Theology Courses 

Spring 2026

Massaro, THEO 5500 Religion in Public Life M 9-11:30

· This course introduces students to the intricate and delicate topic of how religious voices and institutions interact with the public life of the United States. Topics include church-state relations in the courts, voting according to religious conscience, the influence of civil religion, secularization, public theology, culture wars, faith-based lobbying, and religion in the media and popular culture.

Jang, THEO 6046, Hebrew Bible and the Lives of Others T 9-11:30

· What is the Other? Is it something that operates by different rules of life than myself? A being that exists beyond my beliefs? Or something discovered through the disturbance of an encounter? Is there such a thing as an “absolute Other”? Why does the Other often become an object of fear and avoidance? And what does it mean to engage with the Other beyond merely recognizing and identifying somebody or something as the Other? This course explores the Hebrew Bible through the lens of the Other, examining how biblical ideas of the Other are manifested in the lives of marginalized figures and groups—such as foreigners, women, other nations, refugees, and internal others—while interrogating the dynamics of exclusion and visibility. Drawing on close textual analysis, we will investigate how biblical interpretations have been shaped by discourses of the Other, with a focus on minoritized biblical hermeneutics. The course also considers the role of philosophical thinkers such as Appiah, Derrida, Foucault, and Lévinas, as well as historical narratives that have emerged from critical ethnic studies, in shaping our understanding of the Other. We will conclude by reflecting on the futuristic possibilities of engaging with the lives of others in biblical studies.

Demacopolous, THEO 6465 Asceticism and Monasticism T 1-3:30

· Early Christianity was an ascetic religion, but the practice of asceticism varied greatly. This course explores the ideas, practitioners, and controversies surrounding early Christian asceticism from the New Testament, through the introduction of organized monasticism in the fourth century, up to the advent of Islam. The course will also introduce students to the scholarly debates concerning various dimensions of early Christian asceticism and monasticism, including the impact of Jewish and Greco-Roman ascetic practices and how ascetic practices relate to questions of gender and sexuality in Early Christianity.

Papanikolaou, THEO 6600 Modern Orthodox Theology T 4:00-6:30

· Examination of Twentieth-Century Orthodox Theological Texts

Imperatori-Lee, THEO 6614 Topics in Systematic Theology W 9:00-11:30

·   This course will examine key themes in systematic theology in historical and methodological perspective. Students will explore historical and contemporary debates in Christology, theology of God, theological anthropology, ecclesiology, theology of revelation, and pneumatology, among others. 

C. Hinze, THEO 6732 Ethics and Economics W 6pm-8:30pm

· An examination of contemporary economic social issues with the aid of Catholic social teaching, and with a critical use of economic science. The social issues examined include-but are not limited to-poverty, pollution control, protectionism, unemployment, and inflation.

Schapiro, THEO 6747 What Can Buddhism Fix? R 9:00-11:30

· What might Buddhist ideas about relieving suffering teach us about our contemporary world? This course will explore how five modern Buddhist communities have responded to the problem of suffering. In so doing, the class will challenge students to understand how Buddhist conceptual frameworks serve real human beings and how creatively real human beings adapt Buddhist frameworks. The class will consider five different case studies: The Thai Kammaṭṭhāna Forest Tradition, the Indian Dalit Buddhist Movement, the Taiwanese Tzu Chi global service organization, the Vietnamese (and French) Plum Village and Order of Interbeing mindfulness communities, and American mindfulness-based stress-relief programs. In striving to understand each of these influential movements, students will apply conceptual categories gleaned from careful study of foundational Theravada and Mahayana Buddhist sources, including "The Discourse on Turning the Wheel of Dharma," "The Life of the Buddha," "The Lotus Sutra," "The Satipatthana Sutta," and supportive materials about suffering, renunciation, karma, the bodhisattva path, Buddha nature, compassion, and mindfulness. Participants will also visit local Buddhist communities and investigate an example of contemporary Buddhist art.

Hill Fletcher, THEO 6671 Contemporary Christology R 2:30-5:00

·       This course explores central affirmations of Christian traditions related to the person of Jesus Christ, emphasizing the diversity of expressions in our contemporary moment.  Possible sites for our investigation include: Christian nationalisms, theologies of colonialism/decolonial Christology, feminist Christologies, Indigenous and Black theological traditions and Christological considerations from perspectives outside the Christian tradition.  

Moore, THEO 5015 Teaching Theology F 1:00-3:30pm (0-credit seminar required of all second-year PhD students)

· Classical and contemporary discussions on the practice of teaching theology, particularly as understood in the Roman Catholic tradition, introducing the field of professional theology and its relationship to other disciplines, and engaging in careful, critical reflection on the vocation of the teaching theologian.

Peppard, THEO 9000 Professional Development (O-credit seminar required of all second-year PhD students)

· The seminar introduces advanced doctoral students to the job search process, provides help in compiling a strong application dossier, prepares students for interviews and job talks, advises students about negotiating offers, and assists students in strategizing their career paths within and beyond the academy. In addition to a number of seminar meetings, students will receive individualized attention, help with editing their application materials, and practice with interviews and job talks.

