IST2025-1OL-WI14 - United Methodist Doctrine

Instructor: Rev. Dr. Cathie Kelsey (call me Cathie)

Course Description -
"Doctrine" is "what the church teaches about Christian faith." This is the course for building the knowledge and skills needed
1) to engage in United Methodist theological debates about what to teach, and
2) to help lay persons make sense of Methodist ways of talking about and living Christian faith

Texts see this page for description of required course texts

Evaluation

This course may be taken for a letter grade or pass/fail. (Be sure your Annual Conference will accept a pass/fail grade before choosing this option.)

Students who miss posting in any two weeks may be asked to withdraw. Be in touch with Cathie in advance if posting is going to be a problem in a given week.

Final grades are based on the following:

1. Reading all of the assignments and substantive contribution to moving the discussion forward in weekly posting in consideration of the primary texts. 20 pts (2 pts per week- 2 pts per required posting)
2. Reading your assigned Interpretive Debate reading, posting a summary for your group, and then posting a second time in discussion of the accuracy to Wesley, compelling nature of the interpretation, or most useful interpretations. 40 pts (4 pts per week - 2 pts per required posting)
3. Discovering and evaluating the United Methodist doctrinal debate as it occurs on the web. 20 pts (10pts once for your finding and posting about a particular debate you have found in local, conference, regional, interest group, or general church websites + 1pt per week considering the issues at stake in the site posted by your colleagues)
4. Ordination doctrinal Questions  #1, 2, and 9. Due Feb 1^st: 15pts (5 pts per question) Be sure to follow the instructions found at Submit first paper: questions 1, 2 and 9  or Final paper submission to be sure you include all 3 parts expected in each answer.
   
5. Ordination doctrinal Questions  #3, 4, 7, &13 Due Feb 22nd : 20pts (5 points per question)
6. Ordination doctrinal Questions paper ALL questions Due March 15^th: 35pts (5 pts per new question plus 5 pts total for revisions of the previous questions)  For THIS paper questions 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, and 12 are new and questions 1-4, 7, 9 and 13 may include revisions in response to previous submission of those answers. In order for the reader to recognize where revisions have been made, use either track changes or make changes in bold typeface.

 Students are responsible for timely submission, regardless of technical issues. 

Grading Criteria:    I am looking for four things in weekly class discussions and your papers:

1. an accurate understanding of the course texts, which means: a description of the content that could be defended by referring directly to the primary text (Wesley himself or Discipline or secondary author). You get 1 point per question or posting for doing this.

2. description of the implications of the doctrinal position: a) for other theological/doctrinal themes and b) for faith-in-practice.

3. description of the strengths/benefits and the weaknesses/liabilities of the doctrinal position in reference to a) its coherence in itself and b) its implications (as in #2 just above). You get 1 additional point for doing this in the 13 questions. (The weekly postings could have this additional point rather than the point in #2)

4. awareness of the range of different ways in which Wesley’s thought about specific doctrines is interpreted by theologians and pastors. In the final paper 13 questions this may contribute to the 2 "excellence" points described in the next paragraph.

That leaves 2 points for each answer in the 13 questions that will be awarded for excellence - that is, beyond clarity and distinctiveness of the Methodist understanding (needed for the 1st point), excellence involves nuance in the answer, indicating interconnections with Methodist practices or with other points of doctrine.

Course Expectations

Collegial Discourse:  You are becoming a colleague in a denominational culture that is very divided right now. It is essential for every leader (including you!) to cultivate skills for talking about matters that raise strong feelings in ways that allow one to keep listening and speaking with respect and with accuracy. Each of us will practice those skills in every interaction we have in this course. The online environment makes this commitment to skilled engagement even more important because misunderstandings are easier.

Incompletes:  Incompletes are allowed in this course, see the Master's Student Handbook for Policies and Procedures.

Pass/Fail:  Masters students wishing to take the class pass/fail should discuss this with the instructor by the 17th of January (second Friday of the term). (Be sure your Annual Conference will accept a pass/fail grade in this course before choosing this option!)

Academic Integrity and Community Covenant:  All students are expected to abide by Iliff’s statement on Academic Integrity, as published in the Masters Student Handbook.  All participants in this class are expected to be familiar with Iliff’s Community Covenant.

Accommodations:  Iliff engages in a collaborative effort with students with disabilities to reasonably accommodate student needs.   Students are encouraged to contact their assigned adviser to initiate the process of requesting accommodations.  The advising center can be contacted at advising@iliff.edu or by phone at 303-765-1146. 

