Academic Catalog

Kirk (3 credits)

This course surveys the development and adaptation of Christianity starting with the shocking death of a Jewish religious leader and what his followers did afterward. We consider the next generation of followers and teachers who took Jesus’ message and adapted it for their context by studying particular places and times across the globe. We see how location, other religious traditions, politics, and other dynamics shaped Christianity through a variety of primary readings.

MDiv required class

Spring Semester course

Kirk (3 credits)

The purpose of this course is to provide a general introduction to the history of the Unitarians and Universalists, primarily in North America, with a brief review of the European roots of these religious traditions. Comprehensive coverage of such a diverse landscape is not the goal of the course. Rather, we will focus on individuals and events that highlight different ways Unitarians, Universalists, and Unitarian Universalists practiced their religion, organized themselves, and spoke of belief in a variety of contexts. As we trace the history, we pay attention to race, gender, and class in development of Unitarianism, Universalism, and Unitarian Universalism.

Required of students seeking UU Ministerial Fellowship.

Fall Semester course

Kirk (3 credits)

Call of the Wild examines the history of nature, ecology, and religion primarily in North America through nature writing, autobiographies, fiction, film, and essays. Some of the questions we consider are: What is nature? What is wilderness? How is our relationship with nature shaped by religion? What makes a place sacred? The course invites students into a deeper exploration of nature, religion, and place while attending to religion, race, gender, and class.

Fall 2024

Kirk (3 credits)

A reading-intensive seminar, this course examines the complex, contested, and changing relationships of two central themes in American history: race and religion. The goal of the course is to become familiar with the diverse constructions of race in America and how religious understandings of difference have contributed to the production, continuation, and challenging of constructions of race. Students will grapple with a variety of primary and secondary sources focused on key themes and selected periods in American history to explore the shifting and negotiated understandings and identities of race and religion.