DESCRIPTION: This is a CATS doctoral seminar, open to a limited number of master's level students by permission of the instructor. This seminar is designed to encourage students to develop an intentional and critical methodology for interpreting and engaging cultural products (i.e. literary texts, films, music, etc.). In the broadest sense the course is designed to develop cultural literacy from a Christian perspective. The approach will be, first of all, to focus on particular cultural "texts" and develop strategies of reading and interpretation that are informed by biblical and theological perspectives.

SIGNIFICANCE FOR LIFE AND MINISTRY: Ministry is now carried on in a world with a growing awareness of culture and ethnic identity. Commitment to these realities often takes on a kind of idolatry that threatens to distort a person's understanding of reality, and accordingly their interpretation of Christianity. Christians need to understand both the positive and negative roles that culture plays in helping the believer understand and engage their culture in the light of Scripture.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: By the end of this course students will be familiar with some of the major theological perspectives on culture; in terms of these will develop their own theological and critical framework; and finally will employ this framework in interpreting and engaging theological texts and trends.

COURSE FORMAT: Classes will meet weekly for a three-hour session, and will be conducted in a seminar format.

REQUIRED READING:

Bunyan, John. Pilgrim's Progress (1684). Any edition.

Dante Divine Comedy (1320). Any edition.

Dyrness, William. The Earth Is God's. Orbis, 1997; reprinted Wipf and Stock.

Schleiermacher, Friedrich. Speeches on Religion. New York: Harper, 1958 [1800].

Schrader, Paul. Transcendental Style in Film. New York: Da Capo, 1972.

Stassen, Glen H., D. M. Yeager, and John Howard Yoder. Authentic Transformation : A New Vision of Christ and Culture. Abingdon, 1996.

Taylor, Charles. A Secular Age. Harvard University Press, 2007.

Thiong'o, Ngugi wa. The River Between. Oxford: Heinemann, 1965.

Tracy, David. The Analogical Imagination. New York: Crossroads, 1981.

Ward, Graham. Cultural Transformation and Religious Practice. Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Course Reader.

RECOMMENDED READING:

Gunton, Colin. The One, the Three and the Many. Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Milbank, John, et al. Theological Perspectives on God and Beauty. Trinity, 2003.

Niebuhr, H. Richard. Christ and Culture. Harper & Row, 1951, 2000.

Rowland, Tracey. Culture and the Thomist Tradition. New York: Routledge, 2003.

Smith, James K. Introduction to Radical Orthodoxy. Baker, 2003.

Tanner, Kathryn. Theories of Culture: A New Agenda for Theology. Fortress,1997.

Tillich, Paul. Theology of Culture. Oxford University Press, 1959.

Vanhoozer, Kevin, Charles A. Anderson, and Michael J. Sleasman. Everyday Theology: How to Interpret Cultural Texts. Baker, 2007.