Division of Theology & Cultural Engagement (TCE)

2 Credits 

Prerequisites: IDS 520, IDS 521

The class is designed for mid-year to advanced students who are in need of a solid and deeper background in the theoretical understandings of professional critical social theorists. We will examine critical theory, postmodern philosophies, feminist theory, multiculturalism, queer theory, masculinity studies, cultural studies, critical race social theories, and religion. We will compare critical theories, critical social theories, and religion. We will compare critical theories, critical social theories, and their responses in the context of the current religious nationalism occurring in the United States. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the discussed approaches in respect to textual interpretation, social analysis, and the development of social movements? What are (or should be) the community church’s response to questions raised in these conversations?

2 Credits

This course will explore a theology of creativity as understood through our identity as persons made in the image of God. In the process, we will look at the vocational call of the artist as well as the more general call to create in and engage with the created order at large. This class will use a variety of ‘texts’ – e.g., literature, music and visual art – in order to search out the least inadequate ‘language’ in which to both describe and praise God.

3 credits

This course will explore how business for the common good and innovation are used in creative ways of service to communities in a variety of contexts. Students will examine how innovative practices, philanthropy, entrepreneurial leadership can be used to heal the heart of a community. A field research component will allow the student to begin to identify and construct the competencies and dimensions of their MATC apprenticeship.

3 credits (offered every Fall)

The MATC Apprenticeship is a faculty supervised community-based learning opportunity that forms the foundation of the capstone Integrative Project. Students will self-select a community development, ministry, or artistic organization that can help them fine tune their creative, entrepreneurial, and service skills. Based on the mission of the selected community service organizations, students will establish an applicable learning contract with an on-site supervisor.

3 credits

This course will explore the implications of particular Christologies on the global church, mission, and culture, with special reference to Church history. This course will cover the early development of trinitarian theology, the debates about the identity of Jesus Christ, and creeds. This course will also include explorations of more contemporary critiques about how Christology is formed and practiced in the church and world, engaging diverse theological perspectives. The goal of this class is to understand the historical formations and critiques of Christology, Soteriology, and Ecclesiology, so that the student might be able to design and construct life-giving theologies within the context of their vocational call and the communities in which they will serve.

3 credits

This course surveys the ongoing evolution of the theology and practice of mission. The course explores the history of theologies, frameworks, social constructs, and critiques of Christian mission, better enabling students to engage in mission without colonizing or harming. This course equips learners to personally participate, and guide others into joining the Triune God in God’s liberative mission within the particularity of their context. Students are invited to explore the implications of Emmanuel (God is with us), as the heart of missional presence and practice.

2 Credits

This course explores the theological concept of persons, both divine and human. The goal of this class is to survey, compare and contrast, and evaluate various perspectives on personhood from the depth and breadth of the Christian tradition. This class will start with the doctrine of God, engage with the doctrine of creation (and eco theology), and end with theological anthropology (including the imago Dei and the imago Christi). This is a more doctrinally oriented class, but with an eye to the reality that all theology is contextual.

2 Credits

This course explores the intersection of theology and trauma studies/traumatology. In this class, students will read and compare theologies of the cross and theologies of the Holy Spirit to investigate how different theological approaches impact one’s views on trauma, suffering, healing, redemption, witness, resilience, community, etc. This class is primarily focused on theological questions, but will purposefully seek out ways to bring together and find various modes of integrating theology and psychology (i.e., traumatology) throughout the class. Though the disciplines of theology and psychology utilize different vocabularies and methodologies, both seek out the wholeness and well-being of the human person, particularly in the wake of suffering, abuse, and trauma. Theology in this frame, should lead people toward liberation and shalom, especially when life and death are closely experienced and related.

2 Credits

This course looks at the relationship between the Christian Church (ecclesiology) and Jesus Christ (Christology). At stake in this conversation, is how our doctrines about the person and work of Christ impacts how people are formed in the practice of the Church and its liturgy. Doctrine, in this context, is not just an abstract exploration of proper belief about sin, atonement, soteriology, or ecclesiology, but, instead, the location of questioning, and sometimes reforming, how theory (theoria) and practice (praxis) are related to one another in the daily life of the body of Christ. The aim of this class is to show that all study of theology should lead to doxology (worship) and all doxology should lead to the fullness of life in Jesus Christ.

2 Credits

This course explores the interaction between the theological concepts of God, gender and sexuality. The goal of this class is to survey, compare and contrast, and evaluate various perspectives on God, gender, and sexuality from the depth and breadth of the Christian tradition, with special reference to critical social theory around gender and sexual identity. This class will examine the doctrine of God and Theological Anthropology, while engaging with how to critically examine doctrine through such lenses as feminist theology, queer theology and liberation theology. This is a contextually oriented class that seeks to articulate and re-contextualize the various loci of theology such as prolegomena, the Triune God, sin, human persons, sexuality, and gender.

