Summer Session 2010 - Courses & Registration
Saturday Workshops • Tuesday Night Talks • Worship & More
Announcement - Summer Grades
Grades, transcripts and CEU certificates will be released at the end of September.
Below is the schedule or credit and CEU courses offered in Pacific School of Religion's 2010 Summer Session. Contact Summer Session at 510/849-8268 (toll-free: 800/999-0528, ext. 8268) with questions.
Register from this page! Choose the "Register" link by the desired course(s) listed below.
PSR scholarship students contact the Summer Session office for discount codes before registering.
Starting July 6
Starting July 12
Starting July 19
Starting July 26
Starting August 2
Starting August 9
One-Day Workshops
Starting July 6
FT-2541: Size Always Matters: Spirituality, Leadership, and Administration in the Smaller Membership Church 
Instructor: Elizabeth Dilley (liturgygeek@yahoo.com)
Dates and Times: 1 week course. July 6 - 9, 1:00pm-6:00pm
Units: Audit ($345)
1.5 Semester Hours ($960)
2 Continuing Education Units ($345)
Description: While it is true that by sheer numbers, more people belong to larger-membership congregations than to smaller-membership congregations (typically defined as having a worship attendance of fewer than 100), it is also true that by sheer numbers, there are far more smaller-membership churches in the United States than there are churches of any other size. From several Biblical perspectives, small congregations reflect God’s deep hopes for community, care, and witness. Competent leadership in smaller-membership congregations includes skills in worship leadership, finances, administration, spirituality and spiritual growth, volunteer coordination, evangelism, and building maintenance. From mustard-seed faith to God’s faithful remnant, and drawing on the best available research and personal experience, this course will explore theologies of size and how to shape thriving, faithful ministries in smaller congregations.
*photo from http://www.seeya-downtheroad.com/ShortStories/SmallChurches
This course will also require purchase of a reader from Copy Central upon arrival in Berkeley.
Syllabus | Register | Purchase Books
RSFT-2489: LGBT Religious Issues in Postcolonial Perspectives
Instructor: Elizabeth Leung (eleung@psr.edu)
This course will not be offered in summer 2010.
NTRS-2360: Myths, Gospels, and Human Lives 
Instructor: Benny Liew (bliew@psr.edu)
Dates and Times: 2 week course. July 6 - 16, 1:30-6:00pm
Units: Audit ($690)
3 Semester Hours ($1920)
4 Continuing Education Units ($690)
Description: This intermediate-level course will attempt to evaluate the category of “myth” as a lens to read and think about the stories related to the gospel or “good news” about Jesus, and how those stories relate to human lives. The majority of the course will seek to acquaint students with both the theories and specifics of myths. We will look at the work of myth critics (Frazer, Eliade, Levi-Strauss, Burke, Ricoeur), several ancient Near Eastern myths and a couple from other cultures and geographical areas, Rudolf Bultmann’s demythologizing project, as well as Paul Tillich’s understanding of “broken myths.” Then we will turn to look at the effects—both socio-political and individual—of myths. Issues concerning the relationship of myth to ritual, of myth to history, and of myth to faith and life will also be raised.
Syllabus | Register | Purchase Books
Instructor: Jason Hamza van Boom (jvanboom@ses.gtu.edu)
Dates and Times: 3 week course. July 6 - 23, 9:00am-1:00pm
Units: Audit ($690)
3 Semester Hours ($1920)
4 Continuing Education Units ($690)
Description: This course, the only one of its kind taught by a Muslim at a Christian seminary, covers the History of Christianity from Late Antiquity to the present, taking a global perspective. It focuses on Christianity as culture rather than the church as institution. We will discuss, however, the institutional forms of Christianity as they develop over time. The course also serves to introduce basic theological concepts in contexts where significant developments and variations in Christian theology took place. This course prepares students for basic courses in theology, and for further studies in History of Christianity. The course design also takes into consideration that there may be a significant number of students who are not Christian. The lectures and reading plans are structured to show how the History of Christianity is relevant for both Christian and non-Christian students.
