Week 1 || Week 2| Assessment 1 | Assessment 2 | Assessment 3
1. Course Description:
To develop a critical framework for understanding the dynamic interplay between the Church's self-understanding and its engagement in mission. The course evaluates philosophical and praxis based theories of interpretation, the significance of context for theology, and the way in which engagement in mission both expresses and informs theological method and theological understanding.
2.
Content Overview:
Students are advised to complete
pre-reading before attending the first block of four days which will include 12
lecture periods, interviews with each student, personal study including the
completion of the first written assignment and the determination of subsequent
assignment topics.
The first part of the course explores understanding of the concepts of mission
and of interpretation and the history of their inter-relatedness through key
writers from Western and Third World contexts. Key concepts include the use of
God, Church and the World as missiological and hermeneutical keys, the
relationship between theology and mission (in what way might it be appropriate
to talk about Mission as the “mother of theology”) and discussion of the threat
culture appears to have for concern for truth in Western traditions.
The second block of 5 days will include 15 lecture periods, further interviews
to discuss work completed and progress on the research project. Topics will
include seeking a resolution between praxis and theoretical approaches to
mission and interpretation by the idea of discernment as a missiological task,
including the concept of “critical contextualisation”
A study will be made of the methodologies of David Bosch, Lesslie Newbigin and
Robert Schreiter, and others from the point of view of their ability to provide
models for understanding and controlling the way in which mission and
interpretation interconnect. Analysis will also be made of key church documents
from Evangelical, Catholic and Conciliar traditions relating to Faith and
Culture, including those developed by one or more "Gospel and Culture"
movements.
3. Learning Outcomes:
Those who successfully
complete this course will be able to
a) Describe and critique a model of Christian understanding of the interplay between cultural context and hermeneutics,
b) Relate their own understanding of mission and interpretation to that of other Christian traditions,
c) Explain the significance of these issues for theology and for mission.
d) Illustrate what is meant by the social, cultural and theological dimensions of a situation affecting the mission of the church and its self-understanding in a particular context.
e) Outline a process of discernment by which theological understanding arising out of mission experience may be evaluated and illustrate this in relation to a particular situation.
f) Present written answers in understandable form, in a standard style, and with evidence of research using books, journals, the world-wide web, and discussion with named people.