Current Course Offerings

The purpose of this hybrid—concurrent format—course is to help students explore the challenges and opportunities that may arise in teaching biblical texts in contemporary settings. In this course, students will learn and explore the creative, innovative, and important ways to teach biblical studies in their respective contexts. The exercises designed by students in this class will help foster an environment of biblical literacy and also help students to develop strategies that can help students communicate historical, cultural, and political issues of the ancient text in contemporary contexts. This course will engage disciplines from biblical studies and religious education in order to promote better teaching and understanding of biblical texts that encourage a more inclusive, ethical, and moral interpretation of texts.
Prerequisite: Introduction to Hebrew Scriptures and Christian Scriptures
[Faculty Consent required, Auditors with faculty permission]

This course explores the body as a sacred locus of divine revelation and social transformation. Drawing from critical race, feminist, queer, decolonial, and eco-theological perspectives, students will examine how embodiment shapes theology, ethics, and community. How do race, gender, sexuality, and ability shape theological understandings of the human person, politics, relationship and God? How have bodies been disciplined, honored, or marginalized in Christian thought and practice? Committed to dismantling patriarchal, cis/heteronormative, ableist, and anthropocentric frameworks, the course invites students to develop decolonial theologies of the body that affirm dignity, diversity, justice, and the interdependence of all creation.

This seminar is designed to assist PSR Doctor of Ministry students focus their projects and create a plan of study for the first year in the program before their “Request to Proceed with Project” form is submitted. The course will introduce a number of research methods, contextual and interdisciplinary modes of inquiry, and consider multi-cultural, multi-generational and socio-economic environments of ministry today. This is a seminar/discussion course and students will be evaluated on class participation and the development of a plan of study.

“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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Credit hours for preparation of dissertation units.

“This course provides a cohort pedagogy for DMin students to participate regularly throughout the term in a continuous online platform where they share what they are learning and experiencing in their other coursework and in their research, and where they engage the learning journeys and evolving projects of their doctoral colleagues. Regular interactions every month are guided by the rubric provided for the course.
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Continuation of FE-1005, Concurrent Field Study 1. 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.

Ministry to persons in pastoral care setting, participation in weekly individual and group reflection upon that ministry with supervisor, study of theoretical material from theology, behavioral sciences, and pastoral care. Integrates theological understanding and knowledge of behavioral science into pastoral functioning. Programs must provide at least one unit of CPE in order to receive any academic credit. CPE programs can be 4 months, 9 months, full-time summer intensives, or one-year full-time residential.

Transformational leadership entails a dynamic relationship between the leader and the community of which the leader is a part. It entails developing strategies that enhance the probability of achieving shared goals and visions. Essential to transformational leadership is the inspiration that lifts one from commonplace existence to living beyond the norm. In the quest for a more just and compassionate world, transformational leadership challenges dominant systems and other forms of oppression. This course will explore various expressions of transformational leadership, including those resulting from prophetic imagination and social entrepreneurship. Any student enrolled in a degree and/or certificate program at the Graduate Theological is eligible to enroll in this course.

Using interactive presentations, case studies, readings, thick descriptions, online tools, short writing assignments, and guest presentations from a variety of church leaders, this course surveys the history, polity, theological beliefs, and ethos of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), from its historical beginnings to its contemporary manifestations. Paying particular attention to the cultural context in which it emerged, we will examine the church’s roots. And focusing on the ongoing relationship between church and culture, we will examine how the church continues to develop and respond to social, ethical, and theological needs today. We will explore Disciples church governance and the ways congregational, regional, and general manifestations of the church function and relate to one another. And we will con-sider ways our Disciples history, polity, and theological commitments all contribute to the formation of a dynamic Disciples ethos that is expressed practically in the structure and development of church leadership, in the implementation of mission and service, and in performing important church rituals, including communion, baptism, baby dedications, weddings, and funerals.

