2021-2022 Faculty of Theology courses

SMT3670HF L9101
Vatican II: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

A study of the documents of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and their contemporary significance for students of ministry. Emphasis is on the historical context, the central theological content of each of the texts, and their relevance to professional ministry today.

Date: Tuesday
Time: 18:00-21:00
Instructor: Michael Attridge
Note: This course will begin on May 4, 2021 and end on June 22, 2021.

SMB3266HF L9101
Psalms

The course is designed to introduce a critical study of the book of Psalms, its problems and methods. It will combine an investigation into the structure, design and theology of the Psalter with the exegesis of many individual psalms. Careful attention will be paid to their forms and settings in life, particularly their place in ancient liturgies.

Date: Monday, Wednesday
Time: 17:00-19:00
Instructor: David Alcorn
Note: This course will begin on May 3, 2021 and end on June 9, 2021.

SMH2801HS L9101
A Journey Through History: The Jesuit Missions in Early Modern Canada

Bound to Canada’s early modern history are the apostolic labours of the Jesuit missionaries who ministered to both a vast number of First Nations peoples and a fledgling community or French settlers. Their efforts, chronicled in the Jesuit Relations, will come to life in this intensive five-day course taught, in situ, at the heart of the former Wendat (Huron) Nation (present day Martyrs’ Shrine). From this location, students will begin an experiential journey, passing through the pages of the Relations, into world-class reconstructed historical sites, that together will create the space for examining how their religious world view shaped the missionaries’ understanding of the ‘New World’, First Nations Cultures, and evangelization during the earliest period in Canada’s ecclesiastical history.

Date: Monday, July 5 to Friday, July 9
Time: Students will be required to login every morning to view a pre-recorded video of various sites at the shrine, with a 3-hour lecture to follow in the afternoons.
Instructor: Fr. Michael Knox, S.J.
Note: Normally this course would run on-site at Martyr’s Shrine. Due to the pandemic, this course will be offered remotely.

SMT2402HS L9101
Introduction to Liturgy

This course is an introduction to the history, theology and pastoral practice of Christian liturgy. Topics include: the role of ritual and symbol in human life, liturgical renewal and the Second Vatican Council, liturgical theology, inculturation, liturgy and ethics, liturgy and the arts, liturgical time, and the rites of Christian Initiation and the Eucharist.

Date: Monday, Wednesday
Time: 18:00-21:00
Instructor: Christian McConnell
Note: This course will begin on July 12, 2021 and end on August 4, 2021.

SMP3416HS L9101
Black Lives Matter in the Classroom

In recent years, several studies conducted in boards of education, such as Peel Region (Chadha, Herbert, and Richard 2020) and Toronto District (James and Turner 2017), have reaffirmed the existence of racial inequities in Canada’s education system. While these inequities exist at primary, secondary and tertiary levels, the vulnerability of the K-12 sector makes it a particularly urgent issue. The studies highlight disparities in student achievement, suspensions, streaming and completion rates among Black students and their white counterparts. Furthermore, the school to jail pipeline is a well documented phenomenon that has far reaching implications for society. Recent events such as the police killings of Black individuals, and the civil rights movements spawned by these horrific events, have served to emphasize the systemic racism present in our institutions, including those mandated for education. Scholars such as Ladson-Billings (1995) and Grant and Sleeter (2011) have mapped the characteristics of successful teachers of Black students. Influenced by the conscientization philosophy of Paulo Freire (1970), three spheres of successful learning experiences converge to ensure this success: believing that students can succeed academically, encouraging cultural competence, and nurturing critical consciousness. Through this course, we will uncover how racism disrupts the humanization process and subsequently assails educational development.

Date: Tuesday, Thursday
Time: 18:00-21:00
Instructor: Marie Green
Note: This course will begin on July 13, 2021 and end on August 5, 2021.

SMT2610HS L9101
Eco-Theology Faith and Practice

Through lecture, discussion, prayer and eco-praxis, course participants will develop a solid academic foundation in eco-theology, skills to analyze contemporary social and ethical issues in ecology, and an integration of theology, spirituality and practical applications to support the formation of Christian identity and mission in the world today.