Writing Lab:  Grammar and organization are important for all written assignments.  Additional help is available from the Iliff Writing Lab, which is available for students of any level who need help beginning an assignment, organizing thoughts, or reviewing a final draft. 

Inclusive Language:  It is expected that all course participants will use inclusive language in speaking and writing, and will use terms that do not create barriers to classroom community. 

The CONTENT of this course is organized by doctrinal loci that are particularly important in United Methodism, among the many potential Christian doctrines. There are 13 of them we will address. Beginning in week 2 each module addresses one or two of these doctrinal loci. (As it happens, these same doctrines are the topics for the questions that persons being ordained in the UMC have to answer in writing when they are being considered for commissioning.) 

The FINAL PAPER for this course involves answering these 13 questions as if you were John Wesley. You will submit portions of this final paper TWICE during the term and get feedback, on Saturday Feb 1st and Feb 22nd. The entire  final paper is due Saturday March 15th. See the instructions for exactly what these papers involve: Final paper submission

ENGAGEMENT EACH WEEK builds toward this final paper.You can see the question number(s) we are addressing each week by looking at the module version of the course.  You could actually draft your answer to the questions week by week and avoid being overwhelmed when they have to be submitted.

Every week has an assignment called "primary reading" that will include a link to my comments about the topic for the week and the reading that everyone is required to do. When you have completed that reading, join the class discussion named for the topic. Note that you post at least once to this discussion each week, adding a significant additional interpretive contribution to our collaborative thinking about the topic. This means that you are expected to read the posts that have occurred before yours and to further the conversation. Simply repeating what has been said before or positing rhetorical questions without beginning to explore their answers are insufficient postings. Your group's cumulative discussion will be a rich resource for you to use in writing the related question that appears in the final paper, so this discussion helps you, week by week with that assignment.

There will be a second reading for you to do and summarize for your Interpretive Debate group. You will find a link to it in the Interpretive Debate discussion each week. You are asked to post twice to this discussion each week: the first time please summarize in 300 words or less the distinctive interpretation that your reading makes. The second posting should be made after at least three of the five different summaries have been posted. In the second posting your group is invited to discern together which interpretation(s) you find most consistent with your own reading of the doctrinal sources and/or most useful for United Methodists in your contexts.

Finally, we will be looking for and analyzing how UM doctrine appears in the church's various discourses on the web - congregational, conference, general church, issue groups. Once during the term you will post first in this discussion (by Monday noon in your week) - you will post a link to a website and a paragraph about which doctrine(s) you think are at issue there. The other nine weeks you will contribute a responsive posting of analysis and interconnections in conversation with the initial postings by two of your colleagues.

To summarize, this means you have four postings due every week:
1. Due Thursday night: post your contribution to furthering interpretation of the doctrine(s) for the week using our primary texts.

2. Due Thursday night: in your reading group about the Interpretive Debate, post your summary for your group members of the argument made in the reading that you are assigned. Each group member will read a different interpretation. These secondary readings are all available as pdf files in the discussion.

3. Due Saturday night: post a second time in your Interpretive Debate group, discussing the various summaries and figuring out which one(s) are more accurate or more useful in your context(s).

4. Due Saturday night: post furthering the conversation and analysis of at least one of the two links in the Web Discoveries discussion for the week.

Wednesdays 7:00-8:00pm MTN time I will be available through a Google hookup to discuss the doctrine(s) of the week in real time. We will look closely at the primary reading for the week and might discuss any of the interpretive debate readings as well. You are not required to attend. If you find real-time conversation helpful this time is for you! Instructions for the Google hookup are forthcoming in an announcement the first week of the course.

If you have not had UM History yet,  you will find these chapters help you get a bit oriented to the changes in Methodist practice:

Read chaps 3 and 9 in  Russell Richey, Doctrine in Experience: A Methodist Theology of Church and Ministry (Kingswood Abingdon, 2009). Here are links to the chapters: Doctrine in Experience - Chap 3.pdf      Doctrine in Experience - Chap 9.pdf

and/or Cambridge Companion to Wesley, "The Long Eighteenth Century." Cambridge Companion - Long Eighteenth Century.pdf

 Sign up page for Web Discoveries

students can change this page - see the "edit this page" button to the right

please be sure to save changes at the bottom before you leave!

Sign up ONCE for the week that you will post the link to a website and start our conversation about the doctrinal issue(s) at stake there. The other weeks you simply contribute to the discussion at least once by Saturday night. After week 1 there will be two links posted by students. You can contribute to the conversation by considering either one or both of them.

