Winter 2010/Pasadena
PH504
González

PH504: COSMOVISIÓN CRISTIANA Y RETOS CONTEMPORÁNEOS
[Christian Worldview and Contemporary Challenges]. Antonio González.


DESCRIPTION: In some sense, everybody has a worldview, more or less self-conscious and coherent. The different worldviews have a major impact on our values and actions. Do Christians have also a specific worldview? Or do they usually and easily adopt the world's worldviews, just adapting them to the gospel or also adapting the gospel to them? To answer these questions we will have to explore what a worldview is exactly, if there is such thing as a worldview previous to modernity, and if postmodernism is or is not a worldview. These questions will guide us to a more comprehensive question about the relationship between Christianity and its context, not just in the past, but also in our postmodern context.

SIGNIFICANCE FOR LIFE AND MINISTRY: This course will aid the pastor, the evangelist, the teacher, the counsellor to be sensitive to basic assumptions--conscious and unconscious--that form people's values and affect their responses to faith.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: This course is intended to increase the student's skills in critical thinking and academic writing. It aims to promote the student's ability to address intellectual problems and promote the appreciation of scholars with different views. There are also three more specific outcomes of this course: First, the student will learn to think about the relationship between the gospel and its social and cultural context. Second, the student will explore the concept of "worldview" (cosmovisión), with attention to the particular elements of worldviews and how they form, undergo alteration, and disappear. Third, the student will examine the situation of Christian faith in different contexts, past and present. Finally, the student will identify the peculiar challenges to Christian faith in the global emergence of "postmodern" culture and will explore Christian responses to postmodernism.

COURSE FORMAT: The course will meet once a week for three-hour sessions consisting of lectures and discussion. The course will be taught using live video feed technology.

REQUIRED READING:

Escobar, Samuel. Postmodernidad y la iglesia. IINDEF, 2000 (80 pages).

Heidegger, Martin. "La época de la imagen del mundo," in Caminos del bosque (Alianza Editorial, 1995), pp. 63-90 (28 pages).

Hong, In Sik. ¿Una iglesia postmoderna? Kairos, 2001 (162 pages).

Lyotard, Jean François. La condición postmoderna, ed. Cátedra, Barcelona, 2004 (116 pages).

Ropero, Alfonso. Filosofía y cristianismo. CLIE, 1997 (445 pages).

Vattimo, Gianni. Creer que se cree. Paidós, Barcelona, 1996 (126 pages).

ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT:

PREREQUISITES: Spanish.

RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM: Meets MDiv core requirement in Philosophical Theology (PHIL).

FINAL EXAMINATION: Yes.

This ECD is a reliable guide to the course design but is subject to modification. (11/09)