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Systematic Theology [ST]

ST0440 The Triune God and the World

This course provides a comprehensive, coherent presentation of the articles of faith in the Triune God, drawing upon biblical, theological, confessional and contemporary resources. Together we will cultivate theological imagination in view of communities and neighbors through current questions, challenges to faith, and awareness of diverse contexts.

Prerequisites: SG0401 Thinking Theologically and Confessing Publicly and HC0305 History of Christianity I

Full course


ST1420 Theology and Church in the Global South

What are the concerns and prominent themes among Christians in the Global South? Why should we listen? As the Christian Church shifts its demographic density to the South, new theological perspectives populate the ecumenical and confessional conversation. This course will focus upon the theological themes and methods emerging from Africa, Asia and Latin America, and how the classical doctrinal themes are approached from these contexts enriching and expanding the perspectives of the North-American churches.

Prerequisite: SG0401 Thinking Theologically and Confessing Publicly

Full course

Electives: Cultural Context, Justice & Reconciliation, Systematic Theology


ST1426 God and Economy: Faith and Consumerism in the Age of Capital

“You shall have no other gods,” what does it mean in our present consumerist age? This course is a study of the biblical, patristic and reformation understandings of faith in relation to the economy, particularly as a “holy order” through which God ministers to us and we minister one another. It seeks to provide an analysis of the historical and structural emergence of capital, the market system and consumerism and analyze it through the theological lens provided by the First Commandment and the doctrine of the two kingdoms. It will explore theological and ethical criteria for Christian vocation and provide tools for moral deliberation in ministry and congregational settings around economic issues.

Prerequisite: SG0401 Thinking Theologically and Confessing Publicly

Full course

Electives: Ethics, Justice & Reconciliation, Systematic Theology


ST1434 Thinking Theologically in an Evolutionary Situation

This course will focus upon contemporary scientific developments and their importance for Christian theological thinking, preaching and ministry. Talk about God as creator and redeemer requires an engagement with the contemporary evolutionary descriptions of the universe and life permeating the worldview of Western societies, media, popular culture, and churches. By offering a selection of key topics which constitute the backbone of the contemporary scientific account, the role of science as a critical heuristic tool for enriching Christian symbols about God and creation will be explored and tested, as well as its homiletical and ethical implications. Conversely, the course explores the incidence of religious beliefs in general, and Christian claims in particular, for the evolutionary process.

Prerequisite: ST0440 The Triune God and the World or equivalent

Full course

Electives: Systematic Theology


ST1436 Justification and Justice: Faith and Politics in Contemporary Theology

How does the chief article of Christian doctrine about justification by faith relate to questions and challenges pertaining to social justice? What is the call of the Christian concerning political matters? Are faith and power compatible? The course will outline different theological paradigms in the contemporary context as well as different models of justice as represented by Western and non-Western philosophers and traditions. Historical and contemporary case-studies will serve as references to illustrate these paradigms and practical engagements.

Prerequisite: SG 0401 Thinking Theologically and Confessing Publicly

Full course

Electives: Cultural Context, Justice & Reconciliation, Systematic Theology


ST1448 Forgiveness, Reconciliation, and Healing

This course explores how the gospel of Jesus Christ brings forgiveness, reconciliation, and healing to people wherever there is sin, conflict, and suffering. Integrating biblical and theological resources with current interdisciplinary research on forgiveness, the course helps students develop a theological framework and practices for bringing to the fore the importance of forgiveness, reconciliation, and healing in their leadership of Christian communities called to witness to salvation through Jesus Christ and to serve in God’s world.

Prerequisite: SG0401 Thinking Theologically and Confessing Publicly

Full course

Electives: Justice & Reconciliation, Systematic Theology


ST1456 “One Died For All:” On Being a Trinitarian Theologian of the Cross

Why did Jesus die? What is the relationship between his death and the sin and the suffering we find within us and within the world around us? What difference does Jesus’ death and resurrection make for our lives and for our understanding of who God is? This course brings together two important themes in twentieth-century theology—Trinitarian theology and a theology of the cross. Drawing on the Bible, patristic theologians, and Martin Luther, this course thinks with and beyond the work of two modern theologians—Jürgen Moltmann (a Protestant) and Hans Urs Von Balthasar (a Roman Catholic)—in order to help students develop a theological framework and practices for apostolic ministry in our time.