Date: Monday, July 26, 2021 to Wednesday, August 4, 2021
Instructor(s): Sr. Linda Gregg, CSJ and Sr. Mary Rowell, CSJ
Note: Intensive Schedule

SMB1007HF L9101
Introduction to the Old Testament

A survey of the religious traditions of ancient Israel as they are reflected in the diverse types of literature found in the First Testament, with emphasis on their historical development and their relevance for contemporary ministry. Topics to be considered include: Israelite origins, settlement of the land, social structures, the monarchy, prophecy, the exile and return.

Date: Saturday
Time: 11:00-13:00
Instructor: TBA
Location: Online

SMB1101YY L0101
Introductory Biblical Hebrew

An introduction to the language of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. Study of basic grammar and vocabulary in order to read easier prose and poetic texts. This course is taught with a “communicative” pedagogy, by which students learn to read, write, and even speak Biblical Hebrew. The ultimate goal of the communicative approach is to sensitize language learners to Biblical Hebrew as a human language so that the biblical texts can be read with greater sensitivity.

Date: Monday, Wednesday
Time: 9:00-11:00
Instructor: Robert Holmstedt
Location: TBA
Note: Optional tutorial on Fridays at 9 a.m.

SMH1010HF L0101
History of Christianity I (to AD 843)

From the sub-apostolic age to the “Triumph of Orthodoxy” in the East and the Carolingian revival and Treaty of Verdun in the West. Geographical expansion of the church; the relation of Christian faith to cultural settings and other religions; the development of doctrinal and ethical positions; forms of Christian life and worship; the rise of Islam.

Date: Monday
Time: 19:00-21:00
Instructor: TBA
Location: TBA

SMT1101HF L0101
Foundations of Theology

This course will invite students to engage significant challenges confronting the contemporary practice of theology in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Christian Churches (such as: secularization, racism, colonization, gender discrimination, sex abuse crisis). Careful attention
will then be given to elements of theological reflection, with emphasis on theological method, revelation, faith, scripture, tradition, dogma and its development, teaching office (magisterium), the theologian, infallibility, and historicity. Assuming the redefining impact of globalization and
religious pluralism on the understanding and practice of theology, the course aims at enabling students to critically assess and appropriate the resources of Christian tradition so as to be able to define and contribute to Roman Catholic and Eastern Christian theology tailored for the twenty-first century.

Date: Thursday
Time: 19:00-21:00
Instructor: Jean-Pierre Fortin
Location: TBA

SMT1904HF L0101
Fundamental Themes in Christian Ethics

This course explores themes required for an understanding of the moral subject and moral actions. Topics include: Old Testament and New Testament ethics; current ethical theories especially Natural Law; formation of conscience, sin, conversion and the role of the Magisterium.

Date: Thursday
Time: 19:00-21:00
Instructor: Moira McQueen
Location: TBA

SMP2241HF L0101
Spirituality of the Jewish Year

Introduction to Judaism through study of the Sabbath and festivals of the Jewish year. Designed for Christians, enables students to teach and to preach from an understanding of our Jewish roots.

Date: Tuesday
Time: 17:00-19:00
Instructor: Anne Anderson
Location: TBA

SMT2242HF L0101
Christology

Systematic and pastoral approach to Christology and soteriology. Emphasis on New Testament christologies, later developments, contemporary interpretations. Study of the impact on Christology of such issues as the continuing quest for the historical Jesus, dialogue with other religions, and in particular with Judaism, the challenge of liberation and feminist theologies, and the new cosmology.

Date: Wednesday
Time: 11:00-13:00
Instructor: Michael Attridge
Location: TBA

SMT2404HF L0101
Ecclesiology

Jesus’ preaching of the reign of God; development of ecclesial structures; ministries in the church; mission, service, and witness in the Church today, contemporary issues leading to and arising from Vatican II.

