Courses
Crucial Movements in American Christianity
Syllabus: Ameican Christianity SYLLABUS Jan 20 2017
The seminar will explore persons, ideas, and movements that have shaped the meanings of American Christianity. These will include:
- Who are the Puritans and why do they still matter?
- The Great Awakening and the birth of evangelism
- The American Revolution and the Separation of Church and State
- Revivalism and Social Reform: The debate over slavery
- Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War
- The “Americanist Controversy” in Catholicism, and early Fundamentalism
- Evangelicalism from the Scopes Trial to Billy Graham (and Beyond)
- Martin Luther King, the Black Church, and the Civil Rights Movement
- The shape of Modern American Christianity
- Ideas Have Consequences: How Then Should We Live?
This seminar is offered in the conviction that “the past is prologue.” The study of history can help us determine how to live our lives as disciples of Jesus Christ and his Church in a changing American culture.
This course will be offered at the La Canada Presbyterian Church and be live streamed at the Tustin Presbyterian Church. Both professors will meet face to face with Orange County students at a special Saturday morning session.
Reading and Teaching the Bible in a Multicultural World
In reading the Bible, our native cultures are lenses through which we understand God’s Word for us. In Southern California our congregations have members from diverse cultures. How do their cultural differences shape their interpretation of the Bible? How do we read and teach the Bible faithfully while honoring cultural differences? In this seminar we will deepen our appreciation of the Bible and our understanding of the role of culture in shaping our reading and teaching of biblical texts. Our goal is to work together to develop strategies for finding unity amid diversity. This course is a 1-unit class but can be taken as an audit. The course can also be taken for 2 credits, with additional assignments and permission from the instructor.
Spirituality of the Old Testament: How the Old Testament Helps Us Walk with God
This seminar will explore the rich contributions the Old Testament can make to our understanding and practice of spirituality. Themes will include: faith, doubt, protest and lament, integrity, sojourn, loyalty, prayer, hope, and work. The course aims to explain the abiding significance of the Old Testament so that participants gain familiarity with key scriptural resources and incorporate them into their own walk with God.
