January 2021 Course Descriptions
January Overview
- The Zoom Focus Weekend meets January 9-10, on Saturday from 8:30-6:00 and on Sunday from 8:30-12:15. The detailed weekend schedule is here.
- Classes begin on Monday, December 14.
- Classes end on Friday, February 12 (if taken for credit).
- Tuition (when meeting on Zoom) is $100 to audit, $130 for credit.
- 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
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
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
Pauline Epistles
This class is an introduction to Paul’s letters for those who have had little or no exposure to the academic study of Paul. It will attempt to help students understand Paul’s letters vis-à-vis the socio-historical and political contexts of the first century. In addition, it will demonstrate how these letters function as missional documents endeavoring to form their addresses into an embodiment of the gospel in their particular culture. To do this, the face-to-face classroom time will focus on one or two of Paul’s letters with a side glance at a few passages from other letters to illustrate certain points. The goal of the course is to provide the student with a rudimentary understanding of, and tools with which to engage in a responsible theological interpretation of Paul’s letters.
Reading List
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).
- 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.
- 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
- 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 current member of the Council of Trustees in the Diocese of Kansas and previously served as Council President. He presently serves as the intake officer. He has been a deputy to seven general conventions, including 2021. 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.
Pauline Epistles
This class is an introduction to Paul’s letters for those who have had little or no exposure to the academic study of Paul. It will attempt to help students understand Paul’s letters vis-à-vis the socio-historical and political contexts of the first century. In addition, it will demonstrate how these letters function as missional documents endeavoring to form their addresses into an embodiment of the gospel in their particular culture. To do this, the face-to-face classroom time will focus on one or two of Paul’s letters with a side glance at a few passages from other letters to illustrate certain points. The goal of the course is to provide the student with a rudimentary understanding of, and tools with which to engage in a responsible theological interpretation of Paul’s letters.
Reading List
- Gorman, Michael J. Reading Paul. Cascade, 2008 (usually cheaper at the Wipf & Stock website than anywhere else).
- Longenecker, Bruce. The Lost Letters of Pergamum. 2nd Edition, Baker Academic, 2016.
- Dr. Andy Johnson graduated from Trevecca Nazarene University in 1982 with a B.S. in Accounting and Business Administration. He subsequently received an M.Div. from Nazarene Theological Seminary (1989) in Kansas City and a Ph.D. from Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota (1994), focusing in New Testament Studies with a specialty in the Pauline epistles. He has taught at Nazarene Theological Seminary since Fall 2002. Johnson is the author of 1 & 2 Thessalonians in the Between Two Horizons commentary series (Eerdmans, 2016), Holiness and the Missio Dei (Cascade, 2016) and numerous scholarly and popular articles. He is also co-editor of Holiness and Ecclesiology in the New Testament (Eerdmans, 2007), Cruciform Scripture: Cross, Participation, and Mission (Eerdmans, 2020), an associate editor of the Wesley Study Bible (Abingdon), and part of the translation team of the Common English Bible (2011).