Fall 2020/Fuller Online/MAGL

MP519

Bolger

MP519: MISSIONAL ENGAGEMENT WITH CONTEMPORARY CULTURE (4 units: 160 hours). Dr. Ryan Bolger, Associate Professor of Church in Contemporary Culture.

DESCRIPTION:  This course addresses contemporary cultural issues (such as post-modernity, globalization, race/ ethnicity/nationalism, poverty, climate change, sex/gender, science/technology) from a missiological perspective and the opportunities that each issue brings to the Church’s witness worldwide, necessitating thoughtful, contextually relevant gospel-sourced responses. This course proposes the paradigm that missionary engagement is the normative stance of the Church toward its cultural context, wherever the Church is located.

LEARNING OUTCOMES (“LO’s”):  Upon successful completion of this course, students will have:

1.       Demonstrated the ability to “read or “exegete” contemporary culture using missionary criteria and to articulate the relationship between theory and practice for sympathetic engagement with culture.

2.       Discerned those values and characteristics in their cultural contexts that can be affirmed, promoted, and leveraged for the benefit of God’s kingdom as well as the cultural values and forces that bring spiritual lethargy and decline.

3.       Designed strategies for missional engagement with contemporary culture that show cultural awareness and understanding, and in which the full resources of the Gospel are brought to bear in their ministries and churches.

4.       Explored global challenges and opportunities and their impact on the communication of the Gospel locally and internationally.

RELATIONSHIP TO PROGRAM LEARNING OUTCOMES:  This course will focus study on the

paradigm that missionary engagement is the normative stance of the Church toward its cultural context and provides tools for students to engage this paradigm, thereby remaining consistent with the MAGL PLO “Graduates will demonstrate familiarity with the diversity of theories, practices, and global contexts of missional leadership.”

COURSE FORMAT:  Conducted online, the ten weekly sessions align with Fuller's academic calendar. Students, the professor and teaching assistants will interact weekly through lectures, reading responses, discussions & writing assignments.

REQUIRED READING:  1220 pp. of required reading (61 hours):

A.   Antal, Jim. Climate Church, Climate World: How People of Faith Must Work for Change. Rowman and Littlefield, 2018. ISBN: 978-1538110690, Pub. Price $25.00 [242.pp].

B.   Bevans, Stephen B. Models of Contextual Theology Revised and Expanded Edition, Orbis Books, 2002. ISBN: 978-1570754388, Pub. Price $32.00 [186 pp.].

C.   Bolger, Ryan K. ed. Gospel After Christendom New Voices, New Cultures, New Expressions. Baker Books, 2012. ISBN: 978-0801039430, Pub Price. $32.00 [293 pp.].

D.   Delio, Ilia. The Unbearable Wholeness of Being: God, Evolution, and the Power of Love. Orbis Books 2013. ISBN: 978-1626980297, Pub Price $24.00 [206 pp.].

This ECD is a reliable guide to the course design but is subject to modification.         Updated May 2020

E.    Sechrest, Love, Johnny Ramirez-Johnson, and Amos Yong eds. Can White People Be Saved?: Triangulating Race, Theology, and Mission. IVP Academic, 2018. ISBN: 978-0830851041, Pub. Price $35.00 [293 pp.].

ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENTS:

1.       1,220 pages of required reading and video watching (20 hours). [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #1-4] [61 +20 = 81 hours].

2.       Weekly forum discussions and reading interactions (50%). [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #1, 2, 3, and 4] [4 hrs/wk + Intro (4) = 44 hours].

3.       A 3,500-word Case Study paper that 1) that addresses your context in light of the core themes of the course, and 2) provides a contextual response to that particular context in light of the themes identified in the course (50%). [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #1, #2, #3, and #4) [35 hours].

PREREQUISITES:  This course is available only to those who are accepted into the MA in Global Leadership degree program. NO AUDITORS.

RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM:  A required course for the Cohort portion of the MA in Global Leadership.

FINAL EXAMINATION:  None.

This ECD is a reliable guide to the course design but is subject to modification.         Updated May 2020