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.

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.

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.

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.

Students will engage with the principles of community organizing, transformational change, and community development within a theological and social justice framework. The course begins with readings, lectures, and discussions followed by discussions with practitioners from social justice organizations and movements. Opportunities for onsite work in various topic areas will be provided, but students are also encouraged to find their own local ways to participate in organizing and activist work. Students will learn about a variety of social transformation methods with different organizations as well as participating in 12 hours of experiential learning work.  

TRANSFORMATIVE LEADERSHIP: PROPHETS, HERETICS, AND SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS 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 inspiration that lifts one from common place existing to living beyond the norm. In the quest for a more just and compassion 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.

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.”)

“Design Thinking” is a human-centered approach to problem-solving and new product development that emerged from the high-tech, entrepreneurial world of Silicon Valley. It has evolved over the years into a process that is rooted in community-based research, ongoing testing of assumptions, a resistance to immediate answers for the sake of deeper insights, and hypothesizing future consequences. The course is an introductory level course meant for religious leaders, non-profit leaders and leaders involved in social change initiatives.