Spring 2019/Pasadena
TC567/867
Callaway
TC567/867: THEOLOGY AND CULTURE IN A POST-SECULAR WORLD. (4 Units: 160 hours; 6 Units: 380 Hours). Kutter Callaway.
DESCRIPTION: In the late-modern West, atheism, secular humanism, and/or naturalism are now “live options” in ways that they have never been before. While the United States remains one of the most religious of Western countries, a significant (and growing) minority of the population is not simply abandoning religious practice or religious institutions under the guise of being “spiritual but not religious,” but consciously self-identifying as atheist/humanist/naturalist. This class explores the historical development of this (largely Western) phenomenon, and investigate the intellectual sources that fund the contemporary cultural imagination—sociological, psychological, philosophical, and, ultimately, theological. Although the broader concerns of the course have to do with the cultural significance of atheism, it will focus in particular on aesthetics. That is, it will take up the question of whether and how the aesthetic impulse imbedded within a/theism might prove instructive for developing a constructive Christian theology in the late-modern world.
LEARNING OUTCOMES: In completing this course students will have demonstrated their ability to: (1) Map in general terms the primary schools of thought that constitute the landscape of the post-secular West; (2) Critically examine these paradigms in terms of their aesthetic shape (or lack thereof); (3) Assess the ways in which these interpretive frameworks might be brought into a mutually enriching conversation with Christian theology; (4) Formulate the beginnings of a constructive theological framework of their own that accounts for the shifting metaphysics of the contemporary cultural imagination; and (5) Assess the potential apologetic and/or missional benefits of developing a “theopoetics,” i.e. an articulation of the Gospel that “figures forth” the Kingdom of God in a culture responding to the death of the death of god.
COURSE FORMAT: The class will meet weekly for three-hour sessions for a total of 30 hours of classroom instruction for lecture and discussion plus 10 hours of directed learning activities (for MA students) or 10 hours of instructional hours (for PhD students) for a total of 40 instructional hours. It will have some lectures by the professor, but will be mostly seminar presentations and class discussions. Students will be expected—beyond assigned class readings—to do the necessary primary and secondary research for their presentations. The seminar will cover a broad swath of intellectual traditions, drawing from a diverse set of disciplines.
REQUIRED READING [1,400 pp. for TC567]:
Course Reader. (on eReserves found on Canvas) [178 pp. assigned, including work from Julie Exline, Mary Daly, Katherine Sarah Moody, Jennifer Michael Hecht, Erin Schendzielos, Simone Weil, Lisa McCullough, and Mother Theresa].
Callaway, Kutter and Taylor, Barry. The Aesthetics of Atheism. Fortress Press, 2019, Pub. Price $18.99 [forthcoming] [259 pp.].
Kahn, Jonathon S. and Lloyd,Vincent W. Eds. Race and Secularism in America. Columbia University Press, 2016. ISBN: 978-0231174916, Pub. Price $30.00. Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library [277 pp.]
Gray, John. Seven Types of Atheism. Penguin Books, 2018. ISBN: 978-0374261092, Pub. Price $25.00. [270 pp.]
Gungor, Lisa. The Most Beautiful Thing I’ve Seen: Opening Your Eyes to Wonder. Zondervan, 2018. ISBN: 978-0310350439, Pub. Price $16.99 [224 pp.].
Sharpe, Christina. In the Wake: On Blackness and Being. Duke University Press, 2016. ISBN: 978-0822362944, Pub. Price $22.95. Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library [192 pp.].
REQUIRED READING [3,000 pp. for TC867]:
All of the above texts, plus the following:
Caputo, John D. The Folly of God: A Theology of the Unconditional. Polebridge Press, 2015. ISBN: 978-1598151718, Pub. Price $22.00 [148 pp.].
Critchley, Simon. The Faith of the Faithless: Experiments In Political Theology. Verso, 2014. ISBN: 978-1781681688, Pub. Price $18.95 [291 pp. assigned]
Halik, Tomas. Patience with God: The Story of Zacchaeus Continuing In Us. Translated by Gerald Turner. Doubleday Religion, 2009. ISBN: 978-0385524490, Pub. Price $23.95 [240 pp.].
Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Gay Science (The Joyful Wisdom). Neeland Media, 2010. ISBN: 978-0394719856, Pub. Price $13.95 [176 pp.].
Pinn, Anthony B. The End of God-Talk: An African American Humanist Theology. Oxford University Press, 2012. ISBN: 978-0195340839, Pub. Price $28.95. Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library [203 pp.].
Thacker, Eugene. In the Dust of This Planet: Horror of Philosophy Vol. 1. Zero Books, 2011. ISBN: 978-1846946769, Pub. Price $19.95 [171 pp.].
Warren, Calvin L. Ontological Terror: Blackness, Nihilism, and Emancipation. Duke University Press, 2018. ISBN: 978-0822370871, Pub. Price $24.95 [232 pp.]
Žižek, Slavoj. The Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity. The MIT Press, 2003. ISBN: 978-0262740258, Pub. Price $23.95. Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library [196 pp.].
*PLEASE NOTE: As a graduate level course that seeks a dialogue between theology and contemporary culture, this class may include visual, written, aural, and/or thematic content that might prove disturbing or offensive to some.
ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENTS:
TC567:
TC867:
PREREQUISITES: None.
RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM: TC567: Option to meet the TH5 or C2 requirement in the 120 MDiv and 80 MATM Programs (Fall 2015). TC867: Meets Theology and Culture requirement.
FINAL EXAMINATION: None.