Division of Bible Textual Interpretation (BTI)

3 Credits

Prerequisite: enrollment in MACP program

This course is a survey of biblical literature that focuses on its genres, literary forms, cultural contexts, and history of reception. Students will confront the risks and rewards of reading ancient texts, the role the reader’s social location plays in the act of reading, and wrestle with how these texts can remain in living conversation with contemporary questions and crises. Special attention will be paid throughout to the voices and experiences of marginal figures in the text.

3 credits

This course provides an overview of biblical literature and interpretive methods to help students cultivate attuned and faithful practices for engaging scripture. By exploring the literary forms, thematics, cultural contexts, and history of reception of both Testaments, learners will examine why scripture matters. This course prepares people to listen well and wisely to the biblical text and how it functions dynamically within communities of faith.

2 Credits

This course will explore the use of the Bible in relation to contemporary social issues. Participants will examine issues such as racism, poverty, sexism, gender violence, sexual orientation in light of a Christocentric Theological Anthropology. Students will identify how a Biblical story of Abundance, embodiment and peacemaking, can do justice in the world.

This semi-seminar course studies feminist and womanist theories and their applications to biblical interpretation. We will examine feminist theoretical works with special attention to complex relationship between sexism and other binary modes of “isms” such as racism, heterosexism, and (neo)colonialism and then explore various strategies for applying theoretical insights to ethical biblical interpretation.

3 credits

Prerequisite: BTI 515 recommended

This course guides learners to identify and employ interpretive methods for engaging the biblical text within local contexts. Learners will distinguish, locate, and critically assess the interpretive and meaning-making lenses undergirding readings of scripture and of the place/peoples they serve. The course will equip learners with exegetical tools to draw text and lived context into conversation.

1 or 2 Credits

A full course description is available on individual course syllabi and is particular to each course.