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BTI Consortium | Last Updated November 14 - 9:00AM
RELIGION & CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION
CERTIFICATE (PRE-APPROVED COURSES)
School
Hartford International
IP-610 (Non-MAP)
Peacebuilding Skills: Dialogue, Trauma & Restorative Justice
BTI Category
Semester
Interreligious Learning
SP24
The course will explore peacebuilding skills through the lens of neuroscience, dialogue, restorative justice, and trauma-informed principles. This course will explore the roles of mindfulness, Nonviolent Communication, restorative justice, the neurobiology of trauma and state-dependent functioning, conflict transformation, and healing in conflict resolution. Students will participate in and practice the Reflective Structure Dialogue methodology for engaging groups in conflict. Through case studies, role plays, guest speakers and reading, we will dive deeper into the dialogue that makes conflict an opportunity rather than a source of further trauma.
Course fulfills the following requirements:
MAP - Core course
MAIRS - Ministerial Studies: Arts of Ministry
MAC - Chaplaincy Elective
MAC - Islamic Chaplaincy Pathway Elective
Professor
Class Day & Time
Samuel Brummer
January Intensive: 1/3, 1/4 and 1/8 - 1/12
9am-5pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
N
School
Hartford International
IP-614 (Non-MAP)
Nonviolence in Faith-based Social Movements
BTI Category
Semester
Interreligious Learning
SP24
Social movements are important arenas for social change. Religion, faith and tactics of non-violence have played a significant role in many social movements. By joining together, individuals and groups have worked to transform social values or norms, establish collective identities, change laws, and chart new ways of living, learning, and being. This class will aim to further our understanding of social movements and how faith helped shape the trajectories of the movements. We will focus on how that's happened in the Americas while referring to similar movements from around the world. Topics include racial identity, nationalism, Christianity, Islam, the civil rights movement, feminist approaches, and contemporary interfaith dialogue. Course material includes primary sources and analytical perspectives. We will examine how they develop, are sustained, have changed/evolved, and (sometimes) decline. We will begin by examining theories of social movements and look at the ways in which our understanding of social movements has changed over time. We will also examine mobilization to social movements and ask why some people come to participate while others do not, as well as the tactics, goals, and successes of various social movements.
Course fulfills the following curricular requirements:
MAIRS - Islamic Studies: Beliefs and Practices
MAIRS - Ministerial Studies: Beliefs and Practices
MAC - Chaplaincy Elective
MAC - Islamic Chaplaincy Pathway Elective
MAP - Peacebuilding Core
Professor
Class Day & Time
Cleotha Robertson
T
7-9:50pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
Y
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3089
Reparations as a Spiritual Practice
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP24
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.
Professor
Class Day & Time
David Ragland
T
12-3PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F
Credits
4
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2085
Moral Conflict
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP24
Conflicts about abortion, climate change, economic inequality, gun regulation, LGBTQ+ rights, and other matters often occur when foundational values of different moral communities collide. This seminar provides an opportunity to examine conflicts implicating groups' deeply held values. Topics include the role these conflicts play in the formation and maintenance of moral communities; the role beliefs play in these conflicts; value pluralism and incommensurability; moral relativism; and possibilities for, and alternatives to, consensual resolution of value-laden conflict. We also will consider how these conflicts impinge upon and are processed within moral communities, including the hermeneutical challenges and opportunities value-laden conflicts present for religious communities. Readings will span multiple disciplines, including moral philosophy, theology, political theory, law, and the social sciences. Students will complete a final project that considers course themes in relation to a conflict of their choice.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Jeffrey Seul
M
3-5PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F
Credits
4
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
This is a limited enrollment course. To apply, send an email to jseul@hds.harvard.edu by January 18 and attend the first class session on January 22. In your email, include your name, degree program, year of study, school or university, previous relevant academic and other experience, and a brief statement of your goals for the course. Please indicate whether you seek to take this course to fulfill a curriculum distribution requirement or other special requirement.
School
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary-Boston
SE632
Christianity and the Problem of Racism
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP24
Multiethnic and interactive class examines racism in terms of a black and white paradigm. A multidisciplinary analysis of this major social problem. Course includes graphic presentations, biblical, psycho-social and ethical principles leading to challenging discussions.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Hammond & Watkins
W
6-9pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
SYNCHRNOUS
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
N
School
Boston University School of Theology
STH TS881
Introduction to Environmental Justice
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP24
This course explores the ways in which injustices are mediated through our physical environment, and how academics, artists, ordinary citizens, organizers, and religious leaders are addressing those injustices. Through articles, case studies, discussion, writing, and excursions to encounter the the work of the environmental justice movement in Boston, we will explore how communities engage (or avoid engaging) the connection between environmental and public health. We will explore how environmental justice activists navigate the complex webs of different stakeholders and analyze the ways that power and voice relate to environmental health. By the end of this course, you will have developed your own creative response to an instance of environmental injustice and have joined the other academics and activists at work in this vital field.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Copeland
M
2:30pm-5:15pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
N
School
Boston University School of Theology
STH TC822
Organizing for Justice and Peace
BTI Category
Semester
Leadership Formation & Ministry Skills
SP24
Not currently available
Professor
Class Day & Time
McCarty
R
3:30pm-6:15pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
N
School
Boston College School of Theology & Ministry
TMPT8132
Theology, Race, and Critical Race Theory
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP24
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.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Benjamin Valentin
R
3:30-6:20 PM
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
Y
Notes
Fundamental Theology, Theological Foundations in Practical Perspective, or equivalent.
