Summer 2018/Non-campus
ET554
Givens
ET554: WILDERNESS AND EARTHKEEPING (4 Units: 160 hours). Tommy Givens.
DESCRIPTION: This course will immerse students in a wilderness area of southern Colorado and consider how, by the light of God’s revelation, it teaches Christians to be keepers of the earth as lovers of God and neighbors, particularly as inhabitants of industrialized cities. The nine-day immersion part of the course consists of three days of in-person instruction and acclimation at Sonlight Camp in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, five days of demanding wilderness backpacking in the nearby San Juan National Forest, and one closing day of in-person debrief and instruction back at Sonlight. It will follow several weeks of preparatory reading, online discussion, and other assignments for which the exodus theme of Scripture will be paramount, and students will complete online assignments and a final paper following the nine-day immersion experience. While the course will address the urgency of preserving wilderness areas, it will focus on how the revelation of God in the wilderness challenges the way Christians and others live in industrialized cities, forming them to be keepers of the earth, especially where they live. Finally, the course aims to inspire a fearful love for the wilderness that will serve students throughout their lives as Christians and the generations that come after them.
LEARNING OUTCOMES: Students who successfully complete this course will have (1) participated in the nine-day immersion part of the course and demonstrated the ability to (2) express key aspects of the theological, dynamic relationship between the wilderness and places of human settlement, including the connection between ecology and social justice, (3) describe, with theological sensitivity, ecological and social problems characteristic of industrialized cities as made evident by the wilderness, and (4) articulate a Christian call to earthkeeping in a sense relevant to their current places of life and work, in light of the testimony of Scripture and of the wilderness in their own class experience.
COURSE FORMAT: This hybrid course will be conducted on a ten-week schedule aligned with Fuller’s academic calendar for a total of 40 instructional hours, which is outlined below in the assignment and assessment section. 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. The heart of the course is a nine-day immersion experience, July 14-22, which will take place at Sonlight Camp in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, and in the San Juan National Forest.
REGISTRATION NOTE: Students are not permitted to register for a class that meets during the same period as a non-campus immersion class unless they obtain faculty approval. If the faculty grants permission to miss class meeting(s) in order to attend the immersion class, it is the student's responsibility to be familiar with that faculty's attendance policy, including any penalties that would result from the planned absence. Students must work with their advisor to register in such cases.
REQUIRED READING: 795 pp. required.
The NRSV, CEB, or TNIV translation of the Bible. [60 pp.]
Bouma-Prediger, Steven. For the Beauty of the Earth: A Christian Vision for Creation Care. 2nd Ed. Baker Academic, 2010. ISBN: 978-0801036958, Pub. Price $26.00, available digitally at no additional cost through Fuller Library. [256 pp.] Students who have read this book for a previous course (e.g., ET528 Creation Care and Sabbath Economics) will receive an alternative required reading assignment.
Savoy, Lauret. Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape. Counterpoint, 2015. ISBN: 978-1619025738, Pub. Price $25.00. [240 pp.]
Course Reader (eReserves), e.g.,
Aquinas, “The Special Effects of Divine Government,” 633-38
Bauckham, “Where the Wild Things Are,” 103-40
Berry, “The Body and the Earth,” 93-134; “The Whole Horse,” 236-48; “A Native Hill,” 3-31
Calvin, “The Knowledge of God Conspicuous in the Creation and Continual Government of the World,” 50-63
Davis, “Leaving Egypt Behind: Embracing the Wilderness Economy,” 66-79; “The Faithful City,” 155-78
Leopold, “Land Ethic,” 237-63; “Wilderness,” 264-79
Price, “Thirteen Ways of Seeing Nature in L.A.,” Believer 4:3 (April, 2006), 37 pp.
RECOMMENDED READING:
Dungy, Camille, ed. Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry. University of Georgia Press, 2009. ISBN: 978-0820334318, Pub. Price $26.95. [432 pp.]
Finney, Carolyn. Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimaging the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors. The University of North Carolina Press, 2014. ISBN: 978-1469614489, Pub. Price $26.00. [185 pp.]
Leopold, Aldo. A Sand County Almanac. Ballantine Books, 1986. ISBN: 978-0345345059, Pub. Price $7.96. [295 pp.]
Muir, John. My First Summer in the Sierra. The Riverside Press, 1911, available digitally at no cost at vault.sierraclub.org.
ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT:
PREREQUISITES: OT500 and NT500 or exemption by professor; physical fitness exam by physician; registration with Sonlight Camp; $495 for complete backpack outfitting, lodging, and food for 9-day immersion. E-mail tommygivens@fuller.edu for forms and further info.
RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM: Option to meet the C2 requirement in the 120 MDiv and 80 MATM Programs (Fall 2015). Option to meet the TH5 requirement in the 120 MDiv Program.
FINAL EXAMINATION: None.
ENROLLMENT CAP: 15 students (no audits unless space allows).