Spring 2023 Theology Graduate Course Descriptions Master's Level and Doctoral Level Seminars

Spring 2023 Theology Graduate Course Descriptions
                              Master's Level and Doctoral Level Seminars
MASTER’S LEVEL SEMINARS:

THL 8001: Foundations in Bible (Ethan Schwartz)
Examination of basic questions and research methods in biblical studies. Special attention to the
relationships between faith and culture

THL 8004: Foundation Ethics (Mark Graham)
This course is a selective introduction to major thinkers and schools of thought in the field of Christian
ethics, with different types of moral reasoning, methodologies, concepts, and types of authority within
Christian ethics being explored. We will begin with the use of scripture in Christian ethics and then
cover virtue ethics and Jesus, theocentric ethics, natural law theory, Catholic revisionism, sex and
gender, and liberation ethics.

THL 8135: THM Conceptions of God in the Hebrew Bible (Ethan Schwartz)
This course asks a question that is at once basic and profound: Who, according to the Hebrew Bible / Old
Testament, is God? By studying the Bible in its ancient Near Eastern context and through the history of
its composition, we will explore its striking diversity of answers to this question. Issues to be addressed
include: Where does God live? Does God have a body? A gender? How powerful is God? How does God
communicate with human beings? What is God’s personality? What does God want or need? Is God the
only divine being? How do angels fit into the picture? How is God similar to and/or different from deities
like Baal or Zeus? Does God change? Is God good? In addition to exploring these questions within the
ancient context of the Bible itself, we will also consider (a) how they interact with later Christian and
Jewish theology and (b) what implications they may have for other theological disciplines (e.g.,
systematic or practical theology).

THL 8290: The Human Phenomenon (Ilia Delio)
The human person holds a unique position in creation with regard to God and world; however, the
human person is not a subject distinct from the world. Rather the human person emerges from a long
process of evolution and recapitulates this process on the level of self-consciousness, open to fulfillment
in God. This course takes its cue from Teilhard de Chardin’s classic, The Human Phenomenon, in which
he situates the human person within the flow of evolution, that is, within the epic and drama of space-
time. Evolution is more than an explanation for biological diversity; it is an open process of increasing
complexity and consciousness on every level of biological life. The human phenomenon is a unique
phenomenon, whose past, present, and future is intimately bound up with the formation, life and
ultimate transformation of the earth. Seeing the human as part of a larger dynamic relational whole in
evolution allows us to question the complexities of the human, including the material, spiritual, and
conscious levels of personhood, and the significance of divinity in relation to the completion of
personhood. Understanding the whole person within the context of the new materialisms will help us

understand the “inside” and “outside” of the person in relation to the “inside” and “outside” of
matter—we will come to see the human as the axis and arrow, pointing the direction of evolution itself.
Hence, we will explore the theology of the human person from the perspectives of science, psychology,
ecology, posthumanism and the new materialisms. Questions of body, soul, spirit, sin and salvation will
be engaged as we reorient the human person within the wider networks of nature. Opening up new
ways of understanding the human person will, indeed, open up new ways of understanding God in a
world of change.

THL 8290: THM Friendship and Forgiveness (Tim Hanchin)
The world is darkened by factions that ravage the church, academy, and public square. In our age of
contempt, we suffer from the fact that all ‘sides’ are increasingly incapable of conversing with each
other in an intelligent, reasonable, and responsible manner. We often no longer even seem to realize
that what we hold in common far outweighs whatever divide us. This course suggests the
transformation of friendship that our hearts need. Bernard Lonergan, perhaps the 20th century’s most
influential Catholic theologian, crowns his soteriology with the analogy of friendship. This course
situates Lonergan’s contribution within the current questions in soteriology. These questions include the
valid concern by liberation, feminist, mujerista, and womanist theologies that classical accounts of
atonement (like Anselm’s) are prone to abusive interpretations of the cross. Lonergan’s soteriology
provides us an occasion for reconsidering Christian authenticity, conversion, and forgiveness - from the
foot of the cross - as a christomorphic falling into friendship with God. In addition, this course examines
the practices of Christian friendship that animate our friendship with God. The practice of Christian
friendship, while not a panacea, may be a wellspring of reconciliation and healing for a splintered world.
The pedagogy of this course is collaborative and conversational. Students are invited to engage course
content through their educational and ministerial praxes.

