Creative Communication: Culture, Art and Politics

Everyone participates in the arts and culture, but who can say why? This course asks why the arts are important and addresses issues that face contemporary creators and interpreters of culture. Our aim is to develop imaginative, faith-oriented participation in the arts and culture. We will consider such topics as artistic freedom and social responsibility; communication through the arts and culture; the impact of globalization on cultural communities; the ethics of mass entertainment; the aesthetic quality of urban environments; and the role of arts in worship and interreligious dialogue. In addition to class sessions, we will attend various events in the city.

ICSD130709/230709 F13
ICT3782/6782HF L6101
Distance Education
Dr. Allyson Carr
MWS, MA, PhD

Syllabus

Curriculum: Organising the World for Learning

Curriculum is the selection and organisation of experience for pedagogical purposes. The criteria that determine what is selected and how it is organised articulate fundamental values about the nature of the world and our calling in it. This course will encourage critical evaluation of the criteria that are commonly employed and of how the curriculum can be shaped to better reflect a Christian worldview. Curriculum is conceived not as a static collection of materials, but as a dynamic plan that directs the learning process and governs the organically developing relationship between teachers and learners. Teachers are curriculum workers, charged with reflective responsibility as they conduct themselves in their profession. Whether adopting and adapting an externally prescribed curriculum or designing a curriculum from its inception, Christian teachers have a responsibility to ensure that the curriculum reflects a biblical worldview, in structure as well as in content, and that learners are invited to respond from their hearts in obedience to the call of God in Christ, Scripture and creation.


ICSD120307/220307 F13
Distance Education

Dr. Doug Blomberg

MWS, MA, PhD

Syllabus

Facing the Darkness: The (Human) Nature of Evil

We shall discuss the origin and nature of evil by engaging various biblical, theological, and anthropological resources. Topics will include lament literature (e.g. Job), idolatry and the demonic, original sin and the correlation between victim and agent, and the relationship between justice and mercy. The course will consist of seminars in which participants will engage key readings relevant to the practice of interdisciplinary theology.

ICS120801/220801 F13
ICT3352/6352HF L0101
Dr. Nik Ansell
Fridays 9:30am-12:30pm
MA, PhD

Syllabus

Wittgenstein: Language & the Philosophy of Religion

Wittgenstein's philosophy continues to generate enormous interest, and his name is frequently cited in connection with radical developments in theology and the philosophy of religion. Via an exploration of the different accounts of language and meaning he presents in both his early and later work, this course will focus on his thought as it relates to religious belief and commitment in particular.

ICS120503/220503 F13
Dr. Ron Kuipers
Thursdays 1:45pm-4:45pm
MA, PhD

Syllabus

Religion, Life & Society: Reformational Philosophy

An exploration of central issues in philosophy, as addressed by Herman Dooyeweerd, Dirk Vollenhoven, and the “Amsterdam School” of neoCalvinian thought. The course tests the relevance of this tradition for recent developments in Western philosophy. Special attention is given to critiques of foundationalism, metaphysics, and modernity within reformational philosophy and in other schools of thought.

ICS1107AC/2107AC F13
Dr. Lambert Zuidervaart
Wednesdays 9:30am – 12:30pm
MWS, MA, PhD

Syllabus

Theories of Language and Interpretation: Gadamer, Kristeva, and Searle

The linguistic turn and the interpretive turn in twentieth-century philosophy play a role in many cultural controversies and academic debates. This seminar examines representative texts from three schools of thought: German philosophical hermeneutics (Hans-Georg Gadamer), French poststructural feminism (Julia Kristeva), and Anglo-American analytical philosophy of language (John Searle).

ICS220701 F13
Dr. Lambert Zuidervaart
Tuesdays 6:00pm-9:00pm
MA, PhD

Syllabus

Biblical Foundations

This course will explore the Bible as the ongoing story of and for God and creation, paying special attention to the way in which God's story is intertwined with that of humanity and the world. In asking whether and in what way the Bible is also our story, we will attempt to identify which hermeneutical methods might help us discern its significance for present day life, including the academic enterprise.

