September 2018 Course Descriptions
BKSM welcomes anyone to take courses with us for personal enrichment or continuing education!
We encourage you to experience the remarkable community of learning, worship and fellowship that makes BKSM such a remarkable place for formation.
Did you know that scholarships are available for students taking classes for personal enrichment?
September courses begin officially on August 13, the focus weekend takes place September 8-9, and final assignments are due October 12.
While the weekend begins with breakfast at 7:30 for students on ordination, lay certificate and PMA tracks, course instruction does not begin until 1:00 p.m., which gives you the flexibility of driving to Topeka on Saturday morning if you take a class for personal enrichment.
That being said, you are welcome to spend the night at Upton Hall on Friday night, and join us for breakfast and morning prayer on Saturday morning. While the 8:45 colloquium session is a closed group for students on ordination and lay certificate tracks, you are encouraged to join us at 10:15 for our praxis session, which addresses some practical area of ministry.
If you would like to audit a course, the tuition is $100. If you would like to take the class for credit, the tuition is $180. The cost includes meals and overnight accommodations at Upton Hall on Friday and Saturday night (on a space-available basis). If you wish to take the class for credit, we encourage you to enroll by August 13. If you wish to audit the class, you may register at any time prior to the focus weekend. However, your learning experience will be better if you have time to complete the assigned readings for the class.
Get started by completing the online course registration form. If you have any questions, please contact the Very Rev. Dr. Don Compier, BKSM dean, at bksmdean2@gmail.com or (816) 217-4053.
We encourage you to experience the remarkable community of learning, worship and fellowship that makes BKSM such a remarkable place for formation.
Did you know that scholarships are available for students taking classes for personal enrichment?
September courses begin officially on August 13, the focus weekend takes place September 8-9, and final assignments are due October 12.
While the weekend begins with breakfast at 7:30 for students on ordination, lay certificate and PMA tracks, course instruction does not begin until 1:00 p.m., which gives you the flexibility of driving to Topeka on Saturday morning if you take a class for personal enrichment.
That being said, you are welcome to spend the night at Upton Hall on Friday night, and join us for breakfast and morning prayer on Saturday morning. While the 8:45 colloquium session is a closed group for students on ordination and lay certificate tracks, you are encouraged to join us at 10:15 for our praxis session, which addresses some practical area of ministry.
If you would like to audit a course, the tuition is $100. If you would like to take the class for credit, the tuition is $180. The cost includes meals and overnight accommodations at Upton Hall on Friday and Saturday night (on a space-available basis). If you wish to take the class for credit, we encourage you to enroll by August 13. If you wish to audit the class, you may register at any time prior to the focus weekend. However, your learning experience will be better if you have time to complete the assigned readings for the class.
Get started by completing the online course registration form. If you have any questions, please contact the Very Rev. Dr. Don Compier, BKSM dean, at bksmdean2@gmail.com or (816) 217-4053.
Contemporary Culture:
The Good News in Confusing Times - Connecting Faith to Culture
(meets Saturday only)
This course will use a broad toolbox to help students understand how to bring alive connections between the story of God’s people in Scripture and the story of our lives today – as individuals and larger communities. Students will read broadly in topics ranging from constructive theology to current events. We’ll learn to study scripture through exegesis and eisegesis, and use the framework of metaphor to learn to identify modern day parables and connections. Early work will include reflections on several readings, class work will include deep work with parables, and a final project will involve writing (or otherwise communicating!) samples of public theology. Some course instruction will take place electronically.
Book List
The Rev. Benedict Varnum serves as rector of St Augustine of Canterbury in Elkhorn, Nebraska, where he also serves as a diocesan Trustee and a member of the Disciplinary Board. He holds a humanities AB from the University of Chicago in Fundamentals: Issues and Texts, and an M.Div. from The Divinity School at the University of Chicago. Ben keeps an occasional blog about faith themes in pop culture at rootweaving.wordpress.com (which may be a helpful early aid in understanding part of his approach to our topic!), and is planning a podcast on faith and film with his wife, Megan Griffiths. He has previously served as an instructor at BKSM in systematic theology coursework.
