Fall 2012/Pasadena
ET542
Stassen

ET542: FAITH AND POLITICS. Glen Stassen.

DESCRIPTION: Research by the Barna group and the Pew Research Center indicates a dramatic backlash against Christianity by many young adults and a doubling of secularists and atheists in the ten years from 1996 to 2006, largely because of what they see as authoritarian and uncaring political advocacy. Several evangelical leaders such as Ron Sider, David Gushee, Paul Freston, Greg Boyd, Shane Claiborne, Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, and David Kuo have indicated that evangelicals need to repent for having been misled into unfaithful political alliances, and/or they are developing a significantly more faithful social witness tradition. We will probe how we can lead churches in more faithful ways.

SIGNIFICANCE FOR LIFE AND MINISTRY: Fuller's Mission Beyond the Mission says, "Simply stated, the commands to which we respond are these: Go and make disciples; call the church of Christ to renewal; work for the moral health of society; seek peace and justice in the world; uphold the truth of God's revelation." We will seek to explore that mission for our time.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: We can hope you will be able to (1) articulate how Biblical faith and theology inform Christian ethics specifically in relation to the ideologies that are influencing Christians and the nation in contentious directions; (2) understand and dialogue with ethical reasoning and viewpoints that differ from your own; (3) develop an articulate understanding of a moral tradition that is more faithful to Christian ethics than some others that are seeking to pull the nation and churches in their directions; (4) develop strategies for leading churches and Christians to deeper loyalty to the way of Jesus in our time and to resist being taken over by political ideologies that move people in opposite directions; (5) develop a sense of your own spirituality and discipleship that gives you a greater sense of lifelong growth in Christian maturity, and affirmation of a holistic way that Christ is taking form in you; and (6) develop practices for discussing issues with mutual respect for diverse understandings.

COURSE FORMAT: The course will meet twice weekly for two-hour sessions for lecture and dialogue and some small-group discussion.

REQUIRED READING:

: The following five books:

: Carrol, M. Daniel. Christians at the Border: Immigration, the Church, and the Bible. Baker Academic, 2008. (174 pp.) ISBN: 978-0801035661. Pub.price $16.99.; Harvey, David. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford University Press, 2010. (240 pp.) ISBN: 0199283273. Pub.price $19.99.; Sider, Ron. The Scandal of Evangelical Politics. Baker, 2008. (230 pp.) ISBN: 978-0801068379. Pub.price $15.99.; Stassen, Glen. A Thicker Jesus: Incarnational Discipleship in A Secular Age. Westminster John Knox, October 2012. ISBN: 9780664238179. Pub. price $25.; Wallis, Jim. God's Politics. HarperSanFrancisco, 2005 (380 pp.) ISBN: 978-0060834470. Pub.price $14.99.

: The following three articles:

: Lee, Hak Joon. "To Save the Soul of America: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Renewal of America Today." Perspectives: A Reformed Journal (March 2008).; Niebuhr, Reinhold. "Liberty and Equality." In Niebuhr, Faith and Politics. (20 pp.); Stassen, Glen. "Human Rights." In Global Dictionary of Theology, ed. W. Dyrness and V.-M. Kärkkäinen. InterVarsity Press, 2008. ISBN: 978-0830824540.

: Choose one of the following:

: Gould, Lewis. 1968: The Election that Changed America. Ivan Dee, 2010. (192 pp.) ISBN: 978-1566638623. Pub.price $16.95.; Obama, Barack. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. Vintage, 2008. (464 pp.) ISBN: 978-0307455871. Pub.price $7.99.; Paul, Rand. The Tea Party Goes to Washington. Center Street, 2011. (249 pp.) ISBN: 978-1455503117. Pub.price $21.99.