Syllabus | Register
BS-1135: Biblical Hebrew I (see BS-1136 for Biblical Hebrew II)
Instructor: Jeffrey Kuan (jkuan@psr.edu) & Woo Min Lee (wlee@ses.gtu.edu)
Dates and Time: 3 week course. July 6-23, 2010; 9:00 am-1:00 pm
Units: Audit ($690)
3 Semester Hours ($1920)
4 Continuing Education Units ($690)
Description: This is the first half of a six-week intensive course in which students will work through an entire first-year Hebrew grammar book, preparing them to enter an Intermediate Hebrew class upon completion of the course. Students who plan to take the entire course should sign up for both parts. By the end of the two-part course, students will have acquired a command of the basic principles of Hebrew phonology, morphology, and syntax. Students will be able to translate the text of the Hebrew Bible with the aid of lexicons and other grammatical resources.
Syllabus | Register
FT-8278: Social Media and Communications Theology - ONLINE
Instructor: Michael Bausch (mgb103@hotmail.com)
This course will not be offered in summer 2010.
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Starting July 12
HM-3245: Preaching the Gospel of Holistic Health
Instructor: James Forbes (myrtle.shaw60@gmail.com)
Dates and Times: 1 week course. July 12 - 16, 9:00am-1:00pm
Units: Audit ($345)
1.5 Semester Hours ($960)
2 Continuing Education Units ($345)
Description: When Jesus saw the man who had been lying by the Pool of Beth-Zatha for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to be made well?” (John 5:6 NRSV). In the King James Version of the Bible the question is rendered,”…wilt thou be made whole?” In this course we will do an analysis of the meaning and relationship of wellness, wholeness and health as reflected in the gospels. We will study Biblical passages in order to develop a theological understanding of holistic health.
Through lectures, discussions, practice preaching and collegial evaluations we will refine our skills in sermon preparation and delivery. Each participant will be required to prepare a sermon on holistic health, portions of which will be presented in class to be discussed by the professor and fellow classmates. Members of the class will be led in self-assessment exercises to demonstrate that the general wellbeing of the preacher is an important factor in ministries seeking to promote holistic health in the local congregation.
Syllabus | Reading List | Register
RS-2495: Sex and the Sacred: Theo-Psychological Issues
Instructor: Daniel Helminiak (dhelmini@westga.edu)
Dates and Times: 1 week course. July 12 - 16, 9:00am-1:00pm
Units: Audit ($345)
1.5 Semester Hours ($960)
2 Continuing Education Units ($345)
Description: Today we know a wide range of human sexualities, and we recognize the profound psychological import of sex. Traditionally, in contrast, along with all physical reality, sex was thought to be ignoble and even dirty or nasty, so sex was allowed only for procreation. Marriage and child-rearing were to hallow sex temporarily, but only its avoidance would sanctify the unmarried. So linking sexuality with spirituality today poses a novel challenge. To meet it head on, this course suggests a novel solution: to recognize spirituality as first and foremost an essential facet of humanity—namely, the unfolding of an open-ended, self-transcending dynamism within the human mind—not necessarily as something connected with organized religion or even belief in God. These would be expressions of spirituality, not its source. This solution turns the traditional emphasis up-side down; it elaborates the nature on which grace is to build; it illumines the mystery of creation, which points to its Creator. In considerable detail, the combination of contemporary psychology and Bernard Lonergan's account of the human spirit (consciousness) fills out this new vision. It exemplifies Lonergan's Method in Theology, proposes a viable solution to the current challenge of sex, and suggests the direction helpful religion must take to serve a global, i.e., pluralistic, community.
Syllabus | Register
BS-2602: Discovering Our Biblical Ancestors, 2000-586 BCE: History, Culture and Faiths
Instructor: Jehon Grist (jehong@aol.com)
Dates and Times: 1 week course. July 12 - 16, 1:30-5:30pm
Units: Audit ($345)
1.5 Semester Hours ($960)
2 Continuing Education Units ($345)
Description: This vividly-illustrated lecture and discussion course will introduce students to the key personalities and events of the eras covered. From there, we will explore the material culture, religious systems and literature of the Eastern Mediterranean, with a focus on how they help us understand the character of Biblical Israel. We'll also be “visiting” classic Biblical sites: Megiddo, Hazor, Gezer, and of course, Tell en-Nasbeh. A special focus of this course will be the roles of women in Biblical Israel. The instructor and Bade Institute staff will organize a small exhibit of artifacts from the Tell en Nasbeh collection for students to examine.