Date: Tuesday
Time: 14:00-16:00
Instructor: Michael Attridge
Location: TBA

SMP2600HF L0101
Theology of Ministry

This course will explore the foundations of ministry in the New Testament, the manifold expressions of ministry in the history of the Church, and a variety of contemporary issues related to the theology and practice of ministry from a Roman Catholic perspective. Also important will be the relationship of ministry to other aspects of theology, such as Christology, pneumatology, grace, mission, ecclesiology, and sacraments.

Date: Monday
Time: 17:00-19:00
Instructor: Jean-Pierre Fortin
Location: TBA

SMB2656HF L0101
The Good News of Mark

A study of the Gospel of Mark with attention to its claim to be a story of gospel, or good news. Particular attention to the narrative and oral features of the Gospel, to its Christology, its inner tensions, its characterizations, and the kinds of conflicts it might have been addressing in its own time.

Date: Monday
Time: 14:00-16:00
Instructor: Colleen Shantz
Location: TBA

SMP2721HF L0101
Canon Law in the Church

This course provides an introduction to the canon law of the Church: East and West. First, the “Sacred canons” of the first millennium will be examined as the common canonical foundation to the entire Christian Church. Second, developments in the medieval era will be compared in the Byzantine East and the Latin West. Third, the process of legal codification in the Catholic Church will be examined to see one approach to applying historical legislation in the contemporary Church. Finally, numerous themes will be examined to provide a cursory overview of the Catholic
Church’s system of canon law, with special attention to questions related to ecclesiology, sacraments, and sanctions in the Church.

Date: Wednesday
Time: 17:00-19:00
Instructor: TBA
Location: Seminar Room, Windle House

SMT2944HF L0101
Foundations to Eastern Ethics

This course explores the essential elements of an Eastern Christian approach to ethics, in terms of its sources, methods and applications. While countenancing an array of specific moral issues-including sexual ethics, embryonic and stem cell research, human cloning, euthanasia, capital punishment, the morality of war, environmental ethics, and social ethics-the course Is focused on meta-ethical reflection, i.e., a consideration of the “first principles  of theological ethics within an Eastern Christian context. Thus systematically attention is given to the specifically ethical significance of such data as Scripture, patristic texts, liturgy, hagiography, canon law and contemporary church teaching. Throughout the course, we will probe the nature of the dialectic between (meta)ethical theory and Individual/communal practice.

Date: Thursday
Time: 14:00-16:00
Instructor: TBA
Location: Seminar Room, Windle House

SMP3400HF/6400HF L0101
Education, Media, and Evangelization

Graduate degree students enrol in SMP6400HF.

This course interrogates the intersection of education, digital media, and evangelization in the 21st century. Using a variety of materials from theology, educational theory, organizational development, and media studies, the course explores the conceptual and communicative dynamics of multiple and changing contexts, and offers practice in using specific digital media for engaging those contexts effectively. This class is rooted in a Catholic understanding, but asserts that we live in a multi-religious context and as such evangelization must entail prophetic dialogue. Students from a variety of degree programs are welcomed, with assignments structured according to individual degree program levels.

Date: Wednesday
Time: 19:00-21:00
Instructor: TBA
Location: TBA

SMT3651HF/6651HF L0101
Anselm the Theologian

Graduate degree students enrol in SMT6651HF.

In this course, students will examine the writings of Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109), an eleventh-century Italian thinker who became a monk, prior, archbishop and ultimately a leading theologian of his day. Scholars often treat Anselm as the first scholastic theologian, which to some degree is true. In this course, however, we will seek to understand Anselm the theologian as a constituent of the eleventh century, and of eleventh-century Anglo-Norman monasticism in particular. The focus of the seminars will be mainly on a close reading of the Cur Deus homo, a text that Anselm completed by 1098, after he had become archbishop in 1093. We will therefore explore two major contexts: (1) the world of eleventh-century monasticism of Normandy and (2) the world of the archiepiscopacy of Canterbury at the end of this same century. We will seek the read this text in light of the broad tradition of pre-modern treatments of Soteriology and the Incarnation, but also within the two more immediate contexts.

