DESCRIPTION: This course develops a biblically-based, theological approach to identity by exploring the relationship between racial identity, ethnic identity, and Christian identity. Lectures and discussions about selected NT passages and secondary literature about identity help students understand the biblical worldview, Greco-Roman thought, and modern and postmodern trends on the subject of racial and ethnic identity. Students will be exposed to several biblical, theological, and theoretical approaches that will be used to construct a uniquely Christian posture about race issues in society.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: The student will be able to (1) understand the historical development of race and ethnicity vis-à-vis early Christianity; (2) gain an appreciation for the complexities of modern discussions about identity; (3) understand how race impacts the church in the United States; and (4) develop biblical resources for constructing a Christian ethic of race relations and racial identity.

RELEVANCE FOR MINISTRY: Christians need to develop a biblically based, historically and contextually sensitive understanding of the intersection of ethno-racial identity and Christian commitment in order to meet the challenges of multiculturalism in the contemporary church.

COURSE FORMAT: The course will meet weekly for three-hour sessions.

REQUIRED READING: Selected chapters from the following books:

Boyarin, Daniel. A Radical Jew: Paul and the Politics of Identity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.

Braxton, Brad. No Longer Slaves: Galatians and African American Experience. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2002.

Hays, Richard B. The Moral Vision of the New Testament. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996.

Isaac, Benjamin. The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2004.

Issues in Race and Ethnicity. Ed. CQ Researcher. 3rd ed. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2006.

Tatum, Beverly Daniel. Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? New York: BasicBooks, 1997, 1999.

COURSE PACK that includes readings from the following:

Buell, Denise Kimber. "The Politics of Interpretation: The Rhetoric of Race and Ethnicity in Paul." JBL 123, no. 2 (2004): 235-51.

Barclay, John, "`Neither Jew nor Greek': Multiculturalism and the New Perspective on Paul," in Ethnicity and the Bible (E. J. Brill, 1996), pp. 197-214.

Hodge, Caroline Johnson. If Sons, Then Heirs: A Study of Kinship and Ethnicity in the Letters of Paul. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007 (selected chapters).

1. Group presentation on selected topic per class guidelines (30%)

2. Term paper (10-15 pp.) on some pertinent ethical dilemma raised by the course (40%)

3. Very short typewritten responses to course readings (20%)

4. Class participation (10%)