Fall 2017/Pasadena
IS502
Clarke
IS502: PRACTICES OF COMMUNITY (4 Units: 160 hours). Marcia Clarke.
DESCRIPTION: Christian practices constitute the Christian life. The combined Christian practices of vocational formation, worship, community, and mission facilitate the integration of personal, spiritual, academic, and global formation into the vocational coherence of a Christian leader through reflection, relationships, and practices. IS502 is an integrative course that explores the identity and practices of Christian community as a people called, gathered, and sent by God. Together, professor and students study and enact historic Christian disciplines necessitated by this distinctive identity (hospitality, forgiveness, promise-keeping, truth-telling, gratitude, and testimony) in order to form students who demonstrate capacities to cultivate a theologically reflective practice of Christian discipleship.
LEARNING OUTCOMES: (1) Students will have demonstrated capacities to critically reflect on their current and past experiences of Christian practices of community. (2) Students will have demonstrated through participation in local contexts the capacity to engage in activities and exercises related to Christian spiritual disciplines and practices of community. (3) Students will have demonstrated capacities to engage scripture, tradition, and contemporary resources to reflect theologically on historic and personal practices of community. (4) Students will have articulated how community practices impact their response to the Central Integration Question (CIQ) and will identify exercises, habits, and disciplines to embody these practices within their sociocultural context.
COURSE FORMAT: This class meets once per week for three hour sessions for a total of 30 hours of classroom instruction for lecture and discussion (which includes 8 hours of required synchronous and/or asynchronous participation in vocation and formation groups) plus 10 hours of directed learning activities for a total of 40 instructional hours.
REQUIRED READING: 870 pp. of required reading and/or the equivalent time in viewing.
Required Textbooks
Biblical Text
Acts of the Apostles; 1 Corinthians; Ephesians
Pohl, Christine. Living into Community: Cultivating Practices That Sustain Us. Eerdmans, 2011. ISBN: 978-0802849854, Pub. Price $20.00 [178 pp. assigned].
Battle, Michael. Ubuntu: I in You and You in Me. Seabury Books, 2009. ISBN: 978-1596271111 (pbk.), Pub. Price: $18.00; 978-1596272149 (ebook), Pub. Price $14.99 [176 pp. assigned]
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together and Prayer Book of the Bible: Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works Vol. 5 Fortress Press, 2004. IBSN: 978-0800683252, Pub. Price $21.00 [236 pp. assigned available free to Fuller students as an ebook through library database]
Calhoun, Adele. Spiritual Disciplines Handbookrevised and expanded edition. InterVarsity Press, 2015. ISBN: 978-0830846054, Pub. Price $22.00 [for use in class exercises].
Core Practices
Hospitality
Calhoun, Adele. "Hospitality" in Spiritual Disciplines Handbookrevised and expanded edition. InterVarsity Press, 2015. ISBN: 978-0830846054 [pp. 161-163]
Conde-Fraser, Elizabeth, “From Hospitality to Shalom” in Conde-Fraser, Elizabeth, S. Steve Kang and Gary A. Parrett. A Many Colored Kingdom. Baker, 2004. ISBN: 978-0801027437. [pp. 167-210]
Pohl, Living in Community [pp.159-176]
Forgiveness
Jones, Gregory L. “Forgiveness” in Practicing Our Faith. Jossey-Bass, 2010. ISBN: 978-0470484111, Pub. Price: $19.95 [pp. 133-148]
Volf, Miroslav. “How Can We Forgive,” in Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a World Stripped of Grace. Zondervan, 2005. ISBN: 978-0310265740, Pub. Price $12.99 [pp. 193-224]
Forgiveness by God, Forgiveness of Others, and Psychological Well-Being in Late Life: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3046863/
Forgiveness: A Christian Reflection: https://www.baylor.edu/ifl/christianreflection/forgiveness.pdf 15-21
Promise-keeping
Pohl, Living in Community, [pp.61-92]
Truth-telling
Calhoun, Adele. "Truth Telling" in Spiritual Disciplines Handbook [pp. 228-230]
Pohl, Living in Community [pp.111-138]
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4618001/caller-admits-racism-gently-advised
https://www.c-span.org/video/?422264-1/qa-heather-mcghee
Gratitude
Calhoun, Adele. "Gratitude" in Spiritual Disciplines Handbook [pp. 31-33]
Pohl, Living in Community [pp.17-44]
Fredrick, Marla. “Introduction” in Between the Sundays [pp. 1-29]
Fredrick, Marla. “Gratitude and Empathy” in Between the Sundays [pp.63-73]
Conlon, Clara. "40 Ways to Practice Gratitude" Lifehack.org. 40 ways to practice gratitude: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/40-simple-ways-practice-gratitude.html
Testimony
Drury, Amanda Hontz. “Testimony in Practice,” in Saying is Believing. InterVarsity, 2015. ISBN: 978-0830840656 [pp.125-167]
C. Integration Resources
Wimberly, Anne-Streaty. “Called to Listen: The Imperative Vocation of Listening in Twenty-First Century Faith Communities.” International Review of Mission LXXXVII, No. 346:331-341.
Dykstra, Craig and Bass, Dorothy “A Theological Understanding of Christian Practices” in Volf, Miroslav; Bass, Dorothy. Practicing Theology: Beliefs and Practices in Christian Life. Eerdmans, 2002. ISBN: 978-0802849311 [13-32]
Pauw, Amy. “Attending to the Gaps between Beliefs and Practices” in Volf, Miroslav; Bass, Dorothy. Practicing Theology: Beliefs and Practices in Christian Life. Eerdmans, 2002. ISBN: 978-0802849311 [33-49]
Tiersma Watson, Jude. "Learning the Unforced Rhythms of Grace." Fuller Youth Institute. February 26, 2014. http://fulleryouthinstitute.org/articles/learning-the-unforced-rhythms-of-grace.
ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT:
870 pages reading and videos, including at least 50 pages of biblical text [This assignment is related to learning outcome #3]. [50 hours].
Classroom and Vocation Formation Group (VFG) Participation: Students will participate in active learning to foster understanding of and capacity for engaging in theologically-informed reflection in the classroom and through participation in Vocation Formation Groups. (Vocation Formation Group Leader (VFGL) will let professor know if students have been present and engaged). (20%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1, #2, #3 and #4]. [22 hours+8 hours].
DLAs (Directed Learning Activities): Within an ecclesial/Christian setting student will identify and reflect upon personal experiences related to practices of community (20%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1, #2, #3]. [10 hours].
Autobiography: Students will create an autobiography related to practices of community (10%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1]. [15 hours].
Directed Exercises and Integrative Reflection: Student will participate in disciplines and exercises in and outside of the classroom over the course of the quarter related to the core practices of the course and reflect on these experiences in a way that integrates experience with course content. (25%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1, #2 and #3] [25 hours].
Final Integrative Assignment: Integration paper that reflects theologically on the practices of this course and their implications for the student’s response to the CIQ and the exercises, habits, and disciplines in their current Rule of Life. (25%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1, #3, and #4]. [30 hours].
PREREQUISITES: IS500 encouraged. Recommended in first year of study.
RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM: Meets a core integration requirement in the 120 MDiv and the 80 MAT, 80 MATM, 80 MAICS Programs (Fall 2015).
FINAL EXAMINATION: None.