Individualized Distance Learning

MP520

Shenk

MP520/620: Transforming Contemporary Culture (4 units).

Wilbert Shenk, Senior Professor of Mission History and Contemporary Culture

DESCRIPTION:

Modern culture has marginalized all religion; mainline church membership has declined. Although the primary focus in the course is on the church in the West, modernity is a universal phenomenon. This course examines modern and postmodern cultures from a historical perspective and proposes that missionary engagement should be the basic stance of the church toward contemporary culture. This requires that key questions be examined:
• Why has the church largely failed to challenge modern culture?
• How can we step outside our culture in order to see ourselves through “mission” eyes?
• How is a missionary approach different from conventional evangelism?

 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
As a result of this course the student will have

• Demonstrated the ability to “read" modern/postmodern culture using missionary criteria rather than the conventional assumption that this is a Christian culture.
• Discerned those values and characteristics in this culture that can be affirmed and promoted, as well as awareness of cultural forces that bring spiritual death.
• Designed strategies of missional engagement with contemporary culture that are culturally aware, and in which the full resources of the gospel are brought to bear in their ministries and churches.

 

COURSE FORMAT :

The course uses recorded lectures, a detailed independent study guide, and readings. It is designed to be completed in an 11-week period while allowing for flexibility in the student’s schedule.

 

REQUIRED READING:

  • Articles from the Syllabus of Readings
  • Bellah, Robert, et al. Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.
  • Bosch, David J. Believing in the Future. Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press, 1995.
  • Frost, Michael and Alan Hirsch. The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003.
  • Hall, Douglas John. The End of Christendom and the Future of Christianity. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 1997.
  • Middleton, J. Richard and Brian J. Walsh. Truth Is Stranger Than It Used to Be: Biblical Faith in a Postmodern Age. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1995.
  • Newbigin, Lesslie. The Gospel in a Pluralist Society. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1989.
  • Roxburgh, Alan J. The Missionary Congregation: Leadership and Liminality. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1997.
  • Shenk, Wilbert. Write the Vision: The Church Renewed. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 1995.
  • Wuthnow, Robert. The Restructuring of American Religion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988.

 

RECOMMENDED READING:

  • Bauman, Zygmunt. Liquid Modernity. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2000.
  • Beck, Ulrich. The Risk Society: Toward a New Modernity. Boulder, CO: Sage Publications, 1992.
  • Drane, John. After McDonaldization: Mission, Ministry, and Christian Discipleship in an Age of Uncertainty. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008.
  • Giddens, Anthony. The Consequences of Modernity. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1990.
  • Grenz, Stanley J. A Primer on Postmodernism. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1996.
  • Hoge, Dean R., Benton Johnson, Donald A. Luidens. Vanishing Boundaries: The Religion of Mainline Protestant Baby Boomers. Louisville, KY: Westminster/ John Knox Press, 1994.
  • Ladd, Tony and James A. Mathison. Muscular Christianity: Evangelical Protestants and the Development of American Sports. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999.
  • Schultze, Quentin J. (ed.) Dancing in the Dark: Youth, Popular Culture, and the Electronic Media. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1990.
  • Taylor, Charles. The Ethics of Authenticity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991.
  • Wink, Walter. The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium. New York: Doubleday, 1998.

ASSIGNMENTS:

  • Three book reviews (800 words each)
  • One review of a novel (1000 words) or a film (1250 words)
  • Research and missiological application paper (3000 words/3500 ThM)

PREREQUISITES: None.

RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM : Meets Min8 requirement for SOT: MDiv

FINAL EXAM: None

Updated August 2009