THL 8330: Ethics of Life and Death (Kathyrn Getek-Soltis)
THL 8330: Ethics of Life and Death: The Christian ethical tradition is built around a core commitment to
the value and dignity of life. Scripture suggests we are meant to have life and have it abundantly. How
does this tradition interpret and confront matters of life and death as they emerge in circumstances
both ordinary and extraordinary? This course will include a range of applied issues – from assisted
reproduction to assisted suicide, from hospice care for infants to life sentences for the incarcerated. We
will consider what it means to be a steward of life, to die a good death, and to grieve ethically. And how
might these concerns intersect with racial and economic injustices? We will explore moral analysis from
the Christian tradition while also considering the experiences of those who wrestle with these matters in
the course of their lives and their ministries.

THL 8350: Catholic Social Thought (Gerald Beyer)
This course explores the historical origins and development of modern Catholic social thought, with
particular attention to Catholic social teaching in the late 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Thus, we read
many of the major social encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII through Pope Francis. We also engage the work of
past and contemporary scholars and writers who helped create the Catholic social tradition, address

social issues within this framework, and/or wish to expand and improve it to construct a more just social
order.

THL 8440: Modern Christianity in History (Massimo Faggioli)
Good theological work, whether academic theological work in systematics, spirituality, ethics, or bible,
or practical work in ministry, teaching, and service, must be historically conscious. This course explores
major themes and events in the history of Christianity from the age of the Reformations and European
expansion in the late 15th century to the 20th century, without avoiding addressing issues in
contemporary history (in German, Zeitgeschichte; in French, histoire du temps présent) such as the
abuse crisis in the Church.

We will begin our discussion asking what we mean by studying history for theologians and scholars of
Christianity, and we will see that this can be a rather charged question, both historically and
theologically. Questions we will explore include mission, colonialism, and inculturation, reform
movements and the Reformation(s), ecclesial pluralism, religion and violence, Christianity in the
Enlightenment, the challenge of modern atheism, secularization, the relationship with modernity, and
the “global” or “world Christianity”.

We aim to gain some facility with modern Christian texts of a variety of kinds, such that we become
acquainted with the multiple dimensions of modern Christianity as a phenomenon. We will treat
theology as well as institutional and cultural history. We will read critical secondary source material and
selective portions of primary sources, from Martin Luther to Marie-Dominique Chenu.
Diarmaid MacCulloch’s massive volume, Christianity: The First Three-Thousand Years, has been agreed
upon by the historical faculty as a useful skeleton or frame for our conversations.

THL 8550: THM Medieval Spirituality (Rachel Smith)
In this class we will study texts and practices of the European Middle Ages in order to gain a broad sense
of the spirituality (the lived theology) of medieval cultures, both religious and lay, male and female.
Practices to be considered will include prayer, meditation, confession, pilgrimage, the cult of saints,
singing, and reading in relation to questions of selfhood, transformation, and holiness, as well as the
relationship between action and contemplation. We will read texts across a broad spectrum of genres,
including visionary literature, prayers, scriptural commentaries, speculative theology, lyric, ascetic
manuals, and hagiography, with attention to their social contexts and audiences.

THL 8701: Theol Pedagogy (Christy Lang Hearlson)
This seminar initiates the Heart of Teaching program for MTS students in the Theological Education track
and PhD students. It is the first of two seminars that comprise the Heart of Teaching coursework en
route to the apprenticeship process. Education Seminar 1 addresses the philosophical foundations and
pedagogical approaches for theological education at the level of our time. To this end, the seminar
considers the bearing of Villanova’s Christian mission and Augustinian charism.

THL 8703: Teaching Practicum (Christy Lang Hearlson)

THL 8804: Intercultural Competencies (Julia Sheetz)
This course seeks to equip students to carry out ministry with sensitivity and effectiveness in the current
multi-cultural context of American society. Utilizing a theological approach rooted in mutual respect and
collaborative learning, and drawing on the methodology of intergroup dialogue, the course focuses on
developing cultural competencies for pastoral care, worship, and community life in diverse settings.
Students will deepen their personal awareness of the intersectionality of identities together with their
understanding of systemic injustice and interlocking social oppressions. They will develop skills for
dialogue and engagement across lines of identity difference in order to more fully embody ministries of
compassion and justice.