2 credits

This course will explore the work and being of the Triune Creator (with special reference to the work of the Holy Spirit) and how understanding the Triune Creator helps to shape a dynamic eco-theology. The goal in this class is to survey the growing theological literature around the care of the earth. The lens of eco-theology intersects with the Doctrine of God and creation, Pneumatology, feminist theory, creation care, theology of place, agrarian theology, food, liberation theology, poverty and justice issues, etc. This class will weave context and doctrine together, moving back and forth between the Missio Dei to love and perfect all persons and things in the world and attending to the call of the earth toward love, justice, mercy, and humility for all of the created order.

2 Credits

This class will explore the concept of beauty. This exploration will be shaped by a theology of the cross (which encompasses the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus) that not only leads us to a Christian understanding of beauty but to an understanding that beauty, to be true beauty, must have the power to identify, confront, and redeem that which is most ugly – even death itself. It is in this redemptive motion that we are brought to worship, which emerges from our acknowledgment of God’s redemptive power within our lives. 

3 credits

This course prepares students to think critically about the task of doing constructive theology. The goal of this course is to survey, compare and contrast, and evaluate various contextual, constructive, and interdisciplinary perspectives on the doctrines of God, Creation, Theological Anthropology, and Pneumatology from the depth and breadth of the Christian tradition. Students will be able to articulate an understanding of what God is doing in the world, with implications for how they think, listen, live, and lead.

2 Credits

The cross cultural course will be hosted by Guatemalan leaders serving Guatemala City communities impacted by poverty, lack of education, homelessness, addiction and gang violence. Students will participate in pre-trip readings and film study focused on Latin American theology, history and culture and a one week cross cultural dialogue in Guatemala. Students will meet with local leaders to discuss, Gang Chaplaincy, street kids and human trafficking interventions, gender violence advocacy, education, trauma informed care and community development.

3 credits
Prerequisites: TCE 534O; open to MATC students only

This course explores the intersection of Christian theologies and artistic practice by asking how theological thinking informs acts of creation and the life of the artist. Students will explore the capacities of art as revelatory, transformational, and liberative. The course guides students in the articulation of their theological understanding of aesthetics in the practice of their vocation with art, while attending to the multifaceted ways art functions in the world.

3 credits

Prerequisites: TCE 551; open to MATC students only

This studio course creates opportunities for students to engage in artistic practice integrated with theological thinking. Students will employ experimentation and adaptive approaches toward creative practices and explore an understanding of the artist’s role within society and Christian community. The course culminates in a project in which students demonstrate their integration of theology and art.

3 credits

Prerequisites: TCE 535

This course prepares students to engage in the practices of community development, and helps them to define theological and ethical foundations for the promotion of well-being in the communities they are called to love.  Through practices of deep listening, participants will gain the skills and character qualities necessary to work in partnership with community members to foster organic, contextualized community change.

3 credits

Prerequisites: TCE 553

These cross cultural courses hosted by local Subject Matter Experts will explore the hurt, hope and heart of the communities in which they serve. This hurt, hope, and heart methodology shapes a credible and collaborative approach to community development. Listening deeply to the context as a collective learning community while making application to participants' own place of ministry. Pre-trip readings and film study will establish foundational knowledge regarding the places, spirituality, theology, history and culture.

For particular context description, please see the course syllabus.

3 credits

What does it mean to gather?  The history of the local church is a story of people convening in the Way of Jesus unto liberation, belonging, and service within particular contexts. The Greek word for church – ekklesia – means “gathering”; the reimagination of gathering is vital for communities of faith emerging in the wake of Christendom’s collusion of religion with political and economic powers. This course prepares leaders to convene groups as prophetic witness, formative community, and missional service unto becoming faithful communal expressions of love of God, neighbor, creation, and self.  Students will be prepared as leaders to adaptively reimagine Christian gathering practices to serve the current and future needs of their particular place and all its inhabitants.

3 credits

Prerequisites: TCE 555

How does a leader, through their presence, convene groups serving the common good as a faithful expression of personal and collective love of God?  This course equips spiritual leaders with tools for attending deeply to the invitation of God’s Shalom, to the particularity of their groups, to the complexity of their places, to their personal journeys, and to the systems of oppression warring against liberation and flourishing for all and everything. Students will be prepared as leaders with the practical knowledge, skills, and tools necessary for convening followers of Christ to serve the common good as a faithful expression of their love of God, love of neighbor, love of creation, and love of self. 

1 or 2 Credits

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