ICS1108AC/2108AC F13
Dr. Nik Ansell
Mondays 6:00 – 9:00pm
MWS, MA, PhD

Syllabus

Christianity and Ecological Crisis

"The attitudes to save the environment should be imbued with a vision of the sacred."
—David Suzuki at the Global Forum of the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, 5 June, 1992

Critics often blame Christian culture, and sometimes rightly, for either ignoring or contributing to the global ecological crisis. This course will examine some Christian responses to the ecological crisis that contest this characterization. These include claims that the responsibility for the global ecological crisis is complex and multifaceted as well as arguments that Christianity can resist and undo the attitudes that helped create the crisis.  We shall explore agrarian essays, ecological theology, and international initiatives on ecological activities. We may also visit a farm whose inhabitants integrate their faith and their lifestyle. In this discussion-intensive seminar, participants will consider what role Christian faith can and should play in a strong environmental ethic.

ICSD130509/230509 W13
Instructor: Chris Allers
MWS, MA, PhD

Syllabus

Biblical Foundations

This course will explore the Bible as the ongoing story of and for God and creation, paying special attention to the way in which God's story is intertwined with that of humanity and the world. In asking whether and in what way the Bible is also our story, we will attempt to identify which hermeneutical methods might help us discern its significance for present day life, including the academic enterprise.

ICSD1108AC/2108AC W13

Instructor: Jeffrey Hocking

MWS 

Syllabus

Rhetoric as Philosophy from Isocrates to the Age of Abelard and Heloise

This seminar examines the ancient and medieval discipline of rhetoric and its practitioners’ claim that it represented a properly philosophical discourse.   It does so in terms of a selection of texts drawn from the works of Isocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero,  Augustine, Abelard and Heloise.   In the process, it explores the relationship between affectivity and discursive validity with a view to the effect such a focus has on our understanding of Greek and Latin philosophy, patristic and medieval theology and their intertwined history.

ICS220407 W13

Dr. Robert (Bob) Sweetman

Tuesdays 9:30am-12:30pm

MA, PhD

Syllabus

Truth and Authenticity: Heidegger’s Being and Time

Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time proposes a holistic conception of truth that can reconnect epistemology with cultural practices and social institutions. Yet his conception seems to make personal or communal “authenticity” the key to attaining truth. This seminar develops a constructive critique of Heidegger’s conception of truth by examining its internal logic and its hermeneutical role.

ICS220706 W13

Dr. Lambert Zuidervaart

Mondays 9:30am-12:30pm

MA, PhD

Syllabus

Thinking The World Of God: Religious Language Beyond Onto/theology

How can the language of creation adequately reveal God if the God of creation transcends creation? This perennial question has most often been approached within an analogical view of language which presupposes an ontotheological view of the God/world relationship. Attentive to the influence of the Great Chain of Being on this view of (language for) the divine, we shall also examine whether there has ever been a viable alternative. Is it possible to see transcendence and immanence not as attributes of God and creation, respectively, but as facets of creation and thus creational revelation?

ICS220808 W13

Dr. Nik Ansell

Fridays 9:30am-12:30pm

MA, PhD

Syllabus

Pragmatism and Religion: Dewey, Rorty, and Stout

How does pragmatism's central tenet, which states that the meaning and worth of ideas lies in their practical consequences, comport with religious forms of life and the understandings of morality they fund?  Does pragmatism's suspicion regarding traditional “supernaturalist” theologies leave any space to think alternatively about God and the human relationship with God?   What role do pragmatists see for religion in a democratic society, if any?  In addressing these questions, this seminar will focus on the work of John Dewey, Richard Rorty, and Jeffrey Stout.

ICS120501/220501 W13

Dr. Ron Kuipers

Wednesdays 9:30am-12:30pm

MWS, MA, PhD

Syllabus

IDS: What Is This Thing Called Religion? Spiritual Difference, Secular Critique, and Human Maturity

Our attitudes and approaches towards interfaith dialogue are fundamentally shaped by our understanding of the nature of religion. Is religion primarily a mater of faith, of beliefs, or of praxis? If religions are multi-dimensional phenomena, are some dimensions more important than others? Is religious commitment an authentic and indispensable facet of what it means to be fully human or a sign of inauthenticity and/or malformation? How might a distinction between true faith and false faith relate to a distinction between mature faith and immature faith? Is the category of 'quasi-religion' helpful? Do all religious (or would-be secular) positions have inclusive, exclusive, and pluralistic characteristics? Can human flourishing function as a criterion for evaluating different religious traditions? Can we formulate a vision of human maturity outside of a religious or quasi-religious tradition? In allowing questions such as the above to multiply and interact, we will explore the possibility that any viable model of religion that can help us find our way in a religiously complex and diverse world must resist premature reductionism and must be aware of the self-referential nature and implications of its investigations. 

ICS 2400AC W13

Thursdays 5:00pm-8:00pm

(MA, PhD)

Syllabus