This course will reverse the traditional order of text study followed by use of the material culture to corroborate the text. Students will discover what the physical world of Canaan, Israel and their neighbors tells us first, then examine Biblical and other Near Eastern texts to create a holistic perspective.
This course is being offered in collaboration with Lehrhaus Judaica and PSR's Badè Museum of Biblical Archaeology. Lerhaus students should contact the Lehrhaus office at 510/845-6420 to receive a discount registration code.
Syllabus | Register | Purchase Books
Starting July 19
SP-2988: Writing as Healing Ministry
Instructor: Sharon Bray (sharon@wellspringwriters.org)
Date and Time: 1 week course. July 19-23, 1:30 pm-5:30pm
Units: Audit ($345)
1.5 Semester Hours ($960)
2 Continuing Education Units ($345)
Description: Writing is an art form that belongs to every one of us. It is also a powerful tool for healing. In recent years, a growing body of research shows that the simple act of writing down thoughts and feelings helps people with chronic illness improve their health. (Journal of the American Medical Association, 1999; Pennebaker, 1996, 1999, 2002; LePore & Smyth, 2002). But the healing power of writing extends well beyond physical illness. Writing also reduces stress, discharges complex emotions and helps us gain perspective. When we suffer pain or loss, writing about our feelings can help to relieve our burdens, establish a perspective, and cope more effectively with life’s hardships. Writing helps us integrate our physical, emotional and spiritual well-being. It can be a kind of prayer—one in which you don't ask for anything, except to know your own experience and to make meaning of it.
“Writing as a Healing Ministry” is designed to provide an overview of the field of therapeutic or healing writing for lay ministers, clergy, healthcare or helping professionals. In this intensive week-long course, we will explore how writing can heal ourselves and others. Class activities will include an overview of the research on therapeutic writing, review of several different writing methodologies used to help individuals heal from pain, suffering and trauma, small group discussion and individual writing exercises.
Syllabus (note:syllabus has incorrect time listed) | Register | Purchase Books
RSST-2486: Queer Theology and Politics
Instructor: Justin Tanis (justintanis.dc@gmail.com)
Dates and Times: 1 week course. July 19-23, 9:00am-1:00pm
Units: Audit ($345)
1.5 Semester Hours ($960)
2 Continuing Education Units ($345)
Description: This course will examine contemporary issues facing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the public arena through the lens of theological reflection. Queer people have made significant strides in the movement for equal rights and yet continue to face violence, discrimination and health disparities which point to the continued prevalence of prejudice based on sexual orientation and gender identity. We will consider the intersections of theology and politics around these issues and the role that people of faith—from a variety of viewpoints—play in the public sphere. The class will include opportunities to put our reflection into practice as we take direct action around these issues.
This course will require purchase of a reader from Copy Central upon arrival in Berkeley.
Syllabus | Register | Purchase Books
RS-2499: Cults and SEctX
Instructor: Horace Griffin (hgriffin@psr.edu)
This course will not be offered in summer 2010.
Starting July 26
SP-3548: Sustaining Vocation: Finding and Keeping a Personal Prayer Practice
Instructor: Mary Therese DesCamp (descamp@heartsrest.com)
Dates and Times: 1 week course. July 26-30, 1:30-5:30pm
Units: Audit ($345)
1.5 Semester Hours ($960)
2 Continuing Education Units ($345)
Description: The first thing to go in ministry is usually the thing that propelled one toward the church: the felt presence of God experienced in spiritual practice. "Sustaining Vocation: Finding and Keeping a Personal Prayer Practice" is based on the assumptions that deep spiritual practice is the best resource for good ministry; that practice must change to fit the particularities of life; and that what God has asked for, God will sustain. By helping students identify their particular needs, gifts, and challenges in the realm of spiritual practice, and assisting them to learn practices that fit their personality and circumstances, the course will help equip participants for deeper and more satisfying ministry. Included will be discussion of how to find local resources, the unacknowledged issues in adopting a practice from a tradition other than one’s own, the importance of the body in spirituality, and the necessary place of grace and gift in Christian practice.
