This course forms students to be pastoral and spiritual caregivers within a spiritually and socially complex world in ways that deeply engage religious and cultural traditions. Through the lens of women’s experiences and perspectives of the body, illness, health, healing, and wellbeing in a variety of contexts, we will examine definitions and consider the religious dimensions of these terms within and beyond the biomedical model of health care. We will also consider the ways in which we assign meaning to illness; reflect on our own experiences of illness, healing, and wellbeing; and practice offering spiritual care responses that are contextually sensitive to a variety of cultural and religious understandings of the body, illness, healing, and wellness.
An exploration of the role women played in early Christianity, with attention given to the social and literary constructions of women in Greco-Roman antiquity.
A brief survey of classic texts in the history of Christian thought, with particular emphasis on the period from the Reformation to the early modern period. Designed as an exploratory introduction to the major themes, movements and key thinkers which have shaped the Protestant tradition and the ever-changing landscape of modern theology. It seeks to enable students to develop a critical appreciation of the historical basis of the different ways in which the presuppositions and assumptions of traditional Christian thought have interacted with the challenges of modernity. The first part of the course (1500-1750) will describe and articulate the theological causes and consequences of the emergence of the Reformation, the intersecting and conflicting pathways through which subsequent Protestant thought traveled and the reaction of Catholic theology through the Council of Trent. The second part of the course (1750-1834) will explore the entry of Protestant theology into the modern period, especially its confrontation with the intellectual forces which defined that period and were eventually to culminate in the Enlightenment.
These courses: (a) introduce students to the main movements in Christian theology since the late nineteenth century and their particular historical foundations; (b) introduce students to the tasks of Christian theology: its varying criteria, methods and substantive proposals on what it has often taken to be the fundamental human questions; and (c) enable students to develop a systematic statement of their own theological perspective, with attention to: (1) its clarity, coherence and capacity to illuminate experience; (2) its relationship to the resources and limitations of a particular historical tradition and the interests of a particular social location; (3) its relationship to alternative Christian perspectives, especially those of a traditionally excluded peoples; and (4) its possible implications in terms of social and personal praxis.
Interpretation of selected New Testament literature. Each course focuses on a book or selected topic. Different courses are offered each year. 2SQ 107 New Testament I and 2SQ 108 New Testament II are prerequisite for all New Testament literature courses.
This course focuses on the implications of social location and professional identity formation within the cultural matrices of identity, power, and difference. The class aligns formational work with Iliff’s commitments to diversity across the curriculum.
During an academic year students engage in the supervised practice of ministry in a congregational or agency setting for 14 hours per week. They develop learning goals that guide their field experience, meet weekly with a site supervisor, and work with lay or consultation committee. In addition, they participate in a two-hour weekly reflection seminar on campus led by a faculty member and an adjunct with ministry experience. They do a social analysis of the field setting, present a case study, and write a theology of ministry paper. Prerequisite: colloquium/Basic Field Education. All three quarters must be successfully completed in sequence in a single academic year. Pass/Fail.
Involvement in full-time ministry for 9 to 12 consecutive months under the supervision of a qualified minister or other professional. A student is eligible after completing at least 60 quarter credits of academic work. Pass/Fail.
An umbrella designation for a number of courses, each investigating particular issues related to justice, peace and social change contexts. Recent offerings include Community Organizing, Disrupting Privilege, Issues of the Global Economy, Conflict Transformation and Pine Ridge and Colonial Residue. May be repeated for credit.
This praxis class will allow graduating students in the professional masters’ degrees to reflect upon and synthesize the learning that they have experienced throughout their degree program. Engagement with concrete situations, such as case studies and current events, will provide opportunities to connect classroom learning to professional settings. Students will also have the opportunity to name their vocational hopes and directions with their peers and faculty, and participate in other communal conversation and celebration as their degree draws to a close.
DU course
Students will engage in clinical care with patients at a local hospital three hours each week in addition to class time. This course includes an introduction to the discipline of Spiritual Care, group reflection on clinical work, and a discussion of challenges and opportunities within chaplaincy as an inter-religious health care profession. A 3 to 4 hour orientation to the hospital is required and will be negotiated before the start of the course.
This course examines the cultural function of mass-market storytelling in television, film and print and looks at religous critiques and interpretations of the media and at religous broadcasting.
An introduction to the literature of Christian origins that continues what was begun in 2SQ 107 and covers the Gospels, Acts, and post-Pauline epistles.
This course explores models of practical theological reflection and methods of reflective professional practice as frameworks for religious leadership in the variety of contexts in which students will work. Students will be introduced to disciplined modes of embodying the integration of theory and praxis that allow them to place their coursework across the curriculum into regular conversation with their practice as religious leaders and ministry professionals in a variety of institutional and cultural contexts.