Date: Thursday
Time: 17:00-19:00
Instructor: James Ginther
Location: TBA

SMT3955HF/6955HF L0101
Approaches to Ecological Ethics

Graduate degree students enrol in SMT6955HF

The course will consider issues, documents, and ethical methods that will help the student to develop an understanding of the ecological crisis as well as ethical and theological responses to it. The limitations of a human-centered ethics, the need for an ecological justice that incorporates human justice, the implications of climate change, and the various Christian responses to the environmental issues are some of the topics that will be considered in the course. Method: lectures, case studies, informed discussions. Evaluation: reflection paper, integration paper, practical integration.

Date: Wednesday
Time: 17:00-19:00
Instructor: Hilda Koster
Location: TBA

SMT5531HF L0101
Trinitarian Approaches to Religious Diversity

This course explores the doctrine of the Trinity as hermeneutic and heuristic for a theological understanding of religious diversity. After briefly outlining various Christian theological approaches to religious diversity/pluralism, we will examine how various theologians have reflected on religious diversity from a Trinitarian perspective.

Date: Wednesday
Time: 11:00-13:00
Instructor: Darren Dias
Location: TBA

SMH5611HF L0101
Historical Theology: Theories and Practices

Historical Theology is an interdisciplinary project, which employs the tools and skills of historical research to examine what Anselm of Canterbury called “faith seeking understanding.” Yet history, like theology, is neither monolithic in structure nor univocal in expression. This seminar will introduce students to issues and questions that dominate historiographical debate, and by extension theological discourse. We will proceed in three ways. First we will discuss the basic tools of the trade, ranging from bibliographical research to the “grunt work” of collecting the data, to the various genres of historical writing. Then, we will examine some the key philosophical and methodological questions around the construction and writing of history, with a clear eye on how this relates to nature of historical theology. Finally, practice and theory will come together as we examine a topic of common interest (such as a broad doctrinal category, or a general aspect of ecclesial life). This examination will give each student the freedom to employ a specific historical methodology on this topic, but framed in relation to each student’s own confessional and ecclesial contexts. It is during this last part of the course that students will begin to formulate their major piece of writing.

Date: Tuesday
Time: 11:00-13:00
Instructor: James Ginther
Location: TBA

SMB5622HS L0101
The Passion Narratives

Pre-Requisites: Knowledge of Greek

This course examines the accounts of the passion and death of Jesus in their original historical and literary contexts. Topics include: Roman and Jewish judicial procedures; crucifixion and burial in the ancient world; the editorial tendencies of the gospel writers; incipient anti-Judaism in the gospels; conceptual trajectories of the passion narratives.

Date: Wednesday
Time: 9:00-12:00
Instructor: John Kloppenborg
Location: TBA

SMB5715HF L0101
Becoming Christian

After the Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan in 313 CE, Christianity was supported by the whole apparatus of the Roman empire. This course explores how the movement survived and even thrived before that point. We will examine the challenges of life in urban centers of the empire using social scientific models and material evidence from this initial period to assess the ways in which the practices and forms of Christ movement were adapted to address these challenges—and sometimes not well adapted. Along the way we will assess the state of scholarship on the “success” of early Christianity to consider alternative ways of formulating the questions it asks. Our topics will include ritual and affect, economic factors (like housing and status), social organization, health care, attitudes to suffering and the body, and ideas that helped to make life meaningful and navigable.

Date: Thursday
Time: 11:00-13:00
Instructor: Colleen Shantz
Location: TBA

SMB1501HS L0101
Introduction to the New Testament

Introduction to the major methods and issues in the interpretation of the Gospels: the world of the New Testament; the composition, structure and theologies of the Gospels; traditions behind the Gospels; the Jesus of History and the Christ of Faith.

Date: Tuesday
Time: 17:00-19:00
Instructor: Colleen Shantz
Location: TBA

TXH2010HS L0101
History of Christianity II (843-1648)

Development of thought and piety; monasticism and mendicants; crusades, parish life; papacy, princes and church councils; Byzantium; East-West relations; relations with Jews and Muslims; Renaissance and reformations; reformers; missionary expansion; confessionalism.

