Biblical Studies New Testament

"New Testament: A Critical Introduction" (NTCI) attempts to orient you to the critical (i.e. academic rather than devotional) study of the NT (i.e. those 27 books that comprise the second and last major section of the Protestant Christian Bible). The course's overall aim is to equip you to plumb the depths of the NT for the tasks of Christian ministry (e.g. preaching, teaching, counseling, administration).

This Sacred Texts and Traditions course explores theological writings from Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Middle Ages. We will explore moments of both inter-religious conflict and peaceful co-existence, and we'll interrogate what this complex, distant history can teach us about possibilities of mutual understanding among members of Christian, Islamic, and Jewish faiths today.

With attention to the synoptic gospels, the thirteen Pauline epistles and the Catholic epistles, this course will focus on the interpretive meaning of selected texts as they bear upon the issues of race/ethnicity, class and family. The students will conduct detailed analyses on passages in order to discern their implications for ministry in global contexts today. Each student will be expected to make a seminar presentation and then refine the work into a final research paper for the seminar. Each student will be further expected to maintain a course notebook on assigned readings.