THL 8610: THM Bud-Christian Dialogue (Stephanie Wong)
This course is a deep dive into Buddhist-Christian dialogue. While Buddhists and Christians have
interacted with one another throughout history, this class will focus especially on the content and
contours of their engagement in the last 75 years. During this time, we have seen Buddhist-Christian
dialogue emerge as a concerted, self-conscious effort in three interdependent modes: the "conceptual
dialogues" in which Buddhist and Christians scholars compare and contrast theological and philosophical
texts and teachings; the "monastic" or "interior dialogue" in which practitioners consider the meditation
and prayer resources of their traditions for transformation in spiritual life; and the "socially engaged
dialogue" in which activists turn towards issues of joint concern for social, environmental, economic and
gender justice. To begin with, this course aims to build students' own religious literacy by familiarize
students with the teachings and practices most central to these conversations: For instance, what are
the distinct communal ideals, metaphysical assumptions, or soteriological claims which have served as
points of major discussion in comparative Buddhist-Christian reflection? What have Buddhist and
Christian thinkers said about these similarities and differences? At the same time, this course will attend
to the contours of Buddhist-Christian encounter itself, inviting students to think critically about the aims
and practices of interreligious dialogue: For instance, what have extended inter-monastic dialogue
efforts like the Gethsemani Encounters hoped to achieve? How have constructive projects in
comparative philosophy/theology and social engagement been regarded by authorities and
organizational bodies such as the Dalai Lama, Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, and the
World Council of Churches? While this seminar will primarily take the form of discussion of texts and
visual/audio sources, our class sessions will also include several invited guest speakers who are involved
in either Buddhist-Christian comparative scholarship or Buddhist-Christian communal relations.

THL 8882: Ministry Field Education 2 (Joseph Calderone)

THL 8884: Ministry Field Education 4 (Margaret Mell)

THL 8940 Integrative Portfolio (Stefanie Knauss)
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DOCTORAL LEVEL SEMINARS:

THL 9115: THM Augustine as an Interpreter of Paul (Jonathan Yates)
Most scholars of religion have an opinion about the Apostle Paul. This is because Paul’s impact on the
history of religion generally and the history of Christianity in particular—both as a theologian and as a
writer—are beyond question. Similarly, that Augustine of Hippo, who (re-) converted to Christianity
some 320 years after Paul’s death, was the most influential post-apostolic theologian and writer in
Christian history is also beyond question.
At the same time, the specifics of Paul’s impact on Augustine are frequently glossed: most assume that
Paul must have been a significant source for Augustine, but the crucial details that help us to answer
questions such as why? and in what contexts? are often bypassed. This course, via careful reading and
analysis of a handful of genricly diverse passages selected from Augustine’s corpus, will pursue these
and related questions. In this course we will read Augustine in order to better understand how
Augustine read Paul and, by extension, how Paul impacted Augustine’s thinking about Scripture,
exegesis, doctrine, and praxis. And, by focusing on Paul’s impact on Augustine, this course will seek
provisional answers to two admittedly complex questions: (1) To what degree have traditional western
readings of Paul been (un-) intentionally shaped by Augustine? (2) To what degree might contemporary
readings of Paul, including our own, continue to be (un-) intentionally “Augustinian”?

THL 9200: THM Interreligious/Cross-cultural Mariologies (Hector Varela Rios)
This course aims to contextually explore global Mariological convergences and divergences through
texts, practices, and local expressions and in close conversation with related areas such as art, devotion,
gender, family, politics, and war/peacebuilding.

In Christianity, Mary of Nazareth is the human mother of Jesus Christ and co-mediator of divine grace.
Mary is also admired and venerated in non-Christian religions and non-Western cultures around the
globe. Indeed, doctrines around Mary (studied as ‘Mariology’) and devotion to Mary are ubiquitous
around the world that it could be argued that she is an interreligious and cross-cultural pontifex in
spheres well beyond religion such as local politics, climate worries, and international diplomacy. This
wide Marian influence is not exempt from controversy: for one, institutional Mariology often clashes
with popular devotional practices and the local theologies that undergird them. In any case, due to
Mary’s broad and deep religio-cultural agency, the discourses surrounding her serve as theological
bridge between religions and cultures while also providing an opportunity to critically delve deeper into
a unique yet peculiar example of human-divine interaction of global importance.

