DESCRIPTION:

In this course participants will investigate aspects of contemporary urban life and reflect in an ethical way upon them. We will consider the impact of such influential inventions as the watch and the automobile, and such fundamental institutions as the shopping mall and suburbia, and examine how much our attitudes and actions are conditioned by the modern pressures of busyness, mobility, consumerism, and the dream of home ownership. The underlying purpose of the course is to enable participants to develop habits of ethical reflection which will impact the tasks and contexts of daily life.

This course will assist participants to (1) analyze central features of modern life and to assess their impact; (2) develop the beginnings of a theological and ethical approach to daily life; (3) integrate issues of faith and life more broadly; and (4) discern implications for ministry and mission.

The course will meet in four-hour sessions, Monday-Friday, June 22-July 3, and will include lectures, small group interactions, reflective exercises, video presentations, and a field trip.

Banks, R. and R. P. Stevens, eds. The Complete Book of Everyday Christianity. Downers Grove, InterVarsity Press, 1977.

Collected readings included with syllabus, available from the Fuller Seminary Bookstore.

1. Three 3-page ethical reflections on aspects of everyday life (due the last day of class, and each worth 20% of the grade).

2. One 12-page paper on any one of the areas of everyday life identified in the course (due July 31, and worth 40% of the grade).

None.

Elective.

None.