Courses of Interest at Fordham Outside of Theology

FREN 5090 (52422) French for Reading (Meyer) W 11:30-2:15pm

GERM 5002 (17960) Graduate Reading in German II (Hafner) TF 11:30 -12:45

ENGL 5543 (52354) New Theories in Black Studies (Panaram) T 5:30-8:00pm

HIST 6133 (52362) Medieval Religious Institutions (Mueller) M 5:30-8:00pm

PHIL 5010 (47796) Introduction to Saint Thomas (Davies) R 4:00-6:00

PHIL 6113 (52367) Debates in Aesthetics (Studt) R 1-3pm

Consortium Classes of Interest

CUNY

David Petrain, Longus' Daphnis and Chloe: The novel, its influences, and its legacy  M 4:15-6:15 

• Daphnis and Chloe, with its tale of foundlings who grow up on the island of Lesbos, fall in love, and after several misadventures get married, has been enormously influential since its rediscovery in late 15th-early 16th c. Italy, inspiring not only countless translations and literary adaptations, but in the last century alone illustrations by Marc Chagall, a score by Maurice Ravel, even movies such as The Blue Lagoon. Longus was influenced in turn by a wide range of earlier authors, whose works he responds to and redeploys in the texture of his own novel. In the first part of the course, we will read Daphnis and Chloe in ancient Greek along with selections from the authors who (may have) influenced Longus, a survey including Homer, the lyric of Sappho, the historiographical prose of Thucydides, and the bucolic poetry of Theocritus, Virgil, and others. Then we will turn to Longus' reception as each student begins work on a research project to be presented to the class toward the end of the semester. Students should be prepared to work with the ancient Greek language at the graduate level. Students who are not studying Latin will be allowed to complete any Latin readings in translation, where available, or else will be given an alternative assignment. The varied knowledge and expertise that students bring to the course–of other languages, or of art, music, dance, other modes of artistic expression–will help shape our exploration of the novel and its legacy.

NYU

Topics: Luther and Philosophy RELST-GA.2467, de Vries
Tuesday 2:00pm-4:45pm. Class #4855. 4 pts. GCASL, Rm 265

As historical legend tells us, in 1517 the German Augustinian monk and then professor of theology Martin Luther inaugurated a revolution in thinking, belief, and spiritual practice, known as the Protestant Reformation. He presumably did so by nailing Ninety-Five Theses, under the title Disputation on the Power of Indulgences, to the door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg, in eastern Germany. Known for his brutal characterization of reason as “the devil’s whore,” his theology of the “hidden god,” his emphasis on the Protestant principles of sola fide and sola Scriptura, his larger and smaller catechisms, his integral translation of the Hebrew Bible and Greek New Testament into the vernacular, his doctrine of the two realms, the spiritual and earthly kingdom, and his eventual violent condemnation of peasants’ revolts of his days, inspired by the Radical Reformation's main protagonist, Thomas Münzer, Luther’s intellectual and literary influence has been profound and lasting. We will study some of his most influential theses, treatises, sermons, and translations, and will seek to gauge the effect they have had, not only on the Western narrative and guiding concepts of secularism and post-Reformation theology, but also, even more notably, on modern philosophy, including political and legal thought.

 Body, Performance and Religion RELST-GA. 2475, (Same as ANTH GA. 2335) Zito
Wednesday, 2:00pm-4:45pm. Class #17395. 4 pts. 8 Washington Mews, Rm105

This course takes us beyond text-centered dogma, philosophy, and scriptures toward lived religion in everyday life and practice: The study of bodies in their materiality of corporal performance and physical sensation. The course will introduce concepts of embodiment, subjectivity, agency, affect theory and the materialist turn. A variety of religious archives will be explored.

 Religion, Medicine, and Disease  RELST-GA.1760, McGrath
Tuesday 11:00am-1:30pm. Class #4865. 4 pts. 8 Washington Mews, Rm105

Disease falls within the realms of both religion and medicine, yet it is fully contained by neither. This course is organized according to four units, each of which examines a different relationship between religion, medicine, and disease. The first unit presents healing as part of ritual practice, while the second explores approaches to diagnosis and therapy that are based on empirical ways of seeing, feeling, and knowing the bodies of patients. The third unit highlights the eruption of disease in individual lives and entire societies, from moral explanations to narratives of restitution and persecution. The course concludes with a detailed study of ritual and biomedical healing in the United States, wherein disease and healing connect not just with the modern institutions of religion and medicine, but also with law, economics, family, and more. Throughout this course, students will learn methods for understanding and analyzing the many relationships between religion, medicine, and disease throughout history and as practiced in different societies today.

Check the websites of our consortium partners for more listings of course offerings: https://www.fordham.edu/graduate-school-of-arts-and-sciences/academics/academic-enrichment/consortium-programs/