THL 9325 All Under Heaven? Confucian and Christian Comparative Political Ethics (Stephanie Wong)
This course is a comparative study in Chinese Confucian and Western Christian religious ethics,
interrogating especially the question of unity as a metaphysical, moral, and political ideal (tianxia, lit. 'all
under heaven). First, the course will introduce students to key texts in classical and neo-Confucian
political philosophy, foregrounding debates between the early Confucians and rival Daoist, Legalist, and

Moist schools of thought on the nature and responsibilities of human belonging. In this orientation to
Chinese political philosophy, we will pay special attention to how these various schools debated the
religio-ethical purpose of society and its governance. Second, we will consider contemporary works in
Confucian philosophy and Christian-Confucian comparative ethics -- for instance, Du Weiming's Way,
Learning and Politics, Lee Yearley's Mencius and Aquinas, Aaron Stalnaker's Overcoming Our Evil: Xunzi
and Augustine, Erin Cline's Confucius, Rawls and the Sense of Justice, and/or others. By considering such
works, students can see how comparative scholars today engage the two traditions to consider
problems of unity and justice in our own contemporary, globalized times.

THL 9440 Teresa Avila and John of the Cross (Martin Laird)
St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross are two outstanding figures in the history of spirituality of
the Christian West. While each author is thoroughly rooted in the historical context of Spain’s 16th
century counter-Reformation, the influence of their writings knows no bounds and provides
fundamental orientations to how the Christian journey into God is experienced, conceived, and
expressed. This course will feature a sustained, critical engagement with these two authors.

The first part of the course will focus on Teresa of Avila, the first female Doctor of the Church. Her
warmth, spontaneity, and the salt of her wisdom make it easy for people to respond deeply to her as
she describes the journey into God in The Way of Perfection, her underappreciated; Meditations on the
Song of Songs; and her famous The Interior Castle. The second part of the course will focus on her
younger protégé, St. John of the Cross. Our examination of his commentaries on his own poetry and
their abundant theological fruits will reveal the gentleness of his character, his skill as a spiritual
director, and his description of the transfiguration that takes place in our radical opening to God. Our
readings will focus chiefly on his major works, The Living Flame of Love; The Ascent of Mount Carmel;
The Dark Night, without overlooking minor works, such as The Sayings of Light and Love and select
Letters.

THL 9505: Living Religion: Methods and Questions (Brett Grainger)
In the Christian tradition, spirituality has taken its starting point from the Bible, which speaks of the
“spirit” (ruach/pneuma) of God and, through it, the promise of new “life.” This sense of religion as
“lived” is central to the scholarly study of spirituality. As Bernard McGinn has put it, “The study of
spirituality requires a desire to try to appreciate how religious people actually live their beliefs.” While
analysis must begin with the particular experience of the individual, consequently, spirituality engages
social life and extends to socio-political movements and communities.

This course offers an introduction to the study of Christian spirituality as a matter of daily life or “lived
religion.” Each week will focus on a distinctive question, issue, or theme in the field, and offer a variety
of methodological approaches. Given its multifarious concerns, the study of spirituality may be
approached from a number of disciplines, including history, anthropology, ethics, philosophy, literary
studies, education, and theology. In plumbing the practices and beliefs of everyday religion, special
attention is paid to the experiences and interpretations of marginalized communities, especially women,
who have made up the majority of every significant devotional movement in Christian history. In
addition to attending to the internal diversity of Christianity, students will engage in comparisons with

non-Christian religions. While consideration of works of formal theological reflection is essential,
material culture, visual culture, music, and other popular cultural materials will be employed to shed
new light on familiar ideas and figures.

This advanced seminar is offered to candidates for the Doctor of Philosophy. Conversation will take
place at a high level and require preparation and sustained engagement.

THL 9910        Synthesis Portfolio (Stefanie Knauss)

THL 9911        Evaluation Portfolio (Stefanie Knauss)

THL 9920        Proposal Colloquium (Stefanie Knauss)

THL 9900        Dissertation Writing (Stefanie Knauss)

THL 9930        Dissertation Colloquium (Stefanie Knauss)