Winter 2010/Pasadena
PR830/530
Labberton
PR830/530: KNOWLEDGE CLAIMS IN THE MINISTRY OF PREACHING. Mark Labberton.
DESCRIPTION: This course, offered as a doctoral seminar, is open to master's
level students with permission of the instructor. Every preacher makes
knowledge claims. This course will examine claims of theological knowledge that
are intrinsic to preaching and, by extension, to the congregation. Various
historic, modern, and postmodern claims of theological knowledge, examined and
unexamined by preachers, and their relation to the ministry of preaching will
be discussed.
SIGNIFICANCE FOR LIFE AND MINISTRY: The gospel of Jesus Christ presents the
claim that human beings can come to know the triune God. This central
affirmation about theological knowledge converges and collides with all the
historical and contemporary debates about the nature of knowledge and affects
both preachers and hearers. Effective and confident preaching and discipleship
benefit from a maturing grasp of these issues and their implications.
LEARNING OUTCOMES: Students will (1) grow in their understanding of the
varying claims of theological knowledge that preachers make and the
philosophical implications and issues that such claims raise; (2) grapple
especially with the way that cultural debates about the possibilities of
knowledge per se, not least theological knowledge, undermine and challenge the
ministry of preaching; (3) attempt to define their understanding of the
knowledge claims they affirm and trust for a preaching ministry.
COURSE FORMAT: Class will meet weekly for three hours in the doctoral seminar
model. Students will read and discuss core material, look at additional
material related to their research interests, prepare in-class presentations on
their research, and write a final paper on a topic related to a particular
theory of knowledge and its implications for preaching. Guest presenter Dallas
Willard will lead two consecutive weeks' seminars based on his book on this
subject.
REQUIRED READING:
- Cooper, David. ed. Epistemology: The Classic Readings.
Blackwell, 1999 (304 pp.).
- Geivett, R. Douglas, and Brendan Sweetman. Contemporary Perspectives on
Religious Epistemology. Oxford Press, 1993 (368 pp.).
- Lash, Nicholas. Holiness, Speech & Silence: Reflections on the
Question of God. Ashgate, 2004 (93 pp.).
- Newbigin, L. Truth and Authority in Modernity: Christian Mission
and Modern Culture. Trinity, 1996 (83 pp.).
- ___________. Truth to Tell: The Gospel as Public Truth. Eerdmans,
1991 (90 pp.).
- Willard, D. Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual
Knowledge. HarperOne, 2009 (212 pp.).
- Fifteen sermons by a patristic or sixteenth-century preacher and fifteen
sermons by a twentieth- or twenty-first-century preacher.
RECOMMENDED READING:
- Anselm. Why God Became Man: The Virgin Conception and Original
Sin. Tran. Magi Books, 1969.
- Borg, Marcus J. The God We Never Knew: Beyond Dogmatic Religion to a
More Authentic Contemporary Faith. Harper San Francisco, 1997.
- Fee, Gordon. Listening to the Spirit in the Text. Eerdmans, 2000.
- Gadamer, Hans-Georg. Truth and Method. Crossroad, 1991 or 2004.
- Kerr, Fergus. Theology after Wittgenstein. Blackwell, 1986.
- Torrance, T. F. Reality and Evangelical Theology: The Realism of
Christian Revelation. IVP, 1982.
- Vanhoozer, Kevin J. Is There a Meaning in this Text: The Bible, The
Reader, and the Morality of Literary Knowledge. Zondervan, 1998.
- Vanhoozer, Kevin J., ed. The Trinity in a Pluralistic Age: Theological
Essays on Culture and Religion. Eerdmans, 1997.
ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT: Students will (1) read and discuss in class the
required reading (25%); (2) prepare a presentation on a theory of theological
knowledge and its impact on a preacher or tradition of preaching (25%); prepare
a research paper (10-15 pages for master's students; 20-25 pages for doctoral
students) on a topic of their choice (50%).
PREREQUISITES: Master's level students: permission of professor.
RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM: Elective.
This ECD is a reliable guide to the course design but is subject to modification. (11/09)