We need TWO persons each week to post links for us to discuss together. The last person to sign up can be a third person in one week.

Click on "edit this page" to add your name. Be sure to hit the "save changes" button (bottom right) when you are done.

Week 1 I will post a link to get us started.

In the final submission on March 15th, you are required to submit all 13 questions. You are invited to revise your answers to 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9 and 13 in light of comments you received on them. Please show these revisions either with track changes or by putting revisions in bold print. You may be awarded up to a total of 5 additional points for these revisions as a group (or more if Cathie is impressed at the improvement.)

The final paper has 13 sections, each one a doctrinal question. Please label each one. To get passing credit, your answer to each question has three parts, see below. The 13 Doctrinal Questions are:

1. Describe Wesley’s understanding of what occurs at each step in the way of salvation (via salutis). Include conviction, repentance, justification, regeneration/new birth, assurance, sanctification/holiness of heart and life.
2. Describe the understanding of God Wesley derives from biblical, theological, and historical sources.
3. What is Wesley’s understanding of evil as it exists in the world?
4. What is Wesley’s understanding of humanity, and the human need for divine grace?
5. How did Wesley interpret the statement Jesus Christ is Lord?
6. What is Wesley’s conception of the activity of the Holy Spirit in personal faith, in the community of believers, and in responsible living in the world?
7. What is Wesley’s understanding of the kingdom of God?
8. What is Wesley’s understanding of the Resurrection; of eternal life?
9. The United Methodist Church holds that the living core of the Christian faith was revealed in Scripture, illumined by tradition, vivified in personal experience, and confirmed by reason. Explain this theological position.
10. Describe the nature and mission of the Church. What are its primary tasks according to the 2012 Discipline?
11. Describe how you think the 2012 Discipline understands diakonia and the servant ministry of those who lead?
12. Describe the 2012 Discipline’s understanding of an inclusive church and ministry.
13. Explain the role and significance of the sacraments according to our doctrinal documents This Holy Mystery  and By Water and the Spirit.

Your answer to each question should be about two pages long (no less than 1, no more than three)– double spaced. Total page limit is 25 pages.

Each of your 13 answers will have three distinct parts: (1 point for each part, up to 2 potential additional points for the question as a whole awarded for exceptional clarity, distinctions made, insightful observation of strengths or weaknesses, clarity in your own position)

Part A) one or two paragraphs which answer the question as John Wesley or the 2008 Discipline would have answered it (the question specifies which one of those two). You may freely use the answers we have created together during the course, but they must be improved by putting them in your own words.  See the numbers in the week by week course description – all 13 questions will be covered in our common work. If you agree with a particular secondary author’s interpretation of Wesley, you may indicate that agreement, but you still need to articulate the content of the actual interpretation in your own words.

Part B) A paragraph with your 3 sentence “commentary” on that answer in A. Indicate one strength of Wesley’s/Discipline’s answer AND one weakness of Wesley’s/Discipline’s answer.  Get clear and be succinct – 3 sentences total! 

Part C) A 4 sentence paragraph that indicates the direction of your own preferred answer to the question.

You are deliberately being asked to be BOTH NUANCED AND SUCCINCT.  Brevity alone is not good enough; your answer must strive for distinctions that are important to the doctrine. When you have a doctrine clear in your mind, it IS possible to do this.   In addition to the sermons, you may assume that Wesley agreed completely with the Articles of Religion and the General Rules and therefore use them as primary sources. Please note your sources so that if we disagree in our interpretation of Wesley I can look at your source (and potentially revise my own judgment of the point). To note something you may put the sermon title and section (eg. II.5) or Disciplinary paragraph in parentheses in the text, this will save you space.  The sermons and the Discipline are your primary sources for this paper. You are being asked to join the company of secondary interpreters of Wesley – which means referring to Wesley rather than quoting what others have said about him.

Further clarity about awarding of points:

Each question will be awarded up to 5 points the first time it is handed in. For three questions (1, 2 and 9) this will be in the assignment due Feb 1st, for four questions (3, 4, 7, and 13) this will be in the assignment due Feb 22nd, and for six questions (5, 6, 8, 10, 11, and 12) this will be in the final submission due March 15th.

In the final submission on March 15th, you are required to submit all 13 questions. You are invited to revise your answers to 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9 and 13 in light of comments you received on them. Please show these revisions either with track changes or by putting revisions in bold print. You may be awarded up to a total of 5 additional points for these revisions as a group. (Thus, you get the most points in the course by submitting strong answers the first time and then improving them in the final paper.)