Issues in Phenomenology: Spirituality

This semester’s version of the “Issues in Phenomenology” course will centre on the issue of spirituality. Drawing on its German roots in Hegel and Husserl, the phenomenological notion of spirituality [geistigkeit] is understood to be a (perhaps THE) constitutive factor in all human social activity. The course will look at the introduction of this notion of spirituality in Hegel and its crucial re-development in Husserlian phenomenology. It will then trace the development of that term through Derrida’s reading of Heidegger in Of Spirit and into Michel Henry’s use of spirit in his notion of a “barbaristic” culture that he finds to be currently dominant in Western culture. We will end by examining the implications of this account of spirituality for our understanding of religion and of oppression (especially sexism and racism). 

Dr. Neal DeRoo

ICS 223001 W24

Remote (Online Synchronous)

Thursdays, 2pm - 5pm ET

(MA, PhD)

Syllabus

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register January 12, 2024. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

*Attention TST students: if you are interested in taking this course for credit, you must petition your college of registration to count the course credit toward your degree program. 

Aristotle, Aquinas and the Scholastic Approach to the History of Philosophy

This seminar examines the scholastic approach to the history of philosophy exemplified by Etienne Gilson against the background of its foundation in the thought of Aristotle as it was appropriated by Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century. It examines the role that philosophy or theology's history plays in the conceptual constructions of scholastic thinkers, and what they think is truly first and deepest in the history they so study.

Dr. Bob Sweetman

ICS 120401 / 220401 W24

ICH3313H / ICH6313H L6201*

Remote (Online Synchronous)

Wednesdays, 10am - 1pm ET

(MWS, MA, PhD)

Syllabus

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register January 12, 2024. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

*Attention TST students: if you are interested in taking this course for credit, you must petition your college of registration to count the course credit toward your degree program.

Philosophical Inquiry and the Practices of Everyday Life: An Interdisciplinary Seminar on Philosophizing in a Time of Crisis (IDS)

In the first chapter of his little book Edith Stein: A Philosophical Prologue 1913-1922 (2006), Alasdair MacIntyre asks, “What would it have been in that period of German history in which Heidegger grew up, served his philosophical apprenticeship, and became the most influential of twentieth century German philosophers to have lived quite otherwise as a philosopher, to have consistently taken seriously both the implications for one’s life outside philosophy of one’s philosophical enquiries and the implications for one’s philosophy of one’s other activities?”

In this seminar we will explore the implications of philosophical inquiry for the everyday practices of philosophers as well as the implications of our everyday concerns for our philosophical practices, with particular attention to the relevance of our political circumstances for this exploration. We will do so with particular attention to the diverse examples offered by the early careers of three philosophers living through what Husserl called the ‘crisis’ of European thought and culture in the 1920s and 30s: Edith Stein, Martin Heidegger, and Herman Dooyeweerd. Both in our seminar conversations and in our written papers for this seminar we will consider what we may learn for our own practices from comparing these examples.

Dr. Neal DeRoo, Dr. Gideon Strauss

ICS 2400AC W24

Remote (Online Synchronous)

Tuesdays, 2pm - 5pm ET

(MA, PhD)

Syllabus

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register January 12, 2024. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

*Attention TST students: if you are interested in taking this course for credit, you must petition your college of registration to count the course credit toward your degree program. 

What Were the Women Up To? Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch

In the middle of the 20th century, four women at the University of Oxford began careers that would revolutionize the fields of ethics and analytic philosophy. Elizabeth Anscombe, Wittgenstein’s student and translator, integrated ordinary language philosophy with Aristotelian practical reasoning. Philippa Foot defended the objectivity of morality, invented the Trolley problem, and articulated a modern account of ethical naturalism. Mary Midgley challenged reductionism and sociobiology while developing a fulsome account of our relationship to non-human animals. Iris Murdoch, through story as much as treatise, brought analytic philosophy into conversation with Continental philosophy, Eastern philosophy, and Platonic moral realism. This seminar examines the philosophy and legacy of these four women, friends, pioneers, and philosophers.

Michael Buttrey

ICS 253401 W24

Remote (Online Synchronous)

Thursdays, 10am - 1pm ET

(MA, PhD)

Syllabus

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register January 12, 2024. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

*Attention TST students: if you are interested in taking this course for credit, you must petition your college of registration to count the course credit toward your degree program.

