but attention is given to applications in other contexts. Of particular interest is the contribution of traditional or indigenous approaches to justice as well as applications in post-conflict situations.

Mental health conditions and mental distress have become more visible in our public discourse today. Focusing on depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, this course asks the following questions: how has the Christian theological tradition understood what we now name as mental illness? How do contemporary psychiatric and psychological approaches enhance theological approaches to mental illness, and vice versa? How and why do mental distress and suicidality especially affect LGBTQ people, indigenous communities, and white men? How can we cultivate proper self-love while processing shame in a healthy way? How do we talk well about mental health without obscuring the structural injustices bound up with imperial, ableist, sanist white supremacist heteropatriarchy? In exploring these questions, we will articulate together what it means to do theology, to work for justice, and to build a society that serves everybody.

The purpose of this course is to develop strategies by which the anti-Judaism endemic to Christian traditions can be recognized and undone. This course will begin with an examination of the development and workings of Christian anti-Judaism. Attention will then turn to how such anti-Judaism has entered into Christian life and practice, especially within the context of teaching, preaching, and worship. The course will conclude with developing new approaches to resisting anti-Judaism in Christian contexts and public spaces.

Change and adversity can impact one's spiritual life in challenging ways. Spiritual loss, trauma and resistance to change during such times can hinder one's potential for spiritual growth or a deepening of faith. By drawing on Buddhist teachings on mindfulness, impermanence, the nature of mind, and considering recent advances in positive psychology, this seminar will explore how spiritual counselors or others in caregiving roles can apply these perspectives in theory and practice to interfaith counseling settings, as well as how mindfulness practice can help foster spiritual resilience in those experiencing life change, adversity or spiritual crisis.

This module explores the consequences and lessons of COVID-19 that are still unfolding among us. Operating primarily from the perspectives of pastoral care and organization health, the class will look at some of the ways in which the pandemic -- and pandemic response -- has highlighted structural social inequality and the importance of community in responding to crises. Attention will be given to innovations and challenges related to the faithful use of technology, new ways of building community, and how to discuss social issues related to health and science informed by care for the common good.

Disability visibility has increased concern in ecclesial, academic, and social milieu for understanding how the Church (and the churches) respond and work to be inclusive with and for persons with disability (PWD). This module will explore the moral imperatives of inclusion, the diversity of disability in the human community, and the development of ministerial practices directed to participation. Specific attention will be given to 1) consciousness-raising on the generally discriminatory experience historically and today of PWD, 2) understanding disability using the social model developed by PWD, 3) reviewing some of the literature developed by scholars with disability and their collaborators, 4) building relationships between PWD and the non-disabled, and 5) studying the Church's documents in reference to PWD.

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.         

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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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.

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.

What is the relationship between religion and healing? How is this important for scholars of religion, health workers, and for chaplains? In this course, we will look at the intersections and entanglements between religion and healing in the contemporary world, in particular (but not only) in North America. After unpacking some of the meanings of “religion,” “healing,” and “disease,” we will concentrate on issues regarding e.g. the nature of healing, the role of individual and collective agency in healing processes, the sites of healing, healing from structural violence, and the gendering of suffering and healing. We will do so through ethnographic readings, films, music, arts, discussions, and independent research. 

Leaders, advocates, and change agents of all kinds must learn to engage effectively with people whose identities and worldviews are very different from their own. Conflicts involving deeply held values and other fundamental differences in perspective often are resistant to approaches to negotiation and dialogue that serve us well in other contexts, particularly where individuals and groups have a history of animosity, and even violent confrontation. Through interdisciplinary readings, lectures, exercises, and reflective practices, this course aims to help participants become more aware of how their own and others’ worldviews influence their experiences, and to help them become more effective, as negotiators and dialogue partners in situations involving identity and value differences.

This course aims to bring the recent studies in the interdisciplinary study of trauma to bear on the field of theology. What unique challenges does the phenomenon of trauma pose to contemporary theology? The first part of the course explores recent studies in trauma, focusing on three areas of research: 1) neurobiology of trauma, 2) clinical/therapeutic studies, and 3) literary approaches to trauma. The second part of the course examines theological engagements with issues of radical suffering. The third part brings together the insights from the first two and focuses on the question of what it means to witness theologically to individual, societal, and global trauma. We will look at issues and contexts such as the criminal justice system, war, poverty, and racism. In this final part, students will be working towards constructive theological engagements with issues of trauma through interaction with a variety of mediums: art, literature, spiritual practices, and film. The course is not a counseling course. It aims to provide rich theological reflection around issues of suffering, violence, and trauma, both individual and global.