Winter 2008/Pasadena
WS817A/517
Schmit
WS817A/B/WS517: WORD AND MEANING. Clayton J. Schmit.
DESCRIPTION: This course is a PhD seminar (for which 800-level students
register Winter and Spring, WS817A & WS817B) open to a limited number of
master's level students (WS517), with the professor's permission. This doctoral
seminar will explore the philosophical, aesthetic, and theological significance
of language. It will look at how words work as discursive and presentational
symbols, how words function in creating meaning, and how words and the Word
function in preaching and worship.
LEARNING OUTCOMES: The course seeks the following goals for each student:
Cognitive: theoretical knowledge relating to the ministry of the Word as it
intersects with homiletics and liturgics; Affective: deepened
appreciation for the significance of language to communicate meaning and
perform events; Skills: capacity to use language in creative and
effective ways, especially as it relates to preaching and expression in
worship.
RELEVANCE FOR MINISTRY: This seminar is designed for people who are called to
the ministry of teaching theology, preaching, or worship and will provide them
perspective on the relationship between words and God's Word.
COURSE FORMAT: The course will meet for a three-hour period once per week
during the quarter for lecture, discussion, and student presentations.
REQUIRED READING: Students are required to read at least 3,000 pp. from the
following & other books.
- Austin, J. L. How to Do Things with Words. Harvard
University Press, 1975.
- Bartow, Charles. God's Human Speech: A Practical Theology of
Proclamation. Eerdmans, 1997.
- Danesi, Of Cigarettes, High Heels, and Other Interesting Things: An
Introduction to Semiotics. Palgrave Macmillan, 1999.
- Ellul, Jacques. The Humiliation of the Word. Eerdmans, 1985.
- Johnson, Ben Campbell. GodSpeech: Putting Divine Disclosures into Human
Words. Eerdmans, 2006.
- Lischer, Richard. The End of Words. Eerdmans, 2005.
- Ong, Walter. The Presence of the Word. University of Minnesota
Press, 1981.
- _________. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word.
Routledge, 1982.
- Ramshaw, Gail. Reviving Sacred Speech. OSL Publications, 2000.
- Reinstra, Deborah, "Using Words in Worship" (unpublished manuscript).
- Ricouer, Paul. The Rule of Metaphor: Multi-disciplinary Studies of the
Creation of Meaning in Language. University of Toronto Press, 1981.
- Schmit, C. J. Too Deep for Words: A Theology of Liturgical
Expression. Westminster/John Knox, 2002.
- Webb, Stephen. The Divine Voice: Christian Proclamation and the Theology
of Sound. Brazos, 2004.
- Wills, Garry. Lincoln at Gettysburg. Simon & Schuster, 1992.
- A course reader of select articles and materials.
ASSIGNMENTS:
- Read and be prepared to discuss assigned reading (3000 pages)
(WS817A/517).
- Students will make an oral presentation on a key figure in the field of
language (semiotics, linguistics, philosophy of art) and prepare a
précis of the figure's key work(s) (WS817A/517).
- Students will prepare two creative writing assignments through which they
explore the meaning and evocative power of language: one brief (poem, prayer,
hymn text) and one more extensive (sermon, short story, speech, etc.) (WS817A/
S517).
- A final research paper (35-40 pages) on a subject of the student's choice
(WS817B/WS517). (The length and scope of this assignment will be adjusted for
master's level students.)
PREREQUISITES: For master's students: permission of the instructor; students
will be expected to have completed foundational work in theology and a course
in philosophy would be helpful background.
RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM: Meets PhD seminar requirement for Practical
Theology and Worship and Culture. Elective for master's students.
FINAL EXAMINATION: None.
This ECD is a reliable guide to the course design but is subject to modification. (10/07)