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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”)

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 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.

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.

The SAIL Project (Social Analysis for Innovative Leadership) is the capstone project for the Master of Arts in Social Transformation degree. Students choose either to write a thesis or to create an e-portfolio demonstrating effective engagement with the degree’s learning outcomes. Students meet with each other and the instructor three or four times over the course of the semester to share insights into strat-egies about their projects. [Faculty Consent required]

This is done independently with your advisor. Only MAST students should register for this course. MDIV students do not need to register for this 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.