School
Boston College School of Theology & Ministry
TMPS7279
Conflict Resolution and Transformation
BTI Category
Semester
Practical/Pastoral Theology
SP24
Conflict theory can enable constructive responses to situational disagreements and long-term relationship building. This course combines resources from secular conflict theory and Christian theology and ministry to foster transformation of micro (interpersonal), meso (communal), and macro (societal, international) level conflicts. Most texts reference the U.S. context, but other cultural perspectives are welcome. Assignments include regular short papers and a presentation. This is a discussion-based (not lecture-based) class; close reading is required.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Heather M. DuBois
T
3:30-5:30 PM
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
N
School
Boston College Department of Theology
THEO7021-01
Liberation Theology
BTI Category
Semester
Systematic Theology & Philosophy (Western)
SP24
This seminar introduces students to classic and contemporary works in liberation theology that emerge from diverse historical contexts and address matters of universal concern. It examines the organic relationship between liberation theology and grassroots social movements confronting problems of extreme poverty, racism, sexual violence, and environmental devastation. It clarifies the liberative meaning of doctrinal traditions in areas such as trinitarian theology, Christology, pnematology, soteriology, and theological anthropology and explores various approaches to a spirituality of liberation. It engages prominent critiques of liberation theology and touches on recent innovations such as the decolonial turn.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Adkins
T
10-12:25p
Grading Option
L/PF/A
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
DOCTORAL
School
Hartford International
IP-613 (Non-MAP)
Identity and Otherness in Religious Communities
BTI Category
Semester
Interreligious Learning
SP24
There is a tendency within individuals and societies to organize and collectively define themselves along dimensions of difference and sameness. This course uses the framework of "otherness" and "belonging" to explore how othering becomes structured and embedded within religious communities. In other words, what are the dynamics, processes, and structures that engender marginality and persistent inequality within our own religious communities? We will use an intersectional, interdisciplinary, and dialogical approach to examine essential concepts such as individual and group identity formation, expression, and boundaries; the dual sides of social cohesion and internal conflict; prejudice and power within religious communities; dealing with the emotional and social costs of leading justice-oriented change; and how identity, power, and privilege varies across contexts. In addition to investigating these forces that contribute to othering, we will also identify the interventions that may mitigate some of these forces, turning toward sustainable solutions that address othering through experiential learning such as site visits and MAP project-related ethnographic study.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Allison Norton
W
9am-5pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2202
Queering Congregations: Contextual Approaches for Dismantling Heteronormativity
BTI Category
Semester
Practical/Pastoral Theology
SP24
Queering Congregations introduces students to three systematic and process-oriented approaches for dismantling heteronormativity within American congregations. Using the lenses of practical theology, ecclesiology, gender studies, queer theory, and queer theology, the course examines the cultural backgrounds, beliefs, morals, values, and heteronormative structures of American churches and proposes methods for restructuring, reimagining, and subverting the heterosexist paradigms and binary assumptions that perpetuate oppression in American ecclesial spaces. The class examines how mainline open and affirming congregations understand what it means to be churches while paying close attention to the differences and similarities within their approaches to queering their congregations. The class will interrogate the following questions: (1) What happens to the church when it is queered, where queering as a verb can denote a rethinking of sexual identities as well as a challenging of normative understandings of ecclesiology and liturgy? (2) Can a queering of theology do more than critique and deconstruct traditional church structures, practices, performances, and self-understandings by pointing the way forward to the renewal of the church by suggesting new, more liberating, and truthful structures, practices, performances, and self-understandings? (3) Is ecclesiology a good meeting place for queer, practical, and classical theologies?
Professor
Class Day & Time
Brandon Crowley
R
9-11AM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
This is a limited enrollment course. To apply, send a statement to bcrowley@hds.harvard.edu (selection process will begin Thurs. Jan. 20) with the following information: your name, degree program, year of study, school or university, previous relevant academic background, and a brief statement of your goals for the course.
