Current Course Offerings

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to different methods used to interpret texts. Students will learn and develop skills of closely reading texts, analyzing historical and contemporary contexts, and thinking critically through issues. This class will introduce students a wide range of sacred and secular texts. Students will learn to apply rhetorical strategies to construct interpretations that promote inclusivity, social consciousness, social justice, and speak to the current social and political contexts. This is an introductory level course and requires no prerequisite.

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to preaching through various artistic mediums. Students will read and analyze selected biblical texts in their historical, social, and political contexts and use different artistic mediums to construct interpretations of these particular texts. The use of art will help students construct interpretations from different perspectives and different social locations leading to a deeper reflection and addressing ethical and moral issues relevant to our contemporary context. Various artistic forms will be engaged such as movement, drama, poetry, music, song, painting, etc. Preaching using artistic mediums achieves an analogous effect in retelling narratives and bringing to the surface the silent and invisible voices that have often been ignored in our written analysis of the texts. This course will seek to expand the genre of text to include other artistic mediums as texts that attempt to decenter the written word where the rules of interpretation are not predetermined for the audience.

This course introduces students to theories of ethical discernment, behavior, and formation in Christian traditions. The course prioritizes ecological wellbeing as an ethical demand of Christian living and will use case studies about human relationships with our other-than-human kindred to practice the ethical theories studied.

This course explores the emerging field of queer theology in the Christian tradition. As LGBTQ+ persons gained increased visibility in many facets of public life, a queer epistemology permeated theological discourse and yielded a new form of “God talk” that disrupts and destabilizes traditional Eurocentric systematic theology. This queer theology first emerged as a response to the normative sexual oppression that categorized queer persons and women as “perverse.” However, it later expanded beyond questions of sexual morality and sought to challenge oppressive theological normativity in various components of Christian personal and public life. In this course, we will survey some precursors to queer theology, explore canonical texts in the field, and address contemporary questions about its scope and application to matters of economic, racial, and ecological justice. Some important figures we will discuss include Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Marcella Althaus Reid, Patrick S. Cheng, Linn Marie Tonstad, Miguel Diaz, José Esteban Muñoz, Craig Ford, and Melissa Wilcox. The overall goal of the class is for students to gain an appreciation for the field of queer theology and the methodological tools to examine, challenge, and dismantle normative theological/religious oppression wherever it can be found.

This course invites students to explore the theological, ethical, and practical dimensions of social justice through an intersectional lens. While students—particularly those in the Doctor of Ministry program—bring focused ministerial
contexts and commitments, the course expands the conversation to examine broader systems of injustice, including those rooted in race, gender, sexuality, class, religion, ability, and environmental degradation.

Engaging theological frameworks, critical theories, and reflective practice, students will analyze how privilege and oppression intersect with their social locations and
vocational callings. The course offers space for deep reflection, collaborative learning, and strategic imagination. Emphasis is placed on integrating lived
experience with theological inquiry and developing actionable strategies for justice centered ministry in education, worship, advocacy, and community life.
* This course is for DMIN students but is open for MDIV and MTS students.
*This can serve as an upper-level theology course.

“PSR DMin students use this course number for registering during terms when they are not registering for coursework. This course indicates continuation in the program and carries a fee per semester. (This number is also used during a term while the student is engaged in coursework away from PSR.) Pass/Fail only.
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This required seminar for first-year Doctor of Ministry students explores the three research methodologies supported for the professional doctorate: critical inquiry, practical disciplines, and human subjects studies. The approach of the course is to lay foundations for performing research in each methodology with a view toward application in final project models. The seminar will make liberal use of case studies to illuminate research theory and praxis in action.

Credit hours for preparation of dissertation units.

Class includes weekly synchronous sessions and 15 hours per week on-site field internship. Weekly sessions include full-group plenary sessions and small-group cohort discussion. Completion of fall (FE-1005) and spring (FE-1006) Concurrent Field Education courses in the same academic year are REQUIRED to receive a grade. Completion of both fall and spring semester meets PSR MDiv Congregational Track field education requirement.

“The movement of the Spirit of God in the hearts of people [men] often calls them to act against the spirit of their times or causes them to anticipate a spirit which is yet in the making. In a moment of dedication, they are given wisdom and courage to dare a deed that challenges and kindle a hope that inspires” The course will reflect upon the roles of imagination, mysticism, and alternative consciousness in creating alternative, beloved communities. We will develop and share our visions of tomorrow, how they align with visions within the assignments, and steps toward manifesting them in our communities. Alternative methods of evaluation will be utilized including research and/or reflection papers, artistic work as well as class participation. Class is open to MDiv, MA/MTS, DMin and PhD students.

United Methodist History, Doctrine, and Polity I is the first of two courses intended to provide a broad overview of the theology, history, and governance structures of The United Methodist Church and its predecessor bodies. This course, in particular, focuses on the theological per-spectives of John Wesley and the 18th century Methodist Movement, which later came to be embodied in the Articles of Religion and the doctrinal standards of a global denomination. This course is required for M.Div. students seeking ordination in The United Methodist Church.

NOTE: All UMC Students MUST take this course in person on the PSR campus

This hybrid course provides an introductory overview of Christian history with a focus on the diversity of ways in which Christians have worked to effect social change for the common good in times of societal, economic, political, environmental, and religious change – from the first century of the Common Era to the present. Class format includes lectures and small-group activities and discussions based on the reading and interpretation of primary and secondary texts.

Written requirements: six essays; two take home written essays; and a Final Project designed in consultation with the Instructor. This course satisfies the basic history requirement for PSR’s degree programs. Intended primarily for MDiv and MAST students, this course is also suitable for CSSC, CSR, MTS, and DMin students.

