Undergraduate Course: Key Debates in Modern Theology (THET10063)
Course Outline
| School | School of Divinity |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course will help students acquire a deeper understanding of the key questions that have preoccupied theologians from the twentieth century to the present day. It provides a solid introduction to the study of modern theology. |
| Course description |
- Academic Description:
This course aims to help students gain a deeper understanding of the key questions that have preoccupied theologians from the twentieth century to the present day. While the course will acquaint students with some of the most significant thinkers and themes in modern theology, it will also help them develop the ability to grapple with theological questions for themselves. This is a good course for those who wish to take their study of theology to the next level, while at the same time gaining a broad understanding of the major trends in contemporary theological inquiry. The course will cover debates concerning the nature of God, his knowableness, the possibility of divine suffering, religious pluralism, universal salvation and/or predestination, feminist and/or liberation theology, among others, as treated by some of the leading theologians of modern times.
- Syllabus Outline/Content
The course will address some of the key questions that have been debated in modern theology, including the following: who or what is God? Can God suffer? Is Trinitarian theology purely speculative? What is the relationship between the doctrine of the Trinity and Christian life? How can we know God? In what sense is Scripture the Word of God? What can we know about God through reason? Is it possible to assert without contradiction that Jesus is fully God and fully human? In what sense, if any, is Christianity the only way to God? How does Christ atone for human sin? Is salvation experienced the same way by all? To what extent is the question of salvation a question of social liberation? Is universal salvation possible? In what sense can the doctrine of divine predestination be defended?
- Student Learning Experience Information:
Each week, students will read a key primary text or texts on the relevant topic, by one or more of the major twentieth or twenty-first century theologians in preparation for a two-hour weekly seminar. After a student presentation on the reading, the text will be discussed in the first hour of the class, with a lecture on the general topic following in the second hour. Through their presentation and participation in seminar discussions, as
well as through an essay and examination, students will demonstrate their achievement of the intended learning outcomes.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a sound understanding of key thinkers and themes in theology from the twentieth century to the present day.
- Engage constructively and critically with modern theological thinkers and trends.
- Develop the ability to read key theological texts critically and with comprehension.
- Engage in constructive and critical scholarly debate with peers.
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Reading List
Indicative Bibliography:
Marilyn McCord Adams, Christ and Horrors: The Coherence of Christology
Gustaf Aulén, Christus Victor: An Historical Study of the Three Main Types of the Idea of the Atonement
Karl Barth, Anselm: Fides quarens intellectum
Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics
Karl Barth, Evangelical Theology
Leonardo Boff, Trinity and Society
David Burrell, Aquinas: God and Action
Ellen Charry, By the Renewing of Your Minds: The Pastoral Function of Christian Doctrine
Frank Clooney, Comparative Theology
Sarah Coakley, God, Sexuality and the Self: An Essay ¿On the Trinity¿
Gavin D¿Costa, Theology and Religious Pluralism
F.W. Dillistone, The Christian Understanding of Atonement
Avery Dulles, Models of Revelation
Paul Fiddes, The Creative Suffering of God
Paul Fiddes, Past Event and Present Salvation
Paul Fiddes, Participating in God: A Pastoral Doctrine of the Trinity
Stephen Finlan, Problems with Atonement. The Origins of, and Controversy about, the Atonement Doctrine
Valerie Saiving Goldstein, ¿The Human Situation: A Feminine View¿
Paul Griffiths, Problems of Religious Diversity
Colin Gunton, The Promise of Trinitarian Theology
Colin Gunton, The One, the Three, and the Many
Colin Gunton, A Brief Theology of Revelation
Colin Gunton, The Actuality of Atonement: A Study of Metaphor, Rationality and the Christian Tradition
Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation
Daphe Hampson, Theology and Feminism
Charles Hartshorne, Man's Vision of God and the Logic of Theism
John Hick, The Myth of God Incarnate
Elizabeth Johnson, She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse
Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Christology: A Global Introduction
Karen Kilby, ¿Perichoresis and Projection¿
Karen Kilby, ¿Is an Apophatic Trinitarianism Possible¿?
Karen Kilby, Karl Rahner
Karen Kilby, Von Balthasar: A Very Critical Introduction
Catherine LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life
John MacQuarrie, In Search of Deity
Jürgen Moltmann, The Crucified God
Jürgen Moltmann, Trinity and the Kingdom of God
Jürgen Moltmann, The Way of Jesus Christ
Wolfhart Pannenberg, Jesus: God and Man
Wolfhart Pannenberg, Systematic Theology
Wolfhart Pannenberg, Revelation as History
Wolfhart Pannenberg, Theological Anthropology
John Parratt (ed.), An Introduction to Third World Theologies
Karl Rahner, Foundations of Christian Faith
Karl Rahner, The Trinity
Karl Rahner, Theological Investigations
Rosemary Radford Ruether, Sexism and God-Talk: Toward a Feminist Theology
Lydia Schumacher, Rationality as Virtue: Towards a Theological Philosophy
Lydia Schumacher, Theological Philosophy: Rethinking the Rationality of Christian Faith
Janet Martin Soskice and Diana Lipton (eds), Feminism and Theology
Kathryn Tanner, ¿Social Trinitarianism and Its Critics¿, in Rethinking Trinitarian Theology.
Kathryn Tanner, Jesus, Humanity and the Trinity: A Brief Systematic Theology
Kathryn Tanner, Christ the Key
Kathryn Tanner, God and Creation in Christian Theology: Tyrrany or Empowerment?
Kathryn Tanner, The Politics of God
Kathryn Tanner, ¿Incarnation, Cross, and Sacrifice: A Feminist-Inspired Re-Appraisal¿
Paul Tillich, The Courage to Be
Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology
John Thompson, Modern Trinitarian Perspectives
Hans Urs Von Balthasar, Theo-drama
Thomas Weinandy, Does God Suffer?
Thomas Weinandy, Does God Change?
Rowan Williams, On Christian Theology
Rowan Williams, The Edge of Words
John Zizioulas, Being as Communion
General Bibliography:
The Modern Theologians (ed. David F. Ford)
The Cambridge Companion to Feminist Theology
The Oxford Handbook of Systematic Theology
The Cambridge Companion to Christian Doctrine
The Incarnation: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Incarnation of the Son of God (ed. Gerard O¿Collins) |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
- Ability to read diverse texts critically (primary and secondary sources), and discern material of central and peripheral importance.
- Ability to think constructively and systematically.
- Ability to express ideas clearly and coherently in both written in spoken English.
- Ability to conduct independent research in preparing essays.
- Ability to articulate key theological concepts and perspectives. |
| Keywords | Theology,Doctrine of God,Christology,Salvation,Jesus Christ,Twentieth Century,Contemporary |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Lydia Schumacher
Tel: (0131 6)50 8962
Email: |
Course secretary | Ms Katrina Munro
Tel: (0131 6)50 8900
Email: |
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