Date: Thursday
Time: 9:00-11:00
Instructor: James Ginther and Stewart McDonald
Location: TBA

SMP22XXHS L0101
Spirituality in the Medical Marketplace

Date: Monday
Time: 17:00-19:00
Instructor: Anne Anderson
Location: TBA

SMT2215HS L0101
The Three-Personed God: Eastern Christian Perspectives

This course provides a survey of Eastern Christian teaching on the Triune God that focuses both on patristic and contemporary authors read in English. The course situates doctrine within the broader array of Holy Tradition (Scripture, Fathers, Councils, Creeds, Liturgy, Iconography, Hagiography, etc.), paying attention to the historical contexts in which various teachings arose and were defined. Comparisons will be made between Eastern and Western Christian approaches to certain questions, with some attention to ecumenical repercussions. Apophatic and antinomic approaches to theology will be emphasized as well as the connection between doctrine and spirituality.

Date: Thursday
Time: 14:00-16:00
Instructor: TBA
Location: Seminar Room, Windle House

SMP22XXHS L0101
Spirituality in the Medical Marketplace

Date: Monday
Time: 17:00-19:00
Instructor: Anne Anderson
Location: TBA

SMF3010HS L0101
Theological Reflection Seminar

Pre-requisite: SMP2600H: Theology of Ministry and completion of 100 hour Supervised Field Education Placement.

After completion of Supervised Field Placement, students meet as peers to learn and practice a method of theological reflection on their pastoral practice. Focused on theological, cultural, and personal dimensions of students’ ministry practice and their developing pastoral identity.

Date: Thursday
Time: 19:00-21:00
Instructor: Jean-Pierre Fortin
Location: TBA
Note: This course is not for open registration, please register through the Student Services Officer.

SMF3010YS L0101
Theological Reflection Seminar

Pre-requisite: SMP2600H: Theology of Ministry and completion of 250 hours of Supervised Field Education Placement.

After completion of Supervised Field Placement, students meet as peers to learn and practice a method of theological reflection on their pastoral practice. Focused on theological, cultural, and personal dimensions of students’ ministry practice and their developing pastoral identity.

Date: Thursday
Time: 19:00-21:00
Instructor: Jean-Pierre Fortin
Location: TBA
Note: This course is not for open registration, please register through the Student Services Officer.

SMP3428HS/6428HS L0101
Catholic Educational Documents

Graduate degree students enrol in SMP6428HS.

This course introduces students to Catholic documents that have both explicit and implicit implications for Catholic education. The objective of the course, therefore is to enable students to read these texts closely with a view to drawing out the implications, particularly he first-principles, cultural context, and the key educational issues. Attention will be paid to the pedagogical, theological, cultural, social and foundational issues contained in these texts. The text will also be read through an applied hermeneutical method. As this is a course in reading primary texts, students will be expected to become very knowledgeable of the texts assigned each week.

Date: Monday
Time: 19:00-21:00
Instructor: TBA
Location: TBA

SMT3370HS/6370HS L0101
Spirituality and Ecology: Integration and Implications

Graduate degree students enrol in SMT6370HS

The course provides an exploration of how Christianity has understood the relationship among God, creation, humanity and spirituality, and how that understanding has contributed to the ecological challenges we currently face as well as can contribute to a helpful response. The course begins with an overview of our understanding of spirituality and creation during the patristic, medieval and reformation periods, then shifts to contemporary understandings drawing from current discussions of Christology, creation-centred spirituality, eco-feminism, deep ecology, and the healing of nature and the healing of self.

Date: Monday
Time: 19:00-21:00
Instructor: Hilda Koster
Location: TBA

SMT3433HS L0101
Sacramental Life

This course is a historical, systematic, and pastoral study of the sacraments of initiation (baptism, confirmation, Eucharist), sacraments of healing (reconciliation, sacrament of the sick), sacraments of vocation (marriage and orders) in Roman Catholic practice.

Date: Saturday
Time: 11:00-13:00
Instructor: TBA
Location: TBA

SMP3446HS/6446HS L0101
The Educator and Theology

Graduate degree students enrol in SMP6446HS

The course deals with the relationship between the Catholic educator and theology. This course is distinct from a theology of education, but there are common themes. Students will be introduced to the themes that draw out the relationship between theology and the role of the educator in the context of Catholic education. Students will read texts on the nature of theology and how it informs and shapes the mission and vocation of the educator, and the place of theological reflection specific to the educator.

