Bishop Kemper School for Ministry
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January 2020 Course Descriptions

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January Overview
  • Classes meet January 11-12 from Saturday at 12:30 pm (lunch at noon) to Sunday at 12:00 noon.
  • Classes begin on Monday,  December 11.
  • Classes end on Friday, February 14  (if taken for credit).
  • Tuition is $100 to audit, $195 for credit, which includes your overnight stay at Upton Hall & all meals.
  • If you prefer a hotel, we have a special rate of $75.50 (including tax) at nearby  Senate Luxury Suites.
  • Complete a short application for the $100 Jim Upton lay scholarship.
  • Register online for classes.

Christian Ethics (D)
This class is designed for students enrolled on the deacon track as well anyone seeking a better understanding of Christian Ethics for personal enrichment. Rather than taking an issues-based approach to Christian ethics, this course will tell the story of Christian ethics, considering the ways in which people in the Church have responded to God's work in their midst through word and deed. In telling this story, there will be three primary trajectories: Scripture, historical theology, and contemporary theological ethics. These three trajectories will shape the questions of the class, some of which will sound like the following: What is the place of Christian-ethical reflection in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament? How might Kierkegaard's concept of the "teleological suspension of the ethical" in Fear and Trembling shape the way encounters those complex moments that demand ethical discernment? What has Christian ethics to do with modern city planning? As these and other questions are asked, at the forefront of deliberation will be the pursuit to understand the relation between the Word's eternal wisdom and the Word's work of making all things new.
Reading List             
  • Brock, Brian. Captive to Christ, Open to the World: On Doing Christian Ethics in Public. Eugene: Cascade Books, 2014.
  • Wells, Samuel and Quash, Ben. Introducing Christian Ethics. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, 2010.
  • Wells, Samuel, editor. Christian Ethics: An Introductory Reader. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, 2010. 
  • Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Ethics, ed. Ilse Tödt, Heinz Eduard Tödt, Ernst Feil, and Clifford Green, trans. Reinhard Krauss, Charles West, and Douglas Scott. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works 6. Minneapolis: Fortress Press,  2005 (Paperback, 2008).
Your Instructor
  • Dr. Tyler Atkinson is Assistant Professor of Religion at Bethany College, Lindsborg, KS. Dr. Atkinson holds an M.Div. from the Divinity School, Duke University and a Ph.D. in theological ethics from the University of Aberdeen. His doctoral thesis, Singing at the Winepress: Ecclesiastes and the Ethics of Work, has recently been published by Bloomsbury T&T Clark (2015).

Christian History I
This course explores Christian history from the end of the New Testament period (about A.D. 150) to AD 1000. We see Christianity as a small religion among many in the Roman Empire, then as that empire's official faith, and then  as a growing movement continually encountering pagan cultures in the Mediterranean world and northern Europe, changing those cultures and being changed by them. Information on Eastern Christianity will help us understand Western Christianity. The course involves short lectures that leave plenty of room for discussion.
Reading List             
  • Wilken, Robert L. The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity. Yale University Press, 2012.
Your Instructor 
  • The Very Rev. Dr. George Wiley taught religion at Baker University for 35 years and has been serving the Diocese of Kansas as canon pastor since 2014. He holds a Ph.D. in historical theology from Emory University. As a teacher, he is known for engaging with students and creating an inviting classroom atmosphere.

Polity  &  Canons
This course provides an overview of the governance of The Episcopal Church, including the Constitution and Canons of the Church, General Convention (and its Committees, Commissions, Agencies and Boards – “CCAB”), the offices of the Presiding Bishop and the President of the House of Deputies, the nine regional Provinces, the respective Dioceses and the individual congregations.  In addition we will look at the governance (or lack thereof) of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the place of The Episcopal Church within that Communion.
Reading List             
  • Many Parts, One Body – How the Episcopal Church Works, James Dator with Jan Nunley (New York: Church Publishing, 2010)
  • Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church 2018: Together with the Rules of Order Adopted by the General Convention 1789-2015
    • Paperback copy is $35 and available on Amazon, or free online edition can be downloaded at:  https://www.generalconvention.org/publications#CandC
Your Instructor 
  • Mr. Mike Morrow is an attorney with 30 years service as a career law clerk in the U.S. District Court in Kansas.  He is a former member and President of the Council of
    Trustees in the Diocese of Kansas.  He presently serves as the intake officer.  He has been a deputy to six general conventions.  In 2018, he served on the general convention
    committee on Safeguarding and Title IV.  He previously served on the Canons committee for three conventions, including the 2009 convention which drafted the present Title IV canons.
Register for January Courses
Address for Tuition Payments/Donations:
The Very Rev. Don Compier, BKSM Dean
410 SE Independence Ave.

Lee’s Summit, MO 64063
Physical Address:
Bishop Kemper School for Ministry

701 SW 8th Avenue
Topeka, KS 66603

The Bishop Kemper School for Ministry is a collaborative venture of the Episcopal Dioceses of Kansas, West Missouri, Nebraska and Western Kansas.
BKSM also partners with the Central States Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
BKSM offers classes and programs to educate people for church leadership in both lay and ordained vocations.