Prerequisite: SG0401 Thinking Theologically and Confessing Publicly

Full course

Electives: Systematic Theology


ST1462 Global Feminist Theology: Feminist, Womanist, African, and Asian Theology

This course explores and analyzes contemporary feminist theologies within global Christianity, such as white feminist, womanist, African, and Asian theologies. It retrieves historical voices of women in Christian thought and discerns how best to interpret and confess the gospel of Jesus Christ to women and men in different cultural contexts. It asks, ‘what does the female face of God look like today?’

Full course

Electives: Cultural Context, Justice & Reconciliation, Systematic Theology


ST1464 Ethics of the Body, Gender, and Sex

This course will explore the way that contemporary society constructs gender and deals with human sexuality. It will draw upon contemporary theologies of the body in order to explore a Christian vocation of one’s body, gender, and sexuality, taking into account the spiritual and ethical dimensions of the practices of hospitality, nurture, and love within different-sex and same-sex relationships.

Full course

Electives: Cultural Context, Ethics, Justice & Reconciliation, Systematic Theology


ST1466 Ecotheology and Ethics

This course investigates our current ecological crisis in the light of a biblically informed Christian ethic. It is equally a study in a Christian ethical interpretation of Scripture in the light of our current ecological crisis. A case study approach helps to ground a short introduction to ecology as well as a study of various models for a Christian ethics of creation care. The focus is on a critical theological reflection on praxis in a pluralistic world of many faiths and none at all, but in which we all share a common, growing crisis.

Full course

Electives: Ethics, Justice & Reconciliation, Systematic Theology


ST1480 Denominational Church Polity and Doctrine

Covers the special doctrine, confession, and institutional nature of a particular denomination, including issues such as ordination, ministry and leadership in the church organization, legislation, theological contributions and ecumenical relationships.

Full course

Electives: Systematic Theology


ST1487 The Theology of Karl Barth and Its 21st Century Trajectories

This course will explore the theology Karl Barth, perhaps the most important theologian of the twentieth century. It will examine his cultural context, his contributions to contemporary doctrines of revelation, election, and Trinity. It will also explore how his Christology has implications for theological anthropology today.

Prerequisite: SG0401 Thinking Theologically and Confessing Publicly or ST 0440 The Triune God and the World or equivalent

Full course

Electives: Systematic Theology


ST1488 Pop Gods: Understanding and Interpreting the Religious Significance of Pop Culture

This course traces the historical emergence and religious significance of popular culture in the West. In modernity, the locus of popular identity and meaning shifted from the church to the nation state and then later to the marketplace. Popular media tells stories to inscribe our lives with meaning and purpose, and challenge dominant assumptions about the good. Students will learn to exegete pop culture from a 21st-century Christian perspective in order to engage current realities

Full course

Electives: Systematic Theology


ST1490 Living Christian Ethics: Disability Theology

This investigation of various models and theories in Christian ethics (moral theology) is grounded in the theology, ethics and praxis surrounding disability and ableism. Meets core elective in Ethics requirement for MDiv students.

Full course

Electives: Ethics, Systematic Theology


ST2450 The Theology and Ethics of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

This course is a study of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s theology, spirituality and ethics in view of the major challenges posited to the Christian church by the rise of secularism, totalitarianism, persecution, racism, war and injustice. Special attention will be given to Bonhoeffer’s creative re-reading of the Lutheran tradition, the use of Scripture and the confessions, the outlines of his political theology, his re-introduction of the notion of status confessions in the face of the “Jewish Question,” his consideration of natural law and the State, Christian responsibility, mandates, vocation, peace and love, and the meaning of faith in a religion less world. His ethical paradigm will be analyzed in relation to the Roman Catholic understanding of natural law and the Reformed use of the third use of the law.

