Spring 2024 Elective Course Descriptions

WAKE DIV

SPRING 2024

Elective Course Descriptions

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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DECISION-MAKING AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

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SHAPING AN ETHICAL AND INCLUSIVE ORGANIZATION

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THE RELIGIONS OF EGYPT

RELIGION AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS STRUGGLE

GENDER AND THE TRINITY IN THE EARLY CHURCH

DIGITAL PROCLAMATION

THE MINISTRY OF PASTORAL CARE TOPICS IN SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT

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PREACHING AT THE INTERSECTIONS

LEADING CAUSES OF LIFE

PREACHING AND WORSHIP IN SACRED TIME

WOMANIST SPIRITUALITY AND ART

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CHRISTIANITY AND PUBLIC POLICY

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CONSCIENCE, RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, AND THE LAW

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CHRISTIAN RESPONSES TO IMMIGRATION

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NIETZSCHE AND KIERKEGAARD

EIL 712 DECISION-MAKING AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT Dr. Jill Crainshaw 3 credit hours Modality: Asynchronous Online, January 8- February 28 (Block 1) MIN: Community Building Against a backdrop of major social, economic, and cultural transitions, leaders need a deeper understanding of ethical decision-making and effective conflict management. At the same time, leaders’ decisions are often viewed from varied stakeholders’ perspectives that are sometimes in tension with the leaders’ views and aims. This course equips students with knowledge and skills for navigating complex (and sometimes contentious) organizational landscapes.

This is a 3-credit, 7.5 week course offered asynchronously in collaboration with the School of Professional Studies as part of the Graduate Certificate in Ethical and Inclusive Leadership.

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EIL 714 SHAPING AN ETHICAL AND INCLUSIVE ORGANIZATION

Malika Roman Isler 3 Credit Hours Modality: Asynchronous Online, March 4- April 24 (Block 2) MIN: Community Building What tools do leaders need to lead sustainable transformation in organizations? How do leaders implement strategies to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion in their organizations? What leadership skills and qualities are important as leaders envision, implement, and assess organizational changes infused with inclusive ethical decision-making? This course explores these questions and equips learners to shape an ethical and inclusive organization.

This is a 3-credit, 7.5 week course offered asynchronously in collaboration with the School of Professional Studies as part of the Graduate Certificate in Ethical and Inclusive Leadership.

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HIS 594B THE RELIGIONS OF EGYPT: ANCIENT, MEDIEVAL, AND MODERN Dr. Neal Walls 2 Credit Hours Modality: In Person, Tuesdays 6:30-8:00 pm Area Requirements: CC, RP

This course introduces the rich religious heritage of Egyptian civilization, from its Pharaonic origins, through centuries of Christian majorities, to its current Islamic identity.

Students are also invited to join our May travel experience to the Arab Republic of Egypt, when we will directly experience Muslim culture as the context in which minority Christian communities practice their faith. Pilgrims will visit numerous Pharaonic, Christian, Muslim, and (historically) Jewish places of worship in the greater Cairo area and in Egypt’s stunning archeological sites at the southern environs of Luxor. We will witness the grandeur of Islamic civilization in Cairo’s medieval mosques and modern monuments. We will discuss the tumultuous history of Jews in Egypt while touring Cairo’s historic Ben Ezra Synagogue. We will examine Christian monasticism in the place of its origin at the Wadi Natrun and in the GrecoRoman history of Alexandria. Site visits to numerous Christian churches­, including All Saints Anglican Church (with its Sudanese refugee congregation), will expose students to a diversity of contemporary Christian practices in Egypt.

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HIS 674 RELIGION AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS STRUGGLE

Dr. Derek Hicks 3 credit hours Modality: In Person, Wednesdays 12:30-1:45 pm, Spring Break Travel Component MIN: Community Building Area Requirements: CC, RC

Resistance to racial bias dates back to institutional slavery. This course will chart an intellectual history from antebellum America through the most publicized protest movement during the mid-to-late twentieth century—the Civil Rights Movement. We will assess several classic and contemporary texts on radical black political thought, connecting those historical voices to contemporary religious thinking and social activism. This course will consider the ways in which faith communities, organizations, and individuals have fueled or been reinforced by African American protests and demands for equal rights. Ultimately, this class will trace the role religious thought and faith play in the various articulations of the resistance over the nearly 400 years of the African American pilgrimage for equal rights. Note that there is a travel component to this course, as the class will travel to Alabama over Spring Break, visiting key Civil Rights Movement sites and museums in Birmingham, Montgomery, and Selma.