*This course fulfills the Disciples history and polity requirement set forth by the Christian Church (DOC) Northern California-Nevada, Training & Care and Recognition & Standing committees.*
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We live in a world of day-to-day experience that is largely of our own making; technologies, buildings, products, institutions, services, brands, and experiences all clamor for our attention. Every one of them has been created by someone with intention, by design. The question we must ask is whether it was designed well, equitably, justly, beautifully, or not. Design thinking is a framework for skilled human-centered design practice that can be applied to any kind of artifact, including organizations, ventures, services, and products intended to drive positive social change. You will be introduced to design thinking, its origins and theoretical underpinnings, and the specific discipline known as design for social impact. You will learn by collaborating on a creative challenge drawn from your own experience. You will learn to see the world through a design lens and begin to explore a theological understanding of creative praxis as integral to spiritual formation. [Auditors excluded]

This course is a hands-on experiential learning journey designed to encourage, empower, and equip participants for congregational ministry and organizational leadership through the lens of social entrepreneurship. For congregational ministry, the course examines aspects of church administration. For organizational leadership, the course examines small non-profit management techniques. This course is intended for both emerging and established leaders and will help them to design, plan, and implement social business models as they advance their congregational and/or organizational mission and vision. The course has aspects of a startup incubator/accelerator, equipping students with the tools and frameworks to enable the adaptive strategic planning necessary for leading ventures. It follows the Design Thinking course, amplifies the social justice venture that students have talked about in that course, and brings in elements of the Field Praxis course. The final project of this course will contribute to the SAIL capstone to fulfill the requirements for the MAST degree. For United Methodist students, this course fulfills the requirements for the Evangelism course.

This course is a hands-on experiential learning journey designed to encourage, empower, and equip participants for congregational ministry and organizational leadership through the lens of social entrepreneurship. For congregational ministry, the course examines aspects of church administration. For organizational leadership, the course examines small non-profit management techniques. This course is intended for both emerging and established leaders and will help them to design, plan, and implement social business models as they advance their congregational and/or organizational mission and vision. The course has aspects of a startup incubator/accelerator, equipping students with the tools and frameworks to enable the adaptive strategic planning necessary for leading ventures. It follows the Design Thinking course, amplifies the social justice venture that students have talked about in that course, and brings in elements of the Field Praxis course. The final project of this course will contribute to the SAIL capstone to fulfill the requirements for the MAST degree. For United Methodist students, this course fulfills the requirements for the Evangelism course.

The Senior Integrative Seminar, a 1.5 credit course for MDiv students, is to be taken by students in their final semester at Pacific School of Religion. This seminar provides students with the opportunity to assess their learning process over their time at PSR and to consider this question, in particular: “How has your education at PSR met the MDiv Student Program Learning Outcome (PLO’s), which are listed on page #10 of this syllabus, and helped you to integrate your intellectual and spiritual lives?”

For PSR students working on the Master of Theological Studies Synthesis Essay. Pass/Fail only. Course may be taken for 0.0-1.5 units.

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the collection of writings that we come to call the New Testament. In this course, students will become familiar with the historical context, culture, and politics that led to the production of this text. In addition to the traditional historical critical approach to the text, students will be introduced to other methods such as feminist, queer, postmodern, and postcolonial readings that will help us deconstruct these texts and reconstruct interpretations that are socially, ethically, and politically relevant to the world we live in.

This course gives an overview of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, with a focus on societal and religious transformations detailed in the texts and is designed primarily for 2nd year students in PSR’s stackable curriculum as an application of the methods learned in the Rhetorical Use of Texts course. Social justice issues in the ancient world of the Hebrew Bible will be discussed along with their modern applications using Feminist/Womanist, Gender, Postcolonial, Queer, Racial/Ethnic (Minoritized), Ecological, Disabilities Studies, and Hermeneutics of Suspicion approaches. The geographic focus of the course will be on the southern Levant (Holy Land) in its Middle Eastern contexts, the temporal range will be approximately 1200–400 BCE. Themes will be stressed that echo PSR’s core values, with special focus on leadership in its biblical forms, critical thinking, contexts (both ancient and modern), postcolonial theories, race/ethnicity, sexuality, gender, disabilities, and ecology. Evaluation will be based on class participation in discussions, written exegetical exercises, chapel service design and implementation, and a final reflection paper. The written work for the course will aid 2nd year MDiv students in their Middler and SAIL capstone portfolios.

