Summer 2010/Fuller Texas

ET533

Tran

ET533: CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP IN A SECULAR SOCIETY. Jonathan Tran.

Description. This course examines the conditions within which Christians might embody the Gospel as good news in a secular world. In order to do so, it first interrogates the cultural logic of late capitalism and then turns to ethical modes of existence, specifically offering a theological account of economic justice and stewardship. It advances the claim “God has given his people everything they need to worship him” which will be understood as a claim both about the material conditions of contemporary existence and about the ethical options available to Christians within that context.

Significance for life and ministry. The course will assist students both to think about and to engage ethical issues as they relate to their personal lives and the work of the church in public life.

Learning outcomes. Students successfully completing this course will have

1. increased their skill for teaching Christian ethics in their place of ministry.

2. greater capacity for dialogue with ways of reasoning ethically other than their own.

3. increased ability to grow in their own ethics, and to be able to articulate how it relates to biblical faith.

4. increased ability to reason ethically in relation to several concrete contemporary ethical issues.

5. demonstrated an ability to reason ethically and to anticipate how they might do that effectively in relation to other ethical issues beyond those explicitly studied in this course.

Course format. The cohort class will meet intensively for six days, Aug 9-14: 1:00-5:00 PM Monday; 9:00-4:00, Tuesday—Friday[1 hour lunch break]; 9:00--11:30 on Saturday, Aug 14. There will be a lunch and worship service together for the cohort from 11:30-12:30. Students will have assignments to prepare and to turn in to the instructor before the class meets. *They should register for the class in the first week of the quarter in order to begin their first reading and writing assignment (below). After the week of classes, students will meet together in small groups to participate in and to assess a volunteer experience. The volunteer experience will be designed during the class and in conversation with the instructor. Students should assume approximately 10 hours of time for this two-step process of participation and group evaluation. The instructor will be accessible to groups by email and phone for consultation and feedback.

Required reading.

Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals (Little, Brown and Company, 2009) [352 pp];

Kelly Johnson, The Fear of Beggars: Stewardship and Poverty in Christian Ethics (Eerdmans, 2007) [236 pp];

Samuel Wells, God's Companions: Reimagining Christian Ethics (Wiley-Blackwell, 2006) [240 pp];

Samuel Wells, "Narrative as Drama" and "Drama as Improvisation" in his Improvisation: The Drama of Christian Ethics (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2004), pp. 45-72.

J. M. Coetzee, "The Lives of Animals" in his Elizabeth Costello (Viking Adult, 2003), pp. 59-150.

Dan Bell, “Just War as Christian Discipleship,” Ekklesia Project Pamphlet #14, August 2005. [20 pp.]

John Howard Yoder, “The Original Revolution,” in his The Original Revolution: Essays on Christian Pacifism (Herald Press, 2003), pp. 13-33.

Recommended reading.

Sondra Ely Wheeler, Wealth as Peril and Obligation. The New Testament on Possessions (Eerdmans, 1995).

Richard B. Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament: Community, Cross, New Creation, A Contemporary Introduction to New Testament Ethics (HarperOne, 1996).

Emerson, Michael, and Christian Smith, Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America (Oxford, 2000).

Frost, Michael, Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture (Hendrickson/Strand, 2006).

Hays, R., The Moral Vision of the New Testament: Community, Cross, New Creation (Harper, 1996).

McNeil, Donald, et al., Compassion: A Reflection on the Christian Life (Doubleday/Image, 1983).

Miles, Carrie A., The Redemption of Love: Rescuing Marriage and Sexuality from the Economics of a Fallen World (Brazos Press: 2006).

Wallis, Jim, God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It (HarperCollins, 2005).

Kuo, David, Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction (Free Press, 2006).

Wink, Walter, The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium. (Galilee Trade, 1999).

Assignments. I. Four integrative reviews of the required readings, 3-4 pp. each (40%). *Instructions for completing the reviews will be distributed to students via email during the first week of the term and their reviews will be due to the instructor by July 31, 2010. II. An exam reflecting on class discussion, interaction and readings (30%). III. In conversation with the instructor, sub-groups of students will plan for a visit to/volunteer with an agency involved in social ministries. Students will then work within their small group and write individual reflections on their learning goals and experience, 6-8 pp. (30%).

Relationship to curriculum: Meets MDiv core requirement in Christian Ethics (ETH).

Final examination: None.

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