Current and Upcoming Courses
January 2014 Intensives
| Spring Semester | June Term |
PhD Teaching seminar
This seminar will explore methods of teaching in higher education settings, such as colleges and seminaries. The seminar prepares for teaching assistant responsibilities that are a required part of the PhD program.
January 6-10 – STM/DMin – Complicated Issues of Grief, Loss and Death (Dr. Storm Swain)
Drawing on classic and contemporary theories dealing with death by disease, disaster or deliberation, this case-based seminar course will explore pastoral resources and responses to complicated and difficult grief.
January 13-17 – STM/DMin - Contentious Margins: Feminism and Multiculturalism (Dr. Mrinalini Sebastian)
The discourse of multiculturalism has drawn our attention to the importance of safeguarding the cultural rights of religious or ethnic communities in a modern democracy. Yet often, tension between cultural rights of a group and the rights of women as individuals has raised interesting dilemmas for the feminist scholars. This course will explore, through an analysis of their representative writings, how some feminist scholars have responded to this tension between the rights of a group and the rights of women.
DATE CHANGE: January 13-17 STM/DMin—“A Way Out of No Way”: African American Religious Education (Dr. Nelson Strobert, LTSG)
This course examines the development of African American religious education traditions from the slavery to the present period. Through the reading of selected texts, examining documents by and regarding key leaders, participating in field experiences, and conducting structured interviews with educational leaders, participants will develop strategies for the enhancement of religious education in African American communities of faith.
January 20-24 – STM/DMin – TBA (St. John's Summit Professor, TBA)
Spring 2014
| January Term | DMin/STM | STM/PhD | PhD | June Term |
PhD seminar --From Cyprian to Augustine: Exploring the Trajectory of Authority in the Early Church (Dr. Jayakiran Sebastian)
This course traces the question of authority in relation to the church and the state through controversies arising from Cyprian of Carthage, the Constantinian legacy, and the Augustinian attempts to come to terms with Pelagianism and Donatism. Students will become better acquainted with teh complexity of the issues and themese that confronted the early teachers of faith, whose contribution to doctrine and life continues to impact and influence theological reflection and praxis today.
Exploration of theologians of the 20th and 21st centuries who focus on communicating the Word of God through preaching and teaching, with implications for contemporary theology and the practice of ministry.
STM/PhD --Theology of Religious Plurality (Dr. J. Paul Rajashekar)
This seminar is a critical examination of contemporary theological approaches to religious pluralism, especially as they relate to biblical and historical responses to the problematic of world religions. Selected theological approaches from a variety of traditions from late 19th century to the present will receive attention. Perspectives from other living faiths will also be addressed in this seminar.
STM/DMin -- Job, Suffering and the Holocaust (Dr. Wil Gafney)
(Hybrid Course - students will meet for face-to-face sessions, but also spend some weeks working through the LTSP Moodle Site. Details regarding face-to face dates will to follow.)
STM/DMin – Religion and Film (Dr. Jon Pahl) (Distance Education Course - students should have computer competency and will need to work through the LTSP Moodle Site.)
This course will consider the nature and character of God as portrayed in Job, and the implications of that portrayal. We will consider the utility of the text as a homiletical and pastoral resource by analyzing ancient and medieval Jewish and Christian exegesis of the text. Specifically, we will explore the Holocaust through the lens of suffering and responses to suffering in Job. (Knowledge of Biblical Hebrew and/or Greek is strongly recommended, but not required.)
Film as a medium has the potential to illumine any and all aspects of a culture. How have filmmakers approached the intersections of religion and violence in American history? In this online course, students will read leading scholarly interpretations of the relationships between religion and violence in America, view selected films on the topic, write reviews of the films in light of the reading, and produce a major research paper on a topic of their choosing within the broad parameters of the course.
STM/DMin – Reclaiming the Great Commission: Evangelizing Today (William Hurst) (Distance Education Course - students should have computer competency and will need to work through the LTSP Moodle Site.)This course will provide an overview of biblical, theological and historical foundations of evangelization. We will also review and seek to better understand contemporary theologies of evangelism in the context of the broader issues of Christian mission in a pluralistic and postmodern society. Finally, the course will explore and analyze various strategies in the practice of evangelization at the congregational level.
June Term 2014
June 2-6 – STM/DMin Religious Experience in the Life of the Church (Dr. Kevin Moroney)
Pastors and theologians spend considerable time attempting to facilitate religious experiences and helping people to understand them, yet rarely take the time to seek a deeper understanding of these experiences through scholarly exploration. This course will provide an introduction to the scholarship of religious experience over the last century, drawing on the work of scholars such as, William James, Rudolf Otto, Mircea Eliade and Abraham Maslow, as a means to reflecting on how these varied experiences of the divine impact our pastoral life and faith communities.
June 9-13 – STM/DMin Revitalizing Your Preaching (Dr. Karyn Wiseman)
Has your preaching become stale? Do people listen to your sermons politely, while their hearts and lives seem untouched? Learn to sharpen the hearing of those whose ears have been dulled by many sermons. Participants will preach, re-work, and re-preach a single sermon, while beginning to master specific strategies and tactics for reconnecting with God’s people.
June 16-20 STM/DMin -- Emotional Intelligence (Dr. Jackie Bahn-Henkelmann, the Rev. Roy Oswald)
This course focuses on the primary areas of emotional intelligence as defined by experts in the field, as keys to improving leadership effectiveness for faith leaders. Students will engage in small-group learning and become aware of how they impact each other and lead or are led by others. As group life unfolds participants exchange feedback, learn both interpersonal and intra-group communication skills, as well as group formation and group dynamics.
June 23-26 STM/DMin – DMin Colloquiua I & II (Dr. David D. Grafton)
Colloquium I introduces students to the DMin program and advanced level study in a peer learning environment, while Colloquium II prepares students for their DMin Project. Both Colloquia are offered concurrently.
LTSP is currently in the middle of a MDiv/MAR curriculum revision to be implemented in 2013-2014. This may impact the availability of faculty for various graduate course offerings. We will update this page as we are able throughout this process. Please check back regularly.
For further information on courses for 2013-14, email the Director of Graduate Studies at advanced@Ltsp.edu or call 215-248-6347.
For further information for admission requirements for LTSP Graduate Programs email admissions@Ltsp.edu or call 215-248-7302.
For registration information, email the Registrar at registrar@Ltsp.edu or call 215-248-6305.
Also: For information on STM courses at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg go to http://www.ltsg.edu/academics/stm/stmcourses.htm or call 717-334-6286.
For information on STM courses at the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, go to their website at http://ltss.lr.edu/ or call 803-461-3253 (registrar).