Contemporary Ethics
This course focuses on the history of Christian Theological ethics in the west over the last 150 years. Beginning with the emergence of the social sciences and the growing ascendancy of the natural sciences, the class will proceed by examining the rise of liberal theological ethics and its eventual challengers. The course will take special note of the effects on theological ethics of a growing consciousness of the social, historical, and cultural nature of human existence, including an increased appreciation for the significance of difference in human experience and identity.
A number of movements and perspectives will be encountered. Specifically, the course will cover the Social Gospel movement of the early 20th century (including Christian Socialism), Divine Command ethics, Christian Realism, the ethics of Responsibility, modern Casuistry, Narrative (or Postliberal) ethics, theocentric ethics, and ethics rooted in the various voices of Liberation Theology (Feminist, Black, Womanist, Latino/a, Mujerista, etc.).
Book List
Diakonia II (D)
This course continues the development of an understanding of the diaconate, particularly in the Episcopal Church. This class looks at the deacon’s role as a bridge between the church and the world, focusing on interpreting the needs, concerns, and hopes of the world to the Church and on serving marginalized people. The course will look at some of the theological underpinnings of these aspects of diaconal ministry while also considering what it might look like to perform diaconal ministry in today’s world and be a prophetic voice to the Church
Book List
Introduction to Scripture
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the Bible, both Old and New Testaments and begin to answer some fundamental questions, such as: Where did the Bible come from? What are its sources of development? What do we believe about authorship? What is the cultural context of our sacred scriptures? What translations exist and why do they matter? How does the Episcopal Church view and use the Bible? How does the Bible fit into our post-Christian, post-Modern age?
Book List
The Rt. Rev. Michael P. Milliken is the 5th Bishop of the Diocese of Western Kansas. As a Priest for 44 years, Bishop Milliken has served parishes in Kentucky and Kansas. He holds degrees from the University of Kentucky; The Episcopal Theological Seminary in Kentucky; and Xavier University in Cincinnati. Over the years, in addition to parish work and serving the wider church in many ways, Bishop Milliken has taught Contemporary Theology at Xavier University as well as courses in Old & New Testament; Morals and Ethics; and Comparative Religion at the Hutchinson Community College.
The Good News in Confusing Times - Connecting Faith to Culture
(meets Saturday only)
This course will use a broad toolbox to help students understand how to bring alive connections between the story of God’s people in Scripture and the story of our lives today – as individuals and larger communities. Students will read broadly in topics ranging from constructive theology to current events. We’ll learn to study scripture through exegesis and eisegesis, and use the framework of metaphor to learn to identify modern day parables and connections. Early work will include reflections on several readings, class work will include deep work with parables, and a final project will involve writing (or otherwise communicating!) samples of public theology. Some course instruction will take place electronically.
Book List
- Sisters in the Wilderness by Delores Williams (major selections)
- Captain America and the Crusade Against Evil by Robert Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence (introduction and selections)
- The Myth of the American Superhero by ibid (selections)
- Tending the Heart of Virtue by Vigen Guroian (selections)
- Truth Speaks to Power by Walter Brueggemann (selections)
- Several short articles
The Rev. Benedict Varnum serves as rector of St Augustine of Canterbury in Elkhorn, Nebraska, where he also serves as a diocesan Trustee and a member of the Disciplinary Board. He holds a humanities AB from the University of Chicago in Fundamentals: Issues and Texts, and an M.Div. from The Divinity School at the University of Chicago. Ben keeps an occasional blog about faith themes in pop culture at rootweaving.wordpress.com (which may be a helpful early aid in understanding part of his approach to our topic!), and is planning a podcast on faith and film with his wife, Megan Griffiths. He has previously served as an instructor at BKSM in systematic theology coursework.
Contemporary Ethics
This course focuses on the history of Christian Theological ethics in the west over the last 150 years. Beginning with the emergence of the social sciences and the growing ascendancy of the natural sciences, the class will proceed by examining the rise of liberal theological ethics and its eventual challengers. The course will take special note of the effects on theological ethics of a growing consciousness of the social, historical, and cultural nature of human existence, including an increased appreciation for the significance of difference in human experience and identity.
