Spring 2014/Pasadena
CH801/579
Bradley
CH801/579: THE CHURCH IN MODERN SOCIETY (6/4 Units). James Bradley.
DESCRIPTION: This is a CATS doctoral seminar open to a limited number of qualified master’s level students. In early modern Europe, Christian thought and institutions dominated vast areas of human endeavor, including science, philosophy, social and economic theory, law and politics. The revolutions of the modern world have almost completely overturned this relationship and thrown the church into a series of prolonged crises. This seminar will survey the critical points of intersection between the church and society since the Enlightenment, particularly in Britain and North America. We will read selections from several of the most influential thinkers of the Enlightenment, Romanticism, and Positivism, and we will study the most important contemporary theories of secularization, including those of Weber, Berger, Wilson, and Pannenberg.
RELEVANCE FOR MINISTRY: This course is intended for students who plan a vocation in teaching, research, and writing. The course will furnish students with an understanding of the most formidable intellectual challenges facing the church today, and hopefully, it will help lay a foundation that will enable the Christian intellectual to offer a credible answer to these challenges.
COURSE FORMAT: This course will meet three hours a week for discussion.
REQUIRED READING:
Bradley, James E., and Dale K. Van Kley, eds. Religion and Politics in Enlightened Europe. Notre Dame, 2001. ISBN: 978-0268040529, Pub. Price $24.95 [45 pp. assigned; see below].
Cashdollar, Charles D. The Transformation of Theology, 1830-1890. Princeton, 1989. ISBN: 978-0691055558, Pub. Price not available [506 pp.]. ***Out of print; see below.
Chapman, Alister, John Coffey, and Brad S. Gregory. Seeing Things Their Way: Intellectual History and the Return of Religion. Notre Dame, 2009. ISBN: 978-0268022983, Pub. Price $38.00 [74 pp. assigned].
May, Henry F. The Enlightenment in America. Oxford, 1976. ISBN: 978-0195023671, Pub. Price $44.95 [408 pp.; see below].
Noll, Mark A. Between Faith and Criticism. Regent College, 2004. ISBN: 978-1573830980, Pub. Price $26.95 [271 pp.].
Pannenberg, Wolfhart. Christianity in a Secularized World. Crossroad, 1989. ISBN: 978-0824509361, [62 pp.].***OUT OF PRINT
N.B. Cashdollar is out of print, May is expensive, and not all of Bradley and Van Kley is required; copies of these books will be loaned to students. Additional chapters and articles will be made available through e-reserves or Moodle.
ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT:
Rigorous participation in the seminar discussions and a major research paper extending to about thirty pages is required. Students will be able to choose from a wide variety of specific topics for their papers, but the seminar is also designed to enhance the student’s overall competence in the broad field of modern church history (20% of the grade is based on seminar participation and 80% hinges on the research paper).
PREREQUISITES: The seminar is intended primarily for PhD and ThM students working in the area of modern church history and theology. The course is open by permission of the professor to a limited number of MA and MDiv students who are planning advanced work in the fields of history or theology. Such students should have completed one or more survey courses in modern church history, American church history, or modern theology.
RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM: Elective for MA and MDiv students; it is part of the required curriculum for history students in the Center for Advanced Theological Study.
FINAL EXAMINATION: None.