Throughout history, humans have utilized rituals to negotiate the complexities of life transitions, to explore the deeper, spiritual aspects of living, and symbolize and story their experiences. This course explores the dynamics of what ritual is and what ritual does by engaging participants in both developing ritual design skills and in understanding the roles that ritual can play in a variety of spiritual leadership contexts. Together we will ask, how do we engage communities in activities that carry values and deep-en meaning? How do we create practices that embody beliefs and form people for particular ways of being in the world? What role do embodied spiritual practices play in people’s spiritual lives and in the work of social transformation and how do we employ them?

PS1462 is a one credit hour introductory class taken in a one semester sequence with PS1461 and PS1463 which are also one credit hour classes. This course will invite students to think about the importance of communication in the varied tasks of their ministries and vocations. Heightened emphasis will be given to the art of preaching and the varied theologies and practices that arise in differing cultural contexts and communities. Discussion on preaching will focus on connecting individual situations to meta narratives, with particular attention to biblical exegesis, interpretation, sermon form, orality, the person of the preacher, and the sermon’s embodiment. Students will familiarize themselves with the theories regarding the use of narrative in spoken word.
PSR requires three hours of outside work for each hour spent in the classroom. Students will spend time outside of class watching videos, listening to podcasts, reading assigned articles and critically reflecting on them orally and in writing. Students will create a sermon in a format/mode that is best suited to communicate the student’s message and that can be used beyond the classroom in a setting of the student’s choosing—a congregation, public event, or virtual public forum.

The third and last in a series, this course is designed to teach the art and skill of empathy, especially in the context of those on the margins. As an intensive, the aim will be to establish quickly a practicing community; attendance, preparation, and generous listening, and reflective sharing are crucial to this process. Empathy for others flows from vulnerability, self-awareness, and intimate familiarity with the entire spectrum of emotion; students will therefore cultivate the important habit of self-writing, or journaling, to develop these capacities. Other assignments include reading presentations, personal and group reflections, and, borrowing a term from Howard Thurman, a “centering down” opening ritual. Finally, students will have the opportunity to practice compassion for those who bring you discomfort, those “others” who inhabit our lives, via a case study.

This course aims to ground the practice of pastoral care in the empowerment and liberation of marginalized bodies and communities. Grounded in postcolonial, intersectional, and interreligious approaches to pastoral care, this course asks that students reflect on pastoral theology, pastoral care practices, and various case studies that center experiences of marginalization, including issues of race, gender, sexual orientation, and migration. Each week, the instructors will give a brief reflection on the required readings and group discussions on the readings will follow. Students will be evaluated through class participation, assigned projects, and a class presentation relating to the final project. The course assumes students have completed an introduction to pastoral care course and aims to deepen their imagination of pastoral care sensibilities and possibilities in a variety of contexts.

A special reading course designed by the student and faculty member. This course must have a special reading course form on file in your Registrar’s office in order to receive credit for it. Course available for 0.5-12 units.

Theology concerns words, wordings, the Word, or speech about the divine. In the 11th century, Anselm of Canterbury defined theology as “faith seeking understanding.” This course invites a continuation of that perennial human quest, and especially in Christian faith traditions. We will explore and learn from both the wisdom and shortcomings of those who have preceded us in trying to give meaningful and responsible expression to theological topics. We will likewise engage in contemporary forms of that same quest as we attend carefully to the contribution theological ideas can make to social change and transformation. (Lectures, small groups, short papers, and a “credo project.”)