This course will require purchase of a reader from Copy Central upon arrival in Berkeley.
Syllabus | Register
HM-3240: Coaching for Effective and Embodied Preaching
Instructor: Penny Nixon (pnixon@ccsm-ucc.org)
Dates and Times: 1 week course. July 26-30, 9am-1pm
Units: Audit ($345)
1.5 Semester Hours ($960)
2 Continuing Education Units ($345)
Description: Do you want to take your preaching to the next level of effectiveness? This course will provide the opportunity for preachers to hone their skills in the art of preaching. Learn to preach with excellence by preaching in an environment where you will receive feedback and instruction from your peers and from the instructor as well as a one-on-one individual coaching session. Workshop your sermon content and experience coaching on your delivery. Learn how to tell a story more effectively, use your body more authentically and communicate your message more passionately and clearly. Based on a reflective practitioner model, participants in the class will preach three sermons.
Since preaching is for hearers rather than readers we will work specifically on the art of delivery and communicating the gospel in a powerful and transformational way. This course will provide experience with and exposure to diverse preaching styles. As ministers in a technological society with so much virtual communication, there is a need now more than ever for engaged, embodied, energetic and effective preaching. This preaching practicum is for aspiring preachers who want to communicate the gospel in the most passionate and transformational way possible.
Note: This is an advanced level course. You must have already taken a basic preaching class to be considered for this course.
Class full. Email instructor (pnixon@ccsm-ucc.org) to request placement on the wait list.
Syllabus | Purchase Books
ST-3122: Eternal Life: A New Vision: Beyond Religion, Beyond Theism, Beyond Heaven and Hell
Instructor: Bishop John Shelby Spong
Dates and Times: 1 week course. July 26-30, 9:00am-1:00pm
Units: Audit ($345)
1.5 Semester Hours ($960)
2 Continuing Education Units ($345)
Description: Do you believe in life after death? As a religious person do you think you have to? How can we approach this subject in a world that has lost the record-keeping God above the sky, the miracle-working deity who once filled in the gaps of human knowledge and the post-Darwinian idea that human life is not just a little lower than the angels, but just a little higher than the apes? John Shelby Spong, best known as a radical thinker, turns his attention to this subject and surprisingly finds a way to affirm the afterlife by going not beyond life but through life, not beyond time but through time, not beyond humanity but through humanity.
This course is designed for clergy of all traditions who have to wrestle with these questions professionally with every death they confront, as well as for lay people and skeptics who have dismissed life after death as a pious delusion. Bishop Spong contends that it is a realistic hope. The course will explore the ancient religious claims of life after death and why they have faded so much in the last century that the idea is scarcely mentioned even in religious circles. It will also attempt to open this subject to new possibilities relying on a deep journey into life itself and to make it possible to say yes with integrity to the ancient question of eternal life even in the 21st century.
Syllabus | Register | Purchase Books
EDBS-4560: Teaching Difficult Texts: Hermeneutical and Pedagogical Strategies
Instructor: Boyung Lee (blee@psr.edu) & Jeffrey Kuan (jkuan@psr.edu)
This course will not be offered in summer 2010.
BS-1136: Biblical Hebrew II (see BS-1156 for Biblical Hebrew I)Instructor: Jeffrey Kuan (jkuan@psr.edu) & Woo Min Lee (wlee@ses.gtu.edu)
Dates and Time: 3 week course. July 26-August 13, 9:00 am-1:00 pm
Units: Audit ($690)
3 Semester Hours ($1920)
4 Continuing Education Units ($690)
Description: This is the second half of a six-week intensive course in which students will work through an entire first-year Hebrew grammar book, preparing them to enter an Intermediate Hebrew class upon completion of the course. Students who plan to take the entire course should sign up for both parts. Students who register for Biblical Hebrew II are expected to have completed Biblical Hebrew I. By the end of the two-part course, students will have acquired a command of the basic principles of Hebrew phonology, morphology, and syntax. Students will be able to translate the text of the Hebrew Bible with the aid of lexicons and other grammatical resources.
