Christianity and Contemporary Culture Course Descriptions
Christianity & Contemporary Culture
The courses in Christianity and Contemporary Culture are especially designed for those committed to equipping people to understand and meet the challenges of today’s world. They are interdisciplinary in nature, drawing on the expertise of faculty across the curriculum in assessing and engaging contemporary culture.
CC 5610 (711) Cultural Hermeneutics
This introductory course provides students with the basic framework for thinking theologically about contemporary culture. The course presents the concepts of culture and society along with the ways they are often investigated by cultural and social studies. The aim of the course is to reflect on what is involved in a properly theological interpretation of culture. This course develops the hermeneutic principles for interpreting culture that will be applied in subsequent courses. Biblical themes and Christian doctrines (e.g., creation and creation mandate; reason and revelation; the kingdom of God) will be explored as ingredients in a theological interpretation of culture. The course includes a brief survey of various theological models (e.g., Lutheran, Reformed, Anabaptist, neoorthodox, liberation) for understanding the relation of gospel and culture. Two hours.
CC 5615 (713) Cultural Engagement
Following from the first two courses in hermeneutics and exegesis of contemporary culture, this course seeks to engage contemporary culture biblically and theologically. The aim is to develop a Christian position on certain significant issues in contemporary culture (e.g., multiculturalism, tolerance, the media, cyberspace, sexuality, and so on). Students will be encouraged to develop their own positions on the relation of gospel and culture, church and world, through detailed case studies. Prerequisite or corequisite CC 5610. Three hours.
CC 5620 (712) Cultural Exegesis
This course takes some of the categories introduced in the Cultural Hermeneutics course and explores them in greater detail. Various methods and tools from sociology, cultural anthropology, and philosophy are used to explore such themes as urbanization, modernization, pluralization, secularization, and globalization, with theological reflection on these themes. Prerequisite: CC 5610. Three hours.
CC 6000 (675) Current Studies in Christianity & Contemporary Culture
Topics selected deal with significant issues related to Christianity and Contemporary Culture. May be repeated. One to three hours.
CC 6210 (716) Advanced Christian Ethics
Cross-list as ST. Three hours.
CC 7300 (732) World Religions
Cross-list as ME. Three hours.
CC 7612 (767) Technology and Culture
Cross-list as ST. Three hours.
CC 7705 (721) Religious Epistemology
Cross-list as PR. Three hours.
CC 7710 (801) Contextualization
Cross-list as ME. Three hours.
CC 7842 (725) Understanding the Urban World
Cross-list as PT. Two hours.
CC 7860 (723) Social and Cultural Exegesis
Cross-list as PT. Two hours.
CC 7960 (720) Christianity and Contemporary Culture Integrative Seminar
A seminar addressing the engagement of the gospel and contemporary culture, focusing the varied concerns of the emphasis in an interdisciplinary context and drawing on student projects (including thesis proposals for MA students and, for MA and MDiv students, papers prepared for other courses) to include a major integrative paper arising out of the work of the seminar. (To be taken by MA students toward the end of their program, when possible, and by MDiv students in their final year.) One hour.