A number of movements and perspectives will be encountered. Specifically, the course will cover the Social Gospel movement of the early 20th century (including Christian Socialism), Divine Command ethics, Christian Realism, the ethics of Responsibility, modern Casuistry, Narrative (or Postliberal) ethics, theocentric ethics, and ethics rooted in the various voices of Liberation Theology (Feminist, Black, Womanist, Latino/a, Mujerista, etc.).
Book List
- Miguel A. de la Torre. Doing Christian Ethics from the Margins: 2nd Edition Revised and Expanded. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2014
- Wayne G. Boulton, et. al. (editors). From Christ to the World: Introductory Readings in Christian Ethics. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994.
- Additional readings to be distributed by the instructor
- The Rev. Dr. David Cox has been the Associate Rector at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Mission, Kansas, since June of 2013. He was ordained to the priesthood on December 1, 2012, in the Diocese of West Missouri. Prior to his current position, Cox taught sociology, religion, and ethics at the junior college level for five years. He earned his Ph.D. in Religion and Ethics from Vanderbilt University in 2007. Cox’s research and teaching interests include both theological and social ethics, with a special interest in the work of H. Richard Niebuhr and ethicists influenced by him.
Diakonia II (D)
This course continues the development of an understanding of the diaconate, particularly in the Episcopal Church. This class looks at the deacon’s role as a bridge between the church and the world, focusing on interpreting the needs, concerns, and hopes of the world to the Church and on serving marginalized people. The course will look at some of the theological underpinnings of these aspects of diaconal ministry while also considering what it might look like to perform diaconal ministry in today’s world and be a prophetic voice to the Church
Book List
- Brueggemann, Walter. The Prophetic Imagination (Second Edition). Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001.
- Jefferts Schori, Katharine. The Heartbeat of God: Finding the Sacred in the Middle of Everything. Woodstock, VT: Skylight Paths Publishing, 2011. (pp. 1-126)
- Mulligan, Mary Alice, and Burrow, Rufus, Jr. Standing in the Margin. Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 2004. (pp. 49-134)
- Watson-Epting, Susanne. Prophetic Voice of the Deacon. Association for Episcopal Deacons Monograph Series #19, 2008.
- Whittall, Maylanne. Citizens of the World - Servants of Christ .
North American Association for the Diaconate; 1994.- The monographs by Watson-Epting and Whittall are available to purchase as downloads at http://www.episcopaldeacons.org/monographs--working-papers.html .
- Watson-Epting, Susanne. Unexpected Consequences: The Diaconate Renewed. New York: Morehouse Publishing, 2015.
- The Venerable Betsy Bennett taught philosophy at Hastings College for sixteen years, and has been an Episcopal deacon since 2004. She currently serves as Archdeacon for the Diocese of Nebraska. The focus of her diaconal ministry is religious environmental work, which includes writing the Green Sprouts blog. A 2008 GreenFaith Fellow, she has been active in several religious environmental organizations as well as the Association for Episcopal Deacons and Spiritual Directors International. Her M.A. in philosophy is from The Ohio State University.
Introduction to Scripture
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the Bible, both Old and New Testaments and begin to answer some fundamental questions, such as: Where did the Bible come from? What are its sources of development? What do we believe about authorship? What is the cultural context of our sacred scriptures? What translations exist and why do they matter? How does the Episcopal Church view and use the Bible? How does the Bible fit into our post-Christian, post-Modern age?
Book List
- What is the Bible by Rob Bell
- Transforming Scripture by Frank Wade
- The New Oxford Annotated Bible, with Apocrypha (Revised 4th Edition), Oxford Press
- A Word to Live By by Lauren Winner
- How Anyone Can Read the Bible by L. William Countryman
The Rt. Rev. Michael P. Milliken is the 5th Bishop of the Diocese of Western Kansas. As a Priest for 44 years, Bishop Milliken has served parishes in Kentucky and Kansas. He holds degrees from the University of Kentucky; The Episcopal Theological Seminary in Kentucky; and Xavier University in Cincinnati. Over the years, in addition to parish work and serving the wider church in many ways, Bishop Milliken has taught Contemporary Theology at Xavier University as well as courses in Old & New Testament; Morals and Ethics; and Comparative Religion at the Hutchinson Community College.