Syllabus | Register
Starting August 2
RA-3700: Creative Writing Workshop
Instructor: Pat Schneider (413/253-6353)
Dates and Times: 1 week course. August 2-6, 9am-1pm
Units & Costs: Audit ($960)
1.5 Semester Hours ($960)
2 Continuing Education Units ($960)
Description: The purpose of this workshop is twofold: (1) to enable the artist in each person to become more free, more able to write, and (2) to model a methodology for using writing to create a healing community. There will be an additional, optional session on Tuesday evening, open to the public, for the showing of the 23-minute international award-winning documentary film Tell Me Something I Can't Forget, and a discussion on how to use this workshop method to empower low-income persons and others who are under-served. There are no required readings or papers for this workshop, but prompt attendance at all sessions will be considered a serious responsibility. Pat offers an optional private conference to each workshop participant, including, if desired, response to 7 pages of double-spaced unpublished prose or three poems. Manuscripts should be given to her at the first meeting of the workshop.
Class full: email summer@psr.edu to be placed on the wait list.
Syllabus
ST-2555: Mujerista Theology
Instructor: Alicia Vargas (avargas@plts.edu)
This course will not be offered in summer 2010.
RA-3519: Icons and Their Audiences
Instructor: Rossitza Schroeder (rschroeder@psr.edu)
This course will not be offered in summer 2010.
Starting August 9
IDS-1300:The Art and Technique of Effective Academic Writing
Instructor: Laura Anderson (landerson@ses.gtu.edu)
Dates and Times: 1 week course. August 9-13, 9:00am-1:00pm
Units: Audit ($345)
1.5 Semester Hours ($960)
2 Continuing Education Units ($345)
Description: This one-week writing course is designed to orient students to the primary types of academic writing they will be asked to do during their years at PSR and the Graduate Theological Union (GTU), including reflection papers, research papers, critical essays and exegetical papers. The course is intended to help students learn or “dust off” the writing skills they will need to succeed academically while in seminary. Through classroom lectures and discussions, extensive in-class exercises, and brief homework assignments, participants will learn the art and technique of composing critical writing in a U.S. academic setting. Among other topics, this course will cover: developing a topic; identifying reliable resources; reading and note-taking; constructing a thesis; writing and revising the outline, body, introduction and conclusion of a paper; formatting footnotes and bibliography; and preparing an audience-oriented summary of a paper. Participants will also learn how to identify and use the resources of the GTU library. Finally, the course will introduce PSR’s Plagiarism Policy and will offer students strategies for avoiding plagiarism.
Syllabus | Register | Purchase Books
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RAST-2077: The Unrealized: Poetry and the Sacred
Instructor: Christina Hutchins (dsf@psr.edu)
Dates and Times: 1 week course. August 9-13, 9:00am-1:00pm
Units: Audit ($345)
1.5 Semester Hours ($960)
2 Continuing Education Units ($345)
Description: Does the “unrealized” inform contemporary Christianity? How does the creative process itself serve as both a critique and a re-membering of tradition? For contemporary poet, Brewster Ghiselin, “the inventor… is drawn by the unrealized toward realization.” For many artists, poets, composers, and inventors, the mystery of the creative process evokes both awe and a faith sufficient for performing the often painstaking labor of bearing something “new” into human experience.
For five intense days together, we will explore the sacred and ancient mystery of being “lured” toward/into the “never-before.” In-class poetry writing exercises provide models for our own experiences of “the unrealized.” No prior poetry writing experience is needed, just a willingness to explore where crafting of language meets the sacred “not yet.” In addition to readings by several contemporary poets who describe creative processes, we will read about the concept of “foresight” in Alfred North Whitehead’s Adventures of Ideas. We’ll gain a few more critical reflections from very brief essays by essays by theologians and aesthetic theorists (John Dewey, Catherine Keller…) and a few inventors in the arts and sciences (Mozart, Michelangelo, Henry Moore, Einstein…). How will attending to the “unrealized” shift our theological commitments, including how we might approach the dismantling of racisms, sexisms, and habits of war and ecological short-sightedness? How might it address the “lethargy” that frequently accompanies theology and worship in contemporary progressive Christian institutions? All required readings will be provided online or by photocopy, with a recommended book list. [For credit grading will be based on: discussion of required readings, two 1 page reflection papers, final 5 page essay. Prerequisite: one course in theology or philosophy.]