Prerequisite: SG0401 Thinking Theologically and Confessing Publicly

Full course

Electives: Ethics, Justice & Reconciliation, Systematic Theology


ST2462 The Theology of Martin Luther

The methodology, structure and intention of Luther’s theology. This includes the background in the Middle Ages, Luther’s own development, and current interpretations. Emphasis is on the use of this theology for proclamation.

Full course

Electives: Systematic Theology


ST2464 Theology of Confession and Forgiveness

The office of the keys in doctrine and practice. Historical teaching and modern debates are considered, with the emphasis on current use of repentance and absolution in church and world.

Full course

Electives: Systematic Theology


ST2465 Theological Hermeneutics

The development of contemporary theological hermeneutics, hermeneutics that takes the movement of God as the chief agent of the reading and use of Scriptures in church and world, is explored. A wide spectrum of experience, practices, and theological reflection is central to this exploration.

Full course

Electives: Systematic Theology


ST2472 Church, Discipleship and the Ethics of Jesus

In this course we work together to investigate the character and meaning of the ethics of Jesus for a Church life today. Foundational to our learning will the Gospel texts, read in the context of the faith community in mission today as the place in which vital individual discipleship is lived out. Christian moral theology, philosophical ethics, and various ethical approaches to interpreting Scripture all provide elements that provoke our questioning and dialog.

Full course

Electives: Ethics, Systematic Theology


ST2476 The Demonic: Theology and Ministry

This course inquires into the concept of the devil and the demonic in Scripture, Christian theology and history. We explore concepts of the demonic in contemporary theology and culture, as well as exploring socio-political, psychological, and ministry implications.

Full course

Electives: Systematic Theology


ST2478 Theology, Conspiracy and Christian Nationalism: The Case of QAnon

This course explores the relationship between Christianity and American conspiracy theories, both historically, and in particular, the current popular conspiracy theory of QAnon, and its religious worldview. To that end, it will examine the rise of American Evangelicalism and how its theological commitments function in U.S. politics. Using Lutheran teachings on sin, grace, eschatology, and Christology, the course helps students discern how Christian theology interacts with particular political and social views in America.

Full course

Electives: Cultural Context, Justice & Reconciliation, Systematic Theology


ST2480 Ways of Knowing and Experiencing God

Atheist and fundamentalist caricatures tend to dominate our public discourse about God. Focusing on the deep connection between knowing God and knowing oneself and others, this course explores how a range of classic Christian theologians— including Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin, and Luther—provide deeper and much more expansive ways of knowing and experiencing the reality of God. Situating these classic ways of knowing God in relation to contemporary debates, the course attends to the role of the biblical interpretation and spiritual practice in theology even as it relates discourse about God to reason and science, on the one hand, and ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, on the other.

Full course

Electives: Systematic Theology


ST2482 Race and Protestantism in America

This course explores the ways that American Protestantism and race intersect. It will specifically focus on Protestant attitudes towards African slaves and their conversion to Christianity. It will investigate how Western Christian theology has supported the construction of "whiteness" and "blackness", and look at how Protestant theologians interacted with the Civil Rights movement. It introduces students to Black theology and the spiritual resources that Black Americans utilize in order to deal with and resist unjust social structures.

Full course

Electives: Cultural Context, Justice & Reconciliation, Systematic Theology


ST2484 Justice and Reconciliation

This course focuses on the triune God’s creating, sustaining, and reforming work of justice and reconciliation in the world today. Students will explore a range of biblical, theological, and ecumenical perspectives in dialogue with philosophical and sociological approaches to theories of justice, to the interconnections of different situations and systems of injustice, and to various theories and practices of reconciliation.

Full course

Electives: Cultural Context, Systematic Theology


ST2486 Christian Ethics in Conflict

Christian ethics is born out of conflict. The call to Christian discipleship brings us face to face with conflicts and crises that inform our very being. The course aims to foster a critical ethical awareness rooted in our contemporary time and place that might elucidate some of these conflicts in our personal lives, faith communities, and society. We will reflect on what it means to respond faithfully as practicing Christian ethicists and, just as importantly, how to account for those responses with reference to conflicts in and around Scripture, theological traditions, personal experiences, and our reasoning capacities. We will examine key sources, methods, concerns, and practices of Christian ethics with the belief that personal, interpersonal, and social conflict present an opportunity for faithful transformation of the Church and the world.