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HIS 712/ THS 790D GENDER AND TRINITY IN THE EARLY CHURCH Dr. Austin Rivera 3 credit hours Modality: In person, Tuesdays 3:30-6:00 pm General Elective or THS Elective Area Requirement: GS

2. Using Outer

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--no set of names is more central to Christianity. But if we say "God the Father," does that mean that God is a man? Questions about gender and our language for God might seem to be very contemporary concerns, but they were just as pertinent in the earliest centuries of Christianity. In this class we will read Feminist and Womanist accounts of the Trinity alongside theologians from the early Church as we explore the challenges and puzzles of speaking truthfully about God.

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MIN 564 PODCASTS, LIVESTREAMS, AND VLOGS: PROCLAMATION IN THE DIGITAL AGE Dr. Melva Sampson 3 credit hours Modality: Asynchronous Online MIN: Proclamation As social media is now part of the daily lives of many people around the globe, digital media is used to proclaim the Gospel and engage with people who are not in the same space. This course explores the efficacy of digital proclamation. Our guiding question: how might/have religious leaders reimagine(d) preaching from new and alternative pulpits i.e. podcasts, livestreams and vlogs?

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MIN 631 THE MINISTRY OF PASTORAL CARE Dr. Wynetta Wimberley 3 Credit Hours Modality: In Person, Thursdays from 12:30-3:00 pm MIN: Relational Care A study of the church's ministry of caring for persons throughout the life cycle which is grounded in theological understandings of the human condition, the spiritual journey, and the nature of ministry.

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MIN 711 TOPICS IN SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT Dr. Wynetta Wimberley 1 Credit Hour Modality: Asynchronous Online MIN: Relational Care and Counseling Dural Degree Requirement This seminar looks at "classic" and contemporary texts and research in human psychological and spiritual development (and critical responses to same) pertinent to theory and practice of pastoral counseling. This class will examine psychoanalytic and cognitive-structural approaches to human development and critical responses.

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MIN 790A PREACHING AT THE INTERSECTIONS Dr. Melva Sampson 3 Credit Hours Modality: Hybrid, Mondays 11:00 am-12:15 pm MIN: Proclamation Area Requirement: RC Faithful preaching pays deep attention to the contextual realities of preachers, biblical texts, listeners, and the world in which we live.

This course will invite students to consider how contextual realities require an intersectional homiletic. We will pay special attention to marginalization and how “preaching at the intersections” can uplift, empower, convict, and transform. Students will evaluate understandings of culture context, and identity, then begin to construct homiletic theories and practices as we consider topics including (but not limited to) race, gender, sexual identity, class, disability, race/racism, ethnicity, age, and ecological disaster.

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MIN 790B LEADING CAUSES OF LIFE Dr. Gary Gunderson 3 Credit Hours Modality: In person, Thursdays 5:00-7:30 pm MIN: Community Building Area Requirement: SE The Leading Causes of Life are foundational for the field of faith and health. The Leading Causes of Life are the complementary thought and logic to the leading causes of death that undergird much of public health and healthcare institutions.

Theologically and practically, you need more than death to work with, so the Leading Causes emerged out of the work of The Carter Center Interfaith Health Program and Emory Schools of Theology and Public Health in the 1990s, now visible in a number of national and global networks of scholars and practitioners.

The causes of life offer a practical framework for building the vital conditions at neighborhood, state, and federal levels. They have served as an evocative foil for theological engagement with the field of health, often sparking sermon and smallgroup congregational education. Because of their grounding in both theology and health science, they undergird sustainable ministry strategy, as well as interdisciplinary partnerships. The course moves in three steps, theory, implementation strategy, and how it works on the ground of ministry.

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MIN 654 PREACHING AND WORSHIP IN SACRED TIME

Dr. Michael Brown 3 Credit Hours Modality: In person, Wednesdays 3:30-6:00 pm MIN: Proclamation

This course analyzes the biblical, theological, and pastoral nature of the seasons and special moments of the church year. In addition to instruction on sermon preparation for the major liturgical moments (e.g., Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, Pentecost), attention is given to baptism, communion, weddings, and funerals.

