Summer 2017/Online
IS502
Howell
IS502: PRACTICES OF COMMUNITY (4 Units: 160 hours). Dr. Bradley Howell.
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 course meets ten weeks online (which includes required synchronous and/or asynchronous participation in vocation and formation groups) 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.
REQUIRED READING: 1000 pp. of required reading and/or the equivalent time in viewing.
A. Required Textbooks
Conde-Fraser, Elizabeth. “From Hospitality to Shalom” in A Many Colored Kingdom. Baker, 2004. ISBN: 978-0801027437, Pub. Price $24.00 [224 pp. assigned].
Lohfink, Gerhard. Jesus and Community. Fortress, 1984. ISBN: 978-0800618025, Pub. Price $29.00 [187 pp. assigned].
Pohl, Christine. Living into Community: Cultivating Practices That Sustain Us. Eerdmans, 2011. ISBN: 978-0802849854, Pub. Price $20.00 [178 pp. assigned].
Smith, Christopher & John Pattison. Slow Church: Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus. InterVarsity Press, 2014. ISBN: 978-0830841141, Pub. Price $17.00 [247 pp. assigned].
B. Core Practices
Hospitality
Isaiah 58-59, Matthew 25
From required texts:
Conde-Fraser, Elizabeth. “From Hospitality to Shalom” in A Many Colored Kingdom.
Lohfink, Gerhard. Jesus and Community.
Pohl, Christine. Living into Community: Cultivating Practices That Sustain Us.
Forgiveness
Genesis 25, 27, 32, 33, Matthew 6, 18, John 8
From required texts:
Conde-Fraser, Elizabeth. “From Hospitality to Shalom” in A Many Colored Kingdom.
E-reserves or Moodle:
Augsburger, David. “The F Word: Forgiveness and its Limitations.” The National Association for Christian Recovery. June 20, 2008. Accessed January, 2016. [10 pp. assigned].http://www.nacronline.com/wordpress/160/the-f-word-forgiveness-and-its-imitations
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].
Gratitude
Psalm 100, Luke 17
From required texts:
Conde-Fraser, Elizabeth. “From Hospitality to Shalom” in A Many Colored Kingdom.
Pohl, Christine. Living into Community: Cultivating Practices That Sustain Us.
Truth-telling & Promise-keeping
Matthew 5, 18, James 5
From required texts:
Conde-Fraser, Elizabeth. “From Hospitality to Shalom” in A Many Colored Kingdom.
Lohfink, Gerhard. Jesus and Community.
Pohl, Christine. Living into Community: Cultivating Practices That Sustain Us.
Testimony
John 18-21
From required texts:
Conde-Fraser, Elizabeth. “From Hospitality to Shalom” in A Many Colored Kingdom.
E-reserves or Moodle:
Frye, K. Evangeline. “The Intersectional Significance of Voice and Testimony: Suggestions for a 21st Century Womanis Reclamation of Mary Magdalene.” Journal of the Interdenominational Theological Center. January, 2015. (pp. 20-36 assigned].
C. Integration Resources
Bedford, Nancy. “Little Moves Against Destructiveness,” in Practicing Theology by Miroslav Volf and Dorothy Bass. Eerdmans, 2001. ISBN: 978-0802849311, Pub. Price $22.00 [pp. 157-183].
Greene-McCreight, Kathryn. “Darkness” in Darkness is my Only Companion: A Christian Response to Mental Illness. Brazos Press, 2006 [pp. 19-35 assigned].
Liggin, Fred. “Peter’s Story: Why does the church reject when it ought to embrace?” Missio Alliance. June 2, 2015. Accessed January, 2016. [4 pp. assigned]. http://www.missioalliance.org/peters-story-why-does-the-church-reject-when-it-ought-to-embrace/
Olds, Jacqueline and Richard Schwartz, “The Elephant in the Room,” in The Lonely American: Drifting Apart in the Twenty-first Century. Beacon Press, 2010. ISBN: 978-0807000359, Pub. Price $19.00 [pp. 1-12 assigned].
ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT:
1,000 pages reading and videos, including at least 50 pages of biblical text [This assignment is related to learning outcome #3]. [50 hours].
Online 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 online classroom and through participation in Vocation Formation Groups. (30%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1, #2, #3 and #4]. [32 hours+8 hours].
Autobiography: Students will create an autobiography related to practices of community (5%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1]. [5 hours].
Directed Exercises and Integrative Reflection: Student will participate in disciplines and exercises 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 #2 and #3] [35 hours].
Community Fieldwork: Students will choose between several options of participation in community and post a 250-word reflection of the experience. (15%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #2]. [10 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]. [20 hours].
PREREQUISITES: None. 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.