Full course

Electives: Cultural Context, Ethics, Justice & Reconciliation, Systematic Theology


ST4416 Models of Atonement in the Christian Tradition

This course examines the nuances of Atonement in the Christian Tradition. It focuses on the fundamental questions of: What went "wrong" in the relationship between God and humanity? And, what has God done about it? It will move through the traditional understandings of atonement as sacrifice; restoration; reconciliation; penal substitution; moral influence; and ministerial vision. It will root the definitions of Atonement in the Bible and then walk through the history of Christian thought to understand and evaluate different models and their nuances for today's challenges in the Christian faith.

Full course

Electives: Systematic Theology

ST4430 Theology of John Wesley

An investigation of the theology of Wesley, with particular attention to original sources such as sermons, tracts and letters. Wesley is interpreted as a pastoral or practical theologian, against the background of his life and ministry in the evangelical revival. Attention is given to key Wesleyan doctrines, such as the (so-called) Wesleyan quadrilateral, soteriology, pneumatology and Christian perfection.

Full course

Electives: Systematic Theology


ST4497 Guided Reading and Research in Systematic Theology

An independent study for qualified students under the personal supervision of a member of the division. Consult faculty within division.

Electives: Systematic Theology


ST6421 Theology and Church in the Global South

What are the concerns and prominent themes among Christians in the Global South? Why should we listen? As the Christian Church shifts its demographic density to the South, new theological perspectives populate the ecumenical and confessional conversation. This course will focus upon the theological themes and methods emerging from Africa, Asia and Latin America, and how the classical doctrinal themes are approached from these contexts enriching and expanding the perspectives of the North-American churches.

Prerequisite: ST0440 The Triune God and the World or equivalent

Full course


ST6427 God and Economy-Faith and Consumerism in the Age of Capital

“You shall have no other gods,” what does it mean in our present consumerist age? This course is a study of the biblical, patristic and reformation understandings of faith in relation to the economy, particularly as a “holy order” through which God ministers to us and we minister one another. It seeks to provide an analysis of the historical and structural emergence of capital, the market system and consumerism and analyze it through the theological lens provided by the First Commandment and the doctrine of the two kingdoms. It will explore theological and ethical criteria for Christian vocation and provide tools for moral deliberation in ministry and congregational settings around economic issues.

Full course

Electives: Justice & Reconciliation


ST6461 Theological Hermeneutics

The development of contemporary theological hermeneutics, hermeneutics that takes the movement of God as the chief agent of the reading and use of Scriptures in church and world, is explored. A wide spectrum of experience, practices, and theological reflection is central to this exploration.

Full course


ST6462 The Theology of Martin Luther

The methodology, structure and intention of Luther’s theology. This includes the background in the Middle Ages, Luther’s own development, and current interpretations. Emphasis is on the use of this theology for proclamation.

Full course


ST6484 Race and Protestantism in America

This course explores the ways that American Protestantism and race intersect. It will specifically focus on Protestant attitudes towards African slaves and their conversion to Christianity. It will investigate how Western Christian theology has supported the construction of "whiteness" and "blackness", and look at how Protestant theologians interacted with the Civil Rights movement. It introduces students to Black theology and the spiritual resources that Black Americans utilize in order to deal with and resist unjust social structures.

Full course


ST6487 The Theology of Karl Barth and its 21st Century Trajectories

This course will explore the theology Karl Barth, perhaps the most important theologian of the twentieth century. It will examine his Cultural Context, his contributions to contemporary doctrines of revelation, election, and Trinity. It will also explore how his Christology has implications for theological anthropology today.

Prerequisite: SG0401 Thinking Theologically and Confessing Publicly or ST0440 The Triune God and the World or equivalent

Full course


ST6498/8499 Guided Reading and Research in Systematic Theology

An independent study for students in Advanced Theological Education. Consult faculty within division and the Advanced Theological Education Office.