Fall 2020/Online Blended

IS502

Dufault-Hunter

IS502: PRACTICES OF COMMUNITY (4 Units: 160 hours). Erin Dufault-Hunter.

DESCRIPTION: This course explores the formation of the Christian community as a distinct people called, gathered, and invited by God into engagement with God’s work in the world. Participants will engage in historically and theologically-rooted Christian practices of community, focusing on the practices of hospitality, forgiveness, truth-telling, presence, and gratitude as enacted in particular social and cultural locations.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

  1. Students will identify habits and patterns of their previous engagement with practices of Christian community.
  2. Students will draw on academic resources to define and describe practices and identify their theological and missiological significance.
  3. Students will engage scripture, tradition, and contemporary resources to analyze and assess their community’s past and current practices.
  4. Students will consider complications for engaging in practices of community, including reflection on the impact of their gender, ethnicity, race, class, and/or other social identities for perceiving and enacting practices of community.
  5. Students will experiment with embodied and embedded exercises that develop skills and habits necessary for Christian practices of community.
  6. Students will identify specific steps to enact and deepen these practices as a response to God’s invitation to continued formation.

RELATIONSHIP TO PROGRAM LEARNING OUTCOMES: This course will provide students with further opportunity to develop and/or master skills in integrating theological and missiological content with life experience and context through engaging a variety of spiritual practices related to the practice of worship, which is consistent with the SOT/SIS PLO “Students will have demonstrated capacities to cultivate a theologically reflective practice of Christian discipleship.” (MDiv, MAT, MATM, MAICS). The emphases on integration in this course provides introduction to the MAICS learning outcome related to critical thinking and integration (MAICS). This course may also contribute to various learning outcomes in the MAGL related to integrating theology and praxis in ministry and mission, and related to spiritual formation (MAGL).

COURSE FORMAT: This course will be conducted online on a ten-week schedule aligned with Fuller’s academic calendar for a total of 40 instructional hours. Students are required to interact with the material, with each other, and with the instructor regularly through online discussions, reading, and other assignments that promote active learning.Students will have opportunities for synchronous activities (e.g., meeting with instructor and other students via Zoom or, as possible, in socially distanced weekly meetings; Vocation Formation Group synchronous meetings encouraged). However, these synchronous elements will either be optional and/or will have alternative asynchronous options, and students can fulfill all requirements for the course in an entirely asynchronous online format.

REQUIRED READING: Approximately 1000 pages of required reading.

Genesis [50 pages], Exodus 1-24 [53 pages], Deuteronomy [40 pages], The Gospel of Matthew [35 pages], I Corinthians [12 pages] (CEB, TNIV, or NRSV) [approximately 190 pp.]             

Cha, Peter. “Constructing New Intergenerational Ties, Cultures, and Identities among Korean American Christians: A congregational case study.” in Nieves and Priest (eds); This Side of Heaven: Ethnicity, Race, and Christian Faith. Oxford, 2006. ISBN: 978-0195310573, Pub. Price $42.95; available free to Fuller students as an ebook through library database. [16 pages]

Jindra, Michael. “Culture Matters: Diversity in the United States and its Implications,” in Nieves and Priest (eds); This Side of Heaven: Ethnicity, Race, and Christian Faith. Oxford, 2006. ISBN: 978-0195310573, Pub. Price $42.95; available free to Fuller students as an ebook through library database [17 pages].

Kang, Jay Caspian. “Where does affirmative action leave Asian Americans? A high profile lawsuit against Harvard is forcing students and their parents to choose sides.” NY Times, 8/28/19. (4 pages; eReserves)

Katongole, Emmanuel. Mirror to the Church: Resurrecting Faith after Genocide in Rwanda. Zondervan, 2009. ISBN: 978-0310284895, Pub. Price $15.99 [176 pages].

Katongale, Emmanuel. “Postmodern Illusions and the Challenge of African Theology: The Ecclesial Tactics of Resistance,” in Reader in Contemporary Political Theology, Eerdmans, 2012; 503-524. ISBN 978-0802864406 (21 pages).

Kosuke Koyama, “Wilderness Tokyo,” Reader in Contemporary Political Theology, Eerdmans, 2012; 553-564. ISBN 978-0802864406 (eReserves; 11 pages)

Paris, Janell Williams. “Race: Critical Thinking and Transformative Possibilities,” in Nieves and Priest (eds); This Side of Heaven: Ethnicity, Race, and Christian Faith. Oxford, 2006. ISBN: 978-0195310573, Pub. Price $42.95; available free to Fuller students as an ebook through library database [14 pages].

Pohl, Christine. Living into Community: Cultivating Practices that Sustain Us. Eerdmans, 2011. ISBN: 978-0802849854, Pub. Price $20.00 [178 pages assigned].

Smith, James K.A. “Introduction: Beyond Perspectives” and “Homo Liturgicus: The Human Person as Lover,” in Desiring the Kingdom. Baker, 2009. ISBN: 978-0801035777, Pub. Price $22.99 [pp. 17-35 and 37-73; 54 pages].

Swinton, John. "Reflections on autistic love: what does love look like?"Practical Theology5, no. 3 (December 2012): 259-278 [19 pages]. https://fuller.on.worldcat.org/oclc/5144096204

OR: Swinton, John. “Time, Hospitality, and Belonging: Towards a Practical Theology of Mental Health,” Word & World[serial online]. 2015; 35(2): 171-181 [10 pages]. https://fuller.on.worldcat.org/oclc/5831056168

Tutu, Desmond. “Without Forgiveness there Really is No Future,” in Reader in Contemporary Political Theology, Eerdmans, 2012; 482-502. ISBN 978-0802864406. Available in eReserves [20 pages]

Volf, Miroslav. Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a World Stripped of Grace. Zondervan, 2006. ISBN: 978-0310265740, Pub. Price $15.99 [212 pages assigned].

Wright, Christopher. The Mission of God. InterVarsity, 2006. ISBN: 978-0830825714, Pub. Price $50.00 [101 pp. assigned; chapters available in eReserves].

LIST OF LEARNING ACTIVITIES AND ASSESSMENT:

  1. Reading, lectures, videos including biblical texts; approximately 1000 pages (10%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #3]. [58 hours].
  2. Participation (10%) Calculated online by students’ logging of their engagement in instruction [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1, #2, #3] [40 hours].
  3. Devotional planned with small group (5%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #2]. [15 hours].
    Learning activities with reflection papers attached to them (6 short papers; 65%):
  4. Vocation Formation Group (including 2 reflection papers on practices covered in group; 650-700 words each). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1, #2, and #4]. [8 hours].
  5. Embodied activities and four written reflections on them (650-700 words each). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #2]. [16 hours].
  6. Autobiography related to core course concept (1 paper; 1200 words) [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1]. [2 hours].
  7. Final paper: 100-word CIQ response,[1] integration paper related to course practices, and Rule of Life (2,500 words total) (20%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1, #3, and #4]. [25 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.

[1] “At this point in your Christian journey, how do you envision your call to God’s mission in the world?”

NOTE: This ECD is a reliable guide to the course design but is subject to modification. Textbook prices are set by publishers and are subject to change. Copyright 2019 Fuller Theological Seminary.