Bed, Bath and Beyond!
For many faith communities, worship forms the heart of communal life. It is a place where participants learn the behaviors, rhythms, and patterns of discipleship that they hope to embody as faith-filled people in the world. Worship also marks times of transition within the life of individuals and communities. From birth to death, communities ritualize these liminal spaces that are rife with meaning and sacredness. In this course, we will examine the ways in which pastoral liturgies (e.g. dedications, weddings, healing rites, funerals, etc.) and sacraments both shape and are shaped by culture, history, theology, language, and practice. Students will integrate their learning by practicing leading these rituals that make up a worship-full life.

The purpose of this hybrid—concurrent format—course (3 credits) is to help students explore the New Testament with Greek Tools. In this course, students will learn and explore the creative, innovative, and important ways to interpret biblical texts in their respective contexts. The exercises in this class will help foster an environment of application of Greek in biblical hermeneutics and help students read the New Testament through the postmodern lens. The course will cover the basics of phonology (sounds), morphology (forms), and syntax (word order and function) in biblical Greek and explore how a grammatical form could change the interpretation of the text. Issues of exegesis and interpretation will be discussed where appropriate to promote a better understanding of the New Testament that encourages a more inclusive, ethical, and moral interpretation of texts. 

This course asks key questions about the work of spiritual care and caring—what is care and what does it means for leaders to care for individuals and organizations. We will explore the character of care, models of caring, and strategies and skills for offering care in particular contexts. This course presumes that effective leaders and flourishing mission-oriented organizations require tangible skills for providing care. Students will be invited to trace the unique needs embedded in particular dynamics and patterns of contemporary cultures through different contexts of care: personal, communal, systemic, and cosmic. This course is suitable for those who are preparing for congregational leadership and those in private, public, and not-for-profit service.

One of the foundational education commitments that undergirds this course is the assertion that all knowledge is contextual. In the various settings of ministry and social transformation, context plays an important role in shaping our work, our approaches to that work, our understandings of our own role in that work, and the meaning we make of it. At its core, this course seeks to ground our theological explorations in a deeper understanding of our own social contexts, as we develop facility in translating from one context to another and engaging across difference. Focusing in particular on the case of race, this course is designed as a path for exploring and understanding the ways that race in all of its intersections operates as a social fiction and lived experience in ourselves and in the communities we serve. Making use of historical, theoretical and theological lenses, we will engage in selfexploration, deep formation, readings, dialogue, and experiences with artists and activists as we build our capacity to address issues of prejudice, power, and privilege while cultivating cultural humility and cross-cultural competency.

This course offers an opportunity to deepen spiritual life in personal, interpersonal, communal, and cosmic dimensions. It will focus on engaging contemplative practices from across the inter-spiritual tradition as well as study the teachings of mystics, privileging those who lived engaged in the pursuit of collective justice. Participants will have a chance to explore the nature of spiritual formation while discerning which practices, resources, and attitudes are appropriate for sustaining vitality, rootedness, and creativity in their personal life, faith, leadership, academic, and social justice work.

This course explores the Christian liturgical calendar through Scripture readings, while engaging contemporary youth concerns and cultural expressions. Students will journey through seasons such as Advent, Lent, and Easter with biblical texts, linking them to issues young people face today–identity, anxiety, social justice, and belonging. The class will include creative cultural experiences (e.g., food, art, poetry, music) that appear in or relate to Scripture, offering embodied engagement and fresh perspectives on faith. Students will be invited to encounter the Bible not as a distant ancient book, but as a living text that speaks to the hearts and struggles of youth today.

Political theology, by design, lacks a singular definition. This lack is one way of affirming that political theology is about dialogue, discourse, and conversation among often competing ways of thinking, being, and doing. This course will provide students with a working overview of the field by putting contemporary readings into dialogue with classical texts.

Politics and theology (religion/spirituality) both posit “visions of tomorrow,” as we say at PSR. That is, both give people a sense of what the world is and what it should be. Democracy intends these visions to come into conversation with each other constructively. Today the headlines cry out our dysfunctional politics, yet students should see themselves as neither helpless victims nor active combatants. This course rather seeks students to be peacemakers in times such as these by engaging in enduring conversations about the complexities of common life and in deep examination of assumed terms like “political,” “theology,” “liberalism,” and even “democracy.”

To be sure, students will engage the urgent events of the day (of which there are many, with more on the way) and will do so in a way that is purposefully constructive. The work of the course involves readings, discussions, weekly reflections, and an appropriately original approach to a Western and Islamic writing style known as “mirrors for princes.” Writers in this genre sought to provide moral guidance to political leaders, and this method will hopefully give students a sense of their moral and intellectual authority, helping them pierce the darkness of our contentious politics to make peace in a fractious world.

In relation to the world’s religions, the special feature of Christianity is Jesus himself. But who was Jesus? Was he a wandering sage expressing the deep wisdom of God? Was he a social revolutionary, acting against the Romans and Jewish elite? Was he the Messiah of God, the one whom many of the Jews expected? Using current historical Jesus research, this course investigates who Jesus was. The first part of the course looks at a Jesus who did not see himself as a messianic figure. Jesus was a mystic in touch with the divine sphere of reality, a figure who knew the wisdom known by all great religious leaders. He taught that God’s kingdom was already here, for those who had eyes to see it. In contrast, the authors of the opposing view see Jesus as a messianic prophet who believed that God was about to bring in the New Creation, through his actions. Students will look at differing views of Jesus by the best historical Jesus scholars, compare them, and develop their own view of who Jesus was. This seminar involves discussion, two papers; open to students from MDiv to PhD levels. This course fulfills the MDiv Capstone requirement.