An examination of the American Christian Right's challenges to mainstream scientific theories and practices. Specific topics include the Intelligent Design movement, reparative therapy of homosexuality, denial of human-driven climate change, and opposition to stem cell research.
What is the proper role of religion in the public debates necessary to healthy democracy? Some argue that religion in the public square threatens the fundamental democratic right, the freedom of conscience; others that only relgion can inculcate the communal values that make democracy possible. This course examines the best and most prominent arguments in this contemporary debate.
An umbrella designation for a number of courses, each investigating particular issues related to justice, peace and social change contexts. Recent offerings include Community Organizing, Disrupting Privilege, Issues of the Global Economy, Conflict Transformation and Pine Ridge and Colonial Residue. May be repeated for credit.
Seminar dealing with particular themes, topics, or issues in biblical studies. May be repeated.
This course will explore the place of the ethical in religious life and in particular the challenges that a life of faith poses to moral excellence and what can be done to overcome them. While all monotheistic faiths are united in the obligating of moral behavior, and even go so far as to place moral excellence as a central criteria for closeness with God, there is something about faith that can and often undermines the significance of morality in the religious consciousness. This course will discuss the nature and causes of this “autoimmune disease,” which Rabbi Hartman argues is often the cause for moral mediocrity amongst people of faith, wherein God paradoxically becomes a catalyst for evil behavior. The class will also examine ways in which religion can heal itself and enable its adherents to fulfill its goals. Such a healing, however, will require both an openness to look at the challenges and limitations inherent within a life of faith and to reassess the place and foundations of morality and God in our religious lives.
This course explores the nature and understanding of Personal Spiritual Experiences (PSEs) and the role such experiences play in the experiencers’ lives. For mostly historical reasons, considered during the course, the study of PSEs has not piqued the interest of researchers. A main portion of the course will include exploring the meaning of students’ PSEs. Dr. Civish's 2008 study of the Personal Spiritual Experiences of students revealed a sense of calling and she utilized the exegesis form of the “call narrative” to analyze PSEs and develop applications both personal and social. With these insights, personal and religious experiences are reconsidered in new and exciting ways that can revitalize faith and hope.
This spiritual care praxis seminar prepares students, clergy, lay pastoral caregivers and mental health practitioners to use an intercultural approach to spiritual care to help careseekers in particular contexts to draw upon their religious faith and spirituality to cope with particular kinds of suffering.
There are many paths to social change. This course focuses on the legislative and public policy avenue. How do advocates get elected and appointed officials to change laws and policies to address social concerns? We will use sample issues of concern to course participants in order to understand the policy process and practice the elements of a successful effort to shape public policy.
Advanced search strategies for electronic databases and internet search engines; principles for analyzing content and structure of scholarly articles; critical reading skills; note-taking systems; software for note-taking and bibliographic management.
This course will introduce students to the practice of yoga as a spiritual discipline and will introduce ethical and philosophical aspects of ancient and contemporary yogic principles.
Continuation of PJ 1012 with a focus on exegetical method (offered every other year.)
This course is designed to provide students with a brief introduction to the strategic planning process. Strategic planning is the life blood for organizational success, both in the non-profit and for-profit sectors. Through an analysis of common strategic planning tools and the development of their own strategic plan, students will gain a firm foundation in strategic planning concepts that will be applicable to a wide variety of organizational endeavors.
This course focuses on the implications of social location and professional identity formation within the cultural matrices of identity, power, and difference. The class aligns formational work with Iliff’s commitments to diversity across the curriculum.
During an academic year students engage in the supervised practice of ministry in a congregational or agency setting for 14 hours per week. They develop learning goals that guide their field experience, meet weekly with a site supervisor, and work with lay or consultation committee. In addition, they participate in a two-hour weekly reflection seminar on campus led by a faculty member and an adjunct with ministry experience. They do a social analysis of the field setting, present a case study, and write a theology of ministry paper. Prerequisite: colloquium/Basic Field Education. All three quarters must be successfully completed in sequence in a single academic year. Pass/Fail.
This course explores how justice might be defined, sought and made through the use of storytelling and narrative forms of various types: such as historical record, education, the autobiographical nature of resistance to oppression, socio-political commentary as story, narrative clarification of individual and community values, including preservation of culture, motivation for the work of justice, and the creation of community itself through story. The course includes storytelling perspectives such as oral history and tradition, narrative theory, auto/biography, and performance/theatre. Using multiple storytelling and narrative platforms, students will examine others’ stories and narratives of justice-seeking-and-making and create and examine their own.