Enrollment limited to 16 students.
Syllabus | Register
FT-2532: The Dash Between the Nitty and the Gritty: Practical Parish Ministry
Instructor: Donna Schaper (DonnaSchaper@gmail.com)
Dates and Times: 1 week course. August 9-13, 1:30-5:30pm
Units: Audit ($345)
1.5 Semester Hours ($960)
2 Continuing Education Units ($345)
Description: This course shows how to make pastoral ministry work the best job in the world. It relies on an ecclesiology of parish as the hands and feet of Jesus, an incarnational hope that our worldly work can carry heavenly hopes to human beings, an eschatological witness that now is the time when we can see the realm of God, and a Eucharistic meeting of transformed people and elements into a world of plenty for all. While it is very practical, even mundane in many of its subjects, not one of these areas lacks a sense of God. It teaches the daily life of a parish minister in such a way as to reveal the informal job descriptions inside the formal ones. It teaches how to custom-design the job description in a variety of denominational, racial, cultural and class settings.
For full-time or part-time pastors, this course will result in an extravagant and manageable job description for the pastor. The outcome of the course is to lessen the role confusion of pastoral ministry and to give the pastor a democratically-won authority to do the actual work and job of “shepherding a flock”—and to enjoy the heaven out of it. This course will be particularly useful to pastors who are overwhelmed by their jobs and are wondering if they dare continue in parish ministry. It will also be useful for seminarians who wonder if they are called to the reality of parish ministry. At the end of the course, students will be able to define parish ministry for themselves in their contexts.
Syllabus | Register | Purchase Books
RS-2506: Dissident Discipleship within the American Empire: Cultivating and Modeling Truly Alternative Ways of Being
Instructor: Nichola Torbett (ntorbett@seminaryofthestreet.org)
Dates and Times: 1 week course. August 9-13, 1:30-5:30pm
Units: Audit ($345)
1.5 Semester Hours ($960)
2 Continuing Education Units ($345)
Description: The term “spiritual activism” has become increasingly popular in recent years, but what does it mean? Does it designate anything other than engaging in secular activist practices as a faith community or as an interfaith coaltion? Seminary of the Street contends that the missing element in spiritual activism as it is currently practiced is this: Spiritual activists need to look honestly at the ways in which they are implicated in the very systems and structures they indict in their activism, thus participating in our own oppression and the oppression of countless others. So many of us hunger for more aliveness, more love, and deeper connections and yet find ourselves succumbing again and again, consciously and unconsciously, to the coercive demands and seductive compensations of the dominant culture. How can we cultivate our capacity, and the capacity of others in our communities, to be dissident, in other words, to resist participation in oppressive systems and instead develop an alternative way of living? In this class, we’ll explore disciples and practices toward that end.
This course will require purchase of a reader from Copy Central upon arrival in Berkeley.
Syllabus | Register
One-Day Workshops
For information about special one-day workshops during Summer Session, including Poetry as a Spiritual Practice: A Workshop with Ellen Bass, and Nurtured by Spirit - Fed by Prayer: Exploring Creative & Interfaith Spiritual Practices to Re-vitalize Our Lives: A Workshop with Gina Rose Halpern, Mediation for Ministry: Responding to Congregational Conflict with William S. Harralson, and Engage: Exploring Nonviolent Living with Pace e Bene. please visit our Saturday Workshops page.
Saturday Workshops • Tuesday Night Talks • Worship and More
We reserve the right to change course descriptions, instructors, syllabi, dates and hours of instruction, meeting places, and prices. In the event of a conflict between printed material and information on this Web site, the information on this Web site takes precedence. Courses that have been cancelled due to low enrollment may be absent from this list. Please contact the Summer Session Office for any questions regarding cancelled courses.