COURSE DESCRIPTION TH5/732– How Doctrine Matters School of Theology SUMMER 2020

Instructor: Cynthia L. Rigby Email: [email protected]

PURPOSE: Christian doctrine often has a reputation for being boring, impenetrable, and impractical. In this course, we will defy this reputation by considering five Christian doctrines and how they matter to our lives and the life of the world. Students will leave the class able to talk about the “so what?” of the Incarnation, the Trinity, Sin & Redemption, the Church, and Christian Hope. Special attention will be given to what is happening in culture and in the news during the week of the course, and how the work we are doing in class speaks to “real world” issues and concerns.

EXPECTATIONS AND COMPETENCE OBJECTIVES: In this class, students will explore the development of these five central doctrines, with an eye toward understanding why they matter so much to those who developed them. They will compare the way the doctrines are interpreted and applied, depending on contexts and particular concerns. They will practice interacting fairly with those who have different perspectives. Most importantly, they will identify and reflect on how (and possibly how not) the doctrines matter to them, to their communities, and to the world today.

FORMAT All courses offered in VST 2020 Summer School will only be available through distance learning, using Zoom for class sessions and Canvas, VST’s online course platform, for course resources. All classes will be recorded on Zoom for password protected viewing by class participants only.

Zoom software requires minimum computer system requirements such as an internet connection – broadband wired or wireless, a camera and a microphone. For details please refer to https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362023-System-Requirements-for-PC-Mac-and- Linux. Students unfamiliar with Zoom will be provided basic support by VST. For reference see https://vst.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Zoom-Manual-for-Students.pdf. Students will also be provided with basic support for accessing Canvas.

Work in the course consists of daily 3-hour Zoom classes that may include lectures and various in-class online discussions and small group exercises that will be accomplished through Zoom. All courses also include required readings to be completed before the course starts. As well various assignments may include papers or exercises during the week, and one or more final papers due by August 31 for Certificate and Basic Degree students. All papers will be submitted to the instructor via email or as the instructor specifies

REQUIRED READINGS

Cynthia L. Rigby, Holding Faith: A Practical Approach to Christian Doctrine (Nashville: Abingdon, 2018)

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A (well respected) newspaper, reading leading news stories at least 4x a week for the weeks before and during the course (spend about ½ hour a day reading the paper) and/or listening to headline news on NPR or the BBC (for about ½ hour/day).

The instructor will post (via Canvas) OPTIONAL articles at her discretion that she references in lectures and believes will be of interest to students.

ASSIGNMENTS 1. Attendance: All students taking the course for Certificate or Degree credit must participate synchronously in all class sessions via Zoom. Auditors are encouraged to participate synchronously, but may request to watch class recordings asynchronously. 100% attendance is required of Certificate and Degree students. 2. Readings: All students including auditors are expected to do all the required readings. 3. Class participation: All synchronously participating students are expected to participate in all class discussions and activities. These will be set up via the Zoom technology. 4. Certificate students: Certificate students are required to hand in 5-6 pages of writing that demonstrates the ability to thoughtfully engage the material and reading for the class and gives a personal reflection on the reading and material covered. 5. Basic degree students (Diploma; MA; M.Div): are required to do any required oral assignments during the course itself and submit any combination of written assignments totaling approximately 1500-1875 words/6-8 pages. 6. Advanced degree students (Th.M): are required to do any required oral assignments during the course itself and submit any combination of written assignments totaling approximately 3750-4250 words/15-17 pages.

Further details about assignments will be provided on the course syllabus.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Augustine, Confessions. Ed. Henry Chadwick. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Anselm, Why God Became Man, Book 1. pp. 100-146 in A Scholastic Miscellany: Anselm Ockham, ed. Eugene Fairweather. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1986.

Barth, Karl. Church Dogmatics, 13 vols. Edinburgh: T.&T.Clark. 1936-1969.

______, "Theology," in God in Action. Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2015.

Bloesch, Donald. Evangelical Theology. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2005. Brown, Joanne Carlson and Bohn, Carole R. (eds.), Christianity, Patriarchy, and Abuse: A Feminist Critique. Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 1989.

Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 vols. Ed. John T. McNeill. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006 (first edition 1960).

Chopp, Rebecca S. and Taylor, Mark Lewis. Reconstructing Christian Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994.

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Evans, James H. Jr., We Have Been Believers: An African-American Systematic Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992.

González, Justo. Mañana: Christian Theology from a Hispanic Perspective. Nashville: Abingdon, 1990.

Guthrie, Shirley. Christian Doctrine. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2018.

Gutiérrez, Gustavo. A Theology of Liberation. New York: Orbis, 1973.

Harvey, Van A. A Handbook of Theological Terms. New York: MacMillan, 1964.

Hodgson, Peter C. & King, Robert H. Christian Theology: An Introduction to Its Traditions and Tasks. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994.

Johnson, Elizabeth A. She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse. NY: Crossroad, 1992.

LaCugna, Catherine Mowry, ed. Freeing Theology: The Essentials of Theology in Feminist Perspective. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993.

McKim, Donald .Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms (second edition). Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2014.

Migliore, Daniel L. Faith Seeking Understanding (third edition). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2014.

Moltmann, Jürgen. "Stubborn Hope" (an interview in Christianity Today, January 11, 1993).

______. A Theology of Hope. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993.

Pauw, Amy Plantinga and Jones, Serene (eds.), Feminist and Womanist Essays in Reformed Dogmatics, Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011.

Richardson, Alan and Bowden, John (eds.), Westminster Dictionary of Theology. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1983.

Ruether, Rosemary Radford. Sexism and God-Talk. Boston: Beacon Press, 1983.

Tanner, Kathryn. Jesus, Humanity, and the Trinity. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001.

Weems, Renita. "Reading Her Way Through the Struggle: African American Women and the Bible.” Stony the Road We Trod, ed. Cain Hope Felder. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991, 57-80.

Wesley, John. John Wesley's Sermons: An Anthology, ed. Albert Outler. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2010.