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2171
Forgiveness
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP24
When, if ever, are we obliged to forgive? What should forgiveness look like in the aftermath of violence? What conditions should be attached to its offer? Does forgiveness foster peace at the expense of justice? Should it? This course will examine the complicated problem of forgiveness through an examination of several diverse sources: theological, philosophical, and literary. The aim will be to develop a sophisticated understanding of the promise and problems of forgiveness in human lives, and to foster the critical application of such lessons to contemporary contexts and moral problems. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 145.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Matthew Potts
R
12-2:45PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2084
Sanctuary Ethics
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP24
Since the Middle Ages, when sacred places began to function as safe havens, the word "sanctuary" has gradually gained its modern meaning as a space that is sacred and/or safe. In this course in applied ethics, we will ask what happens when we encounter violence in our literal and figurative sanctuaries. Inspired by the modern-day sanctuary movement, this course focuses on the period from the mid-1800s to the present and explores the many meanings past and present that have been attached to the word "sanctuary." In a world rife with violence all around, what can we do to resist hopelessness and remain steadfast in our commitment to seeking solutions and creating meaningful change? Drawing on an array of historical and contemporary sources and in conversation with many moral philosophies and religious traditions, we will discuss strategies for avoiding ethical paralysis and charting new paths forward in the face of daunting challenges such as political unrest, structural injustice, racism, nativism, sexism, poverty, pandemic, environmental crisis, and culture wars. Students will write a weekly "quote and question" response (200-250 words) on the course readings, a 1,000-word lyric essay or opinion piece, and a 15-page final paper (with a preliminary 500-word project statement and bibliography) on a topic chosen in conjunction with the instructor. This is a limited enrollment course. Interested students should submit a petition as soon as possible and be sure to attend the first class meeting. Please note that permission to enroll will be granted as petitions are received.
Professor
Class Day & Time
K. Healan Gaston
R
12-2PM
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
4
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
This is a limited enrollment course. Interested students should submit a petition as soon as possible and be sure to attend the first class meeting. Please note that permission to enroll will be granted as petitions are received.
School
Boston University School of Theology
STH TT898
Theologies of Liberation
BTI Category
Semester
Systematic Theology & Philosophy (Western)
SP24
Liberation theology has been one of the most influential theological movements in contemporary Christian theology. This course surveys some of its main tenets, texts, and practices. We pay particular attention to the development of liberation theologies in light of the experience of oppressed communities and how these experiences shape their theological imagination. In addition to covering some of the pillar texts in the tradition, the course will investigate several developments in liberating theologies: womanism, mujerista theology, queer theology, postcolonial theologies, and ecotheologies.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Maia
R
3:30pm-6:15pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
Y
Notes
PREREQ: TF701/702 or equivalent. RCT Certificate. Currently full, taking waitlist
School
Boston University School of Theology
STH TC840
Paradigms of Racism, the Ignorance They Hide, and the Harm They Sustain
BTI Category
Semester
Practical/Pastoral Theology
SP24
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 with Schlauch
W
2:30pm-5:15pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
RCT Certificate
School
Boston College School of Theology & Ministry
TMTM7175
The Church and Interreligious Dialogue
BTI Category
Semester
Interreligious Learning
SP24
Dialogue between religions has become one of the urgent yet intractable challenges of our time. In this course, we will focus on the engagement of the Catholic Church and Catholic theologians in interreligious dialogue. The first part of the course will deal with topical issues, such as the history of, and the theological foundations for dialogue, intermonastic dialogue, scriptural reasoning, etc. The second part will focus on the particular dialogues between Christianity and Islam, Christianity and Judaism, Christianity and Hinduism, and Christianity and Buddhism
Professor
Class Day & Time
Catherine Cornille
M
3:00-4:50 PM
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
N
School
Boston College School of Theology & Ministry
TMPS7278
Socio-Spiritual Care
BTI Category
Semester
Practical/Pastoral Theology
SP24
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.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Heather M. DuBois
W
1:00-3:00 PM
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
N
School
Boston College School of Theology & Ministry
TMCE8117
Christian Ethics and Social Structures
BTI Category
Semester
Ethics (all traditions)
SP24
This course examines the various ways in which Christian ethicists have addressed social structures, from the groundbreaking work of Latin American liberation theologians in the 1960s to today. The course emphasizes the necessity of understanding social realities (such as structure, culture, and the relation of structure and moral agency) in order produce normative claims regarding social evil and how persons should respond such evil. To that end, the course introduces students to prominent social theories, such as methodological individualism and critical realism. The course then turns to critical contemporary ethical problems, such as global warming and the exploitation of labor.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Daniel J. Daly
W
4:00-6:20 PM
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
Y
Notes
One course in Christian Ethics
School
Boston College Department of Theology
THEO5357-01
Debating Religion: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Dialogue and Dispute
BTI Category
Semester
Interreligious Learning
SP24
This course is a history of interreligious polemic, disputation, and dialogue among Jews, Christians, and Muslims from antiquity to modernity. The course not only highlights points of difference among the traditionsfrom abstruse theological doctrines, to competing interpretations of scriptural passages, to ad hominem attacks on religious founding figuresbut also the ways in which the practice of disputation played a formative role in the development of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The course focuses specifically on interreligious debates and dialogues, both real and fictional, although we also consider broader polemical themes as expressed in treatises. Finally, the course considers epistemic shifts that allowed for the transition from interreligious disputation to interfaith dialogue in recent decades even as it highlights the lines of continuity between the two.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Decter
R
3-5:25p
Grading Option
L/PF/A
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
Grad/Undergrad split
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