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SPI 790A WOMANIST SPIRITUALITY AND ART Dr. Melva Sampson 3 credit hours Modality: In person Tuesdays 12:30-3:00 pm MIN: Formation Area Requirements: GS, RC

This course explores the intersection of Womanist spirituality and visual and performance art, examining how art has been used as a powerful tool for expressing and shaping spiritual experiences of Black women. Through a combination of lectures, discussions, and presentations, students will gain an understanding of the historical, cultural, and social contexts that have influenced the development of Womanist spirituality and its representation in visual and performance art.

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THS 621 CHRISTIANITY AND PUBLIC POLICY Dr. John Carter 3 Credit Hours Modality: In Person Tuesday/Thursday 3:30-4:45pm THS Elective Too often we as Christians consider our theological heritage only in terms of personal formation or church teaching but in our political considerations are indistinguishable from other actors.

But this course will ask, how can we think theologically about public policy issues such as climate change, migration, democracy, and markets. Potential topics to be considered, with attention to their contemporary political application, include eschatology, creation, hope, suffering, and salvation.

Representative theologians include Dorothee Sölle, Dale Aukerman, Elizabeth Johnson, and M. Shawn Copeland.

Photo: https://theconversation.com/how-the-social-gospel-movement-explains-the-roots-of-todays-religious-left-78895

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THS 790A CONSCIENCE, RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, AND THE LAW Dr. John Carter 3 credit hours Modality: In Person Monday/Wednesday 2:15- 3:30 pm THS Elective Freedom of conscience and freedom of religion are two distinct but often conflated rights, both of which have been integral in United States legal and political discourse since before its founding. This course will examine the history of these rights and invite students to ask why these legal protections exist, what presuppositions led these protections to be structured as they are, and whether they might profitably be restructured in the future. As part of this course, we will examine theoretical underpinnings of what the conscience is understood to be and how it fits into a general “moral anthropology” (the latter loosely defined as an understanding of how persons determine right and wrong). The tension between personal and communal conceptions of the conscience will also be explored.

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THS 790B CHRISTIAN RESPONSES TO IMMIGRATION Dr. Elizabeth O’Donnell Gandolfo Modality: Hybrid with in person meetings on Tuesdays, 9:30 10:45am and 2 Sunday Site Visits, 9am - 1pm on 2/24 & 2/18 THS Elective Area Requirements: CC, RC

LA SAGRADA FAMILIA BY KELLY LATIMORE

This course examines Christian responses to the realities of immigration in the United States, with a particular focus on Latin American immigration. It begins with an overview of the history, causes, and current policy debates around Latin American immigration and it offers a glimpse into the conditions of life in Hispanic/Latinx immigrant communities. The course then proceeds to analyze various biblical, theological, and practical approaches embedded in a variety of contemporary Christian responses to a number of issues related to immigration, including border policy, deportation of undocumented immigrants, and access to basic goods and services in immigrant communities. The course will include in weekly person meetings, Sunday site visits to local Latinx congregations, and asynchronous learning activities.

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THS 790C/MIN 790C NIETZSCHE AND KIERKEGAARD Dr. Kevin Jung 3 credit hours Modality: In Person Wednesdays 6:15-8:45 pm MIN: Formation OR THS Elective Is there any meaning to life? What is the significance of death for living?

How should we understand the nature of moral values in a postChristian world? How should we overcome nihilism that is so pervasive in our contemporary world? Both Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche, who foresaw the predicament of modern society and who heralded the impending demise of the Christian world, asked many similar questions yet offered starkly different answers for them. Why do these two 19th-century thinkers continue to attract and influence so many thinkers across various secular and religious schools of thought?

What makes the ideas of these two thinkers so original and insightful for our moral and religious reflection? This course probes some central philosophical questions of the two thinkers and their distinct responses in order to assess their enduring relevance and contributions to contemporary philosophy and theology. Through an in-depth reading of their major works, students will gain a deeper understanding of their key philosophical themes, their distinct critiques of traditional morality, and their approaches to the question of meaningful and authentic existence.

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