Date: Wednesday
Time: 19:00-21:00
Instructor: TBA
Location: TBA

SMB3627HS/6627HS L0101
Jesus and Justice

Graduate degree students enrol in SMB6627HS

The course will examine the portrait of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels as it conveys three themes of justice: 1) the exercise of power, 2) economic issues, and 3) human worth. The course will place Jesus’s actions and teachings in the social and political conditions of first century Galilee and Judea while also considering their relevance to contemporary events and circumstances. Special attention will be given to the parables, economic teachings, and the phenomena of healings and exorcisms as responses to the conditions of daily life and political rule in first century Palestine.

Date: Thursday
Time: 11:00-13:00
Instructor: Colleen Shantz
Location: TBA

SMT3855HS/6855HS L0101
Comparative Method in Theology and Religion

Graduate degree students enrol in SMT6855HS

Few methods have been more foundational to the scholarly study of religion, or more subject to searching criticism, than the practice of comparison. This seminar offers an advanced introduction to comparative method in the contemporary academy by means of a close study of 4-6 significant comparative projects published in the last decade. Examples will be drawn from different sub-disciplines of theology and religion, including but not limited to ritual studies, philosophy of religion, comparative theology and/or ethnography. Students will engage various foundational questions of comparative method, including the presuppositions of the comparativist, the skillful construction of comparative examples, and the role of theory.

Date: Thursday
Time: 10:00-12:00
Instructor: Reid Locklin
Location: TBA

SMT3907HS L0101
Contemporary Issues in Eastern Christian Moral Theology

This course invites students to reflect critically, from within an Eastern Christian frame of reference, on a series of current issues where the encounter of contemporaneity and classical wisdom is not only vital but also potentially very fruitful as regards conceptual yield. The issues include the following: virtual reality and cyberspace; war and peacebuilding; social and economic justice; multiculturalism; gender identity/expression and sexuality; (in)fertility and reproductive technologies; genetic research and genome engineering; palliative care and medical assistance in dying; and stewardship for an integral ecology. Contextual discussion of the foregoing will be embedded in a wider theological consideration of rights and responsibilities, as these have developed in the classic expressions of the Eastern Christian tradition(s). Students will thus become aware of how ethics occurs at the intersection of various fields within theology, as well as at the boundary with disciplines beyond it (e.g., philosophy, psychology and sociology).

Date: Wednesday
Time: 17:00-19:00
Instructor: TBA
Location: Seminar Room, Windle House

SMT3925HS L0101
Justice: Indiv/Social

Case study approach to justice in speech and communication, economic transactions, duties of employers and employees, professional ethics, etc.

Date: Monday
Time: 11:00-13:00
Instructor: TBA
Location: TBA

SMT3952HS L0101
Contemporary Issues in Biomedical Ethics

Using contemporary articles from Christian ethics and Magisterial teachings, the biological and medical sciences, and philosophical ethics, the course will develop and apply critical thinking and ethical methods to contemporary issues in biomedical ethics including: issues pertaining to the creation of life (e.g., IV fertilization, reproductive technologies), the preservation of life (e.g., right to care, refusal of care, micro & macroallocation of limited resources, stem cell research), and the end of life (e.g., euthanasia, allowing to die, elder neglect).

Date: Thursday
Time: 17:00-19:00
Instructor: TBA
Location: TBA

SMB5064HS L0101
Ancient Israelite Religion

Pre-Requisites: 3 semesters of Hebrew

A seminar examining features of ancient Israelite religion as reflected in the archaeological and literary evidence. Topics include the origins and nature of Yahweh, other deities in ancient Israel, monotheism, the cult of the dead, divergent perspectives of priestly, royal, Deuteronomistic, prophetic groups, etc.

Date: Tuesday
Time: 14:00-16:00
Instructor: John McLaughlin
Location: TBA