None
A cross-cultural and comparative introduction to the philosophy of religion covering such questions as the definition of religion, human nature, arguments for and against the existence of God(s), the relationship between faith and reason, religion and language, the problem of evil, the afterlife, religious ethics and models of human perfectibility.
This course creates a conversation between process theology and spiritual care. Utilizing an aesthetic approach, we will develop a constructive framework of care from themes found in process theology.
An interdisciplinary course which draws from theology, ethics, philosophy, the social sciences, and the humanities to introduces students to theories, methods, issues and theologies of Justice and Peace Studies.
An introduction to the social scientific literature on congregations. Students learn basic methodology for analyzing congregaitons and their surrounding communities. A review of the empirical literature on congregations covers such issues as leadership styles, adaptation to community change, use of small groups, fund-raising, and membership growth and decline. Will meet Seq. 3 requirement.
Biblical, historical, and theological understandings of evangelism are examined in light of the church's understanding of Christian mission and ministry. Students are encouraged to develop a theoretical and practical approach to evangelism that reflects their own theological stance and is appropriate to contemporary contexts.
In the European Middle Ages a number of clergy and lay believers—female and male—were convinced that the divine realities of the faith could be intimately experienced. They were the practitioners of long-cultivated mystical traditions that took on new directions and forms in their experiences and writings. Representative figures like Hildegard of Bingen, Bernard of Clairvaux, John Bonaventure, Marguerite Porete, Meister Eckhart, Julian of Norwich, Catherine of Siena, and others sometimes claimed to have visions, often emphasized mystical union with Christ or Being itself, were frequently strong supporters of the Church or, at other times, seen as threats to the faith, and usually promoted the ideals of simplicity, poverty, and compassion. In this course we will read the writings of some of the medieval mystics; discuss their key ideas in the context of their social, political, and religious world; describe the prominent types of mysticism in the period; and draw some connections to the contemporary world.
An intensive, critical analysis of the interreligious dialogue project. Through reading and discussing a number of different perspectives within the interreligious discourse, we will explore these and other questions, with the aim of developing an acceptable methodological and ideological position.
An introduction to the literature of Christian origins that continues what was begun in 2SQ 107 and covers the Gospels, Acts, and post-Pauline epistles.
Looks at the emergence of Christianity in the modern world, from the colonialism of the late fifteenth century to Christianities in the Americas, Asia and Africa. An examination of the Aboriginal-Euro-African culture of North America; the impact of Christian missions on indigenous cultures and religions; Christianity in Latin America, Asia and Africa, and the non-Christian world; contemporary theologies in their various contexts.
Leadership is explored as (1) a matter of individual gifts and skills; (2) a community practice shaped by shared or contested needs and expectations; and (3) rooted in vision lived out in practices of administration and management.
***In order to complete the course requirements, students must preach two sermons at a ministerial site, which must be videotaped and posted to Canvas. Students unable to fulfill these requirements cannot enroll in this course. *** This course aims to help students understand the nature and function of preaching in relationship to Christian spirituality and develop their preaching skills for the formation and nurture of the congregation's spirituality. It has three phases: 1) Historical, theological and cultural discussions about Christian spirituality. 2) The introduction of homiletical methods in relation to biblical interpretation, designing the sermonic form, and the use of verbal and nonverbal language. 3) The practice of Spiritual Preaching with peer evaluation. Half the course will be the actual practice of Spiritual Preaching. Limited Enrollment. Preliminary study in biblical exegesis or theology is strongly encouraged.
An exploration of congregational ministries with young people in light of multidisciplinary approaches to the construction of adolescence. The course will include explorations of youth cultures as a lens into the meaning-making of adolescents.
Full-time clinical experience under supervision, directed by the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education. Students making this course a part of their Advanced Field Education requirement must submit a petition to the director of Ministry Studies before enrolling.
Examination of marriage and family from religious perspectives. Basic methods of marriage and family counseling for the parish minister.
This course examines the role of authority in the Anglican Communion, the Constitution, Canons and history of the Episcopal Church. In addition, some attention is given to diocesan conventions and parish administration.
Current topics in Unitarian Universalist religious education including intergenerational worship, our implicit and explicit assumptions, UU Identity, creating safe congregations, youth and young adult issues, and multi-staff issues.
This course examines how social change happens through the work of non-profits, especially faith-based non-profits. The goal is to determine how diverse religious commitments impact a non-profit's mission and vision, program of services, and treatment of individuals. Students will also construct a personal ethic of service that is in line with their individual vocational goals and situated within their broader vision for social change.
An integrative and summative essay of 20 to 25 pages in length, with a peer learning component.
Students with further learning goals may arrange for a special project in field education with the approval of the director of Ministry Studies. These credits do not replace the advanced field education or fulll-time internship requirment.