January 2024 Course Descriptions

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.

Required Texts            
  • 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).
  • Moe-Lobeda, Cynthia. Resisting Structural Evil: Love as Ecological-Economic Vocation. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2013.
  • Wells, Samuel, and Ben Quash. Introducing Christian Ethics. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, 2010.
  • Wells, Samuel, editor. Christian Ethics: An Introductory Reader. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, 2010.
Your Instructor 
  • Dr. Tyler Atkinson is the former Johan E. Seelen Distinguished 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. In 2015, he published Singing at the Winepress: Ecclesiastes and the Ethics of Work (Bloomsbury T&T Clark). More recently, he has published a book chapter on the rapper, 2Pac and the theology of Paul Tillich (in The Body and Ultimate Concern: Reflections on an Embodied Theology of Paul Tillich, ed. Adam Pryor and Devan Stahl), and is currently working on a book-length project on the intersection of race, religion, and culture in North Carolina Hip Hop.

Christian History I
This course examines Christianity history during the first millennium, from its origins in Palestine to the spread of the faith to Europe. Key topics include the early church, the Constantinian revolution, monasticism, Christological controversies, and the rise of Islam.
Required Texts             
  • Wilken, Robert L. The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity. Yale University Press, 2012.
Your Instructor 
  • The Rev. Dr. Sean C. Kim is the Associate Rector at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Kansas City, Missouri. In addition to serving at the church, he teaches East Asian and world history at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg. His research focuses on the history of Protestant Christianity in Korea. Originally from a Presbyterian and Methodist background, he was “Anglicanized” through his studies at the Bishop Kemper School for Ministry. He received his B.A. from Cornell University and M.Div., A.M., and Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Polity  &  Canons
This course provides an overview of the governance of The Episcopal Church, including the Constitution and Canons of the Church, General Convention, the offices of the Presiding Bishop and the President of the House of Deputies, the regional Provinces, the respective Dioceses (including the constitution and canons of the dioceses represented in the class) 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.
Required Texts               
  • 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 2022: Together with the Rules of Order Adopted by the General Convention 1789-2022
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 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, from 2003 through 2022.  At General Convention, he served on the Title IV, Constitution, and Canons committees, including the 2009 Convention which drafted the present Title IV canons.
BKSM welcomes you to take courses with us for personal enrichment or continuing education. Classes are richer with occasional students around the table.  We encourage you to experience this remarkable, uplifting community of learning, worship and fellowship for yourself!

January Overview
  • Classes begin on Monday, December  11.  You will receive an email and syllabus directly from your instructor. If you have  not received anything from your instructor by Tuesday, please contact us.
  • The in-person Focus Weekend meets  January 13-14 , on Saturday from 7:30 am-9:00 pm and on Sunday from 7:30am-12:15pm.
  • The detailed weekend schedule is here.
  • Classes end on Friday, February  9.
  • Grades due February 29.

Tuition & Scholarships
  • Tuition is $100 to audit a class in person or online, $240 to take a class for credit in person, which includes  overnight accommodations at Upton Hall &  meals, $165 to take a class for credit on Zoom.
  • Apply for the $100 Jim Upton lay scholarship. Scholarships also available for students on an ordination track.
  • Many hotels are available throughout Topeka. Most are 15 minutes away or less.
Register for January Courses