Transformative Teaching: The Role of a Christian Educator

Transformative Teaching is a course for instructional leaders as they consider their roles as Christian educators called to be transformers of society and culture by seeking justice for those who are marginalized and disenfranchised. In this course we will consider constructivism (a dominant educational theory in the twenty-first century that informs student-centred pedagogies such as Project Based Learning) through the lens of Scripture and investigate the assumptions that it makes. We will explore our calling as Christian educators to transform culture in our schools, local community, and the world.

This course seeks to help Christian educators find clarity in answers to the following questions: 

• Context: Who am I called to be as a Christian educator in my particular place and time?

• Constructivism: How does constructivism inform my practice?

• Culture: What role does education play in creating culture?

Dr. Edith van der Boom

ICSD 260006 W24*

Blended (Online Asynchronous/Synchronous)

(MA-EL)

Syllabus

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register January 5, 2024. Maximum enrolment of twelve (12) students. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

*Approved for Area 2 of the CSTC

God in Flesh and Blood: Revolutions in Christology

Although theologians often approach “Christology” by asking how Jesus of Nazareth might be best understood in terms of certain systematic concerns or doctrinal positions—a perspective that gives rise to questions such as: How are the divine and human natures of Christ related?, What are the merits of, or alternatives to, substitutionary atonement?, and How might a virginal conception thwart the transmission of original sin?—those who are more oriented to the discipline of “biblical theology” are more likely to prioritize how the New Testament portrayal of Jesus is related to the narrative movement—or movements—of the Hebrew Bible. This leads either to a different set of questions or (just as importantly) to a different angle on the kinds of questions asked above. This course, on potential revolutions in Christological thinking, will draw on contemporary NT scholarship in order to explore this latter approach.

To what extent do the OT themes of exile and return, old age and new age, help deepen our understanding of the birth and crucifixion of the Messiah? If the NT portrays the first followers of Jesus as worshipping him (and as doing so before and not just after the Resurrection), is it implicitly or explicitly calling us to worship Jesus’s humanity as well as his divinity? Does Mary’s encounter with Gabriel, who is a named presence in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament only in the Book of Daniel, indicate that her conception of Jesus is to be read apocalyptically? Is it significant that Elizabeth initially greets Mary with words otherwise associated with Jael and Judith? These are some of the exegetical and theological questions we will consider in this engagement with issues at the edge, and at the heart, of contemporary Christology. Conversation partners will include: James Dunn (Did the First Christians Worship Jesus?), Jane Schaberg (The Illegitimacy of Jesus), and N.T. Wright (The Day the Revolution Began).

Dr. Nik Ansell

ICS 240811 W24

ICT3201H / ICT6201 L6201*

Remote (Online Synchronous)

Tuesdays, 10am - 1pm ET

(MA, PhD)

Syllabus

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register January 12, 2024. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

*Attention TST students: if you are interested in taking this course for credit, you must petition your college of registration to count the course credit toward your degree program.

**NOTE: Completion of 1108AC or 2108AC is a prerequisite for enrolling in this course.

How to Finance a Vision: Setting Direction and Managing Change within Financial Limitations

How to Finance a Vision is a course for new and aspiring principals and leadership teams. The course provides frameworks and tools for leadership in making the connections between the vision of a school, the budgeting process, and fundraising.

The course starts with an introduction to Henri Nouwen’s spirituality of fundraising. It continues with an introduction to the basic financial documents that a principal should be able to read. It explores the art of communicating the story told by school budgets as a necessary element of fundraising. It concludes with the processes necessary to gain competency in working with both school boards and staffs (with an emphasis on financial and advancement staff) on the financial aspects of school management.

How to Finance a Vision is a remote learning course consisting of three synchronous discussions and three virtual school visits using online video and thirteen weeks of asynchronous online interaction.

Dr. Gideon Strauss
ICSD 260007 W24
Blended (Online Asynchronous/Synchronous)

(MA-EL)

Syllabus

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register January 5, 2024. Maximum enrolment of twelve (12) students. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

Meaning/Being/Knowing: The Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Implications of a Christian Ontology

Course Description TBA

Dr. Nik Ansell

ICS 2105AC W24

Remote (Online Synchronous)

Thursday, 6:00 - 9:00pm ET

(MA, PhD)

Syllabus

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register January 12, 2024. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

*Attention TST students: if you are interested in taking this course for credit, you must petition your college of registration to count the course credit toward your degree program.

**NOTE: Completion of 1107AC or 2107AC is a prerequisite for enrolling in this course.