Current Course Offerings
Fall 2026 Courses
THEO 504: Liberating Bible
Taught by Dr. Anna Miller on Mondays, 6:00-8:30
Key questions of this course are: How can the Sacred Scriptures of the Jewish and Christian traditions help us engage a new conversation about justice, solidarity and planetary survival? The course equips students with a critical fundamental competency in reading and interpreting scripture while inviting them to explore how the Bible can inspire a new prophetic imagination.
THEO 547: Ethics in a Time of Planetary Crisis
Taught by Dr. John Sniegocki on Wednesdays, 6:00-8:30 PM
In a world marked by crisis and division, what is our reason for hope? In a time of such widespread apathy and despair, what sustains our faith? Surrounded by so much sin and suffering, what can love accomplish? This course will rely on the four sources of Christian ethics (Scripture, Tradition, reason, and human experience) as resources for wisdom, courage, compassion, and a bold imagination of what can be possible for living ethically today. We will consult views and voices from around the globe to inform our reflection, discernment, study, and conversation designed to clearly identify, critically analyze, and creatively apply ethical norms to build agreement and accountability for promoting the conditions -- personal, social, and systemic -- that can foster peace, justice, and solidarity in our lives, both locally and globally.
THEO 550: Introduction to Islam
Taught by Dr. Waleed El-Ansary on Thursdays, 6:00-8:30 PM
This course examines the emergence and development of Islam as both a religion and a tradition. It discusses basic Islamic beliefs and practices and introduces the essential sources of the Islamic faith, namely the Qur’ān, the hadīth, and the traditions (sunnah) of the Prophet Muhammad. The organizing principle of the course is the Hadith of Gabriel, which has been used to present the essential dimensions of Islam for over 1000 years. The course discusses the relation of Islam to other religions, particularly Judaism and Christianity, and analyzes the development of the Islamic intellectual and transmitted heritage including Islamic law (Sharī‘ah), mysticism (tasawwuf or Sufism), theology (kalām), philosophy, arts and sciences. The course introduces and studies the most important representatives of these bodies of knowledge.
Summer 2026 Courses
THEO 657: Women Mystics
Taught by Dr. Gillian Ahlgren
Summer I (May 18-June 26, 2026)
Fully online with set meetings: May 19: 7-8:30 PM EDT; May 26: 7-8:30 PM EDT; June 6: 10-11:30 AM EDT; June 16: 7-8:30 PM EDT.
The course is a study of the influence of religious women throughout the history of Christianity through a reading of women's mystical treatises.
THEO 551: Faith & Justice
Taught by Dr. Adam Clark
Summer I (May 18-June 26, 2026)
Fully online with set meetings: May 20, 27; June 3, 10, 17, 24; 6:30-9:00 PM EDT
This graduate seminar examines the dynamic relationship between religious faith and social justice through the lens of Ignatian spirituality and the prophetic traditions of Christianity. Students engage primary texts (e.g., Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Howard Thurman) alongside case studies and critical reflection practices to discern how spiritual vision and social action converge. Representative topics include Ignatian discernment (“finding God in all things”), the Beloved Community and the civil rights movement, critiques of consumerism and empire, theologies of nonviolence and solidarity, and leadership for the common good.
THEO 634: Recovery and Growth Post Trauma
Taught by Dr. Ashley Theuring
Summer II (June 29-August 7)
Fully online with set meetings: June 29; July 6, 13, 20, 27; 6:30-9:00 PM EDT
By attending to the ways that a person’s sense of meaning, integrity, and trust can be violated through trauma and by understanding basic spiritual practices that empower people in the healing process, this course helps educators, professionals and caregivers who come into contact with traumatized people. This course provides a holistic overview with emphasis on the spiritual and pastoral needs of traumatized people and makes accessible spiritual and theological resources to support the healing process. Given the multitude of types of trauma, the frequency of occasions for experiencing trauma over the course of a human lifetime, and the likelihood of encountering traumatized people in a variety of professions, including but not limited to pastoral care and ministry, it is important to have a theologically, spiritually and socially-informed understanding of the phenomenon of trauma in order to respond adequately, sensitively, and effectively to traumatized people.
Spring 2026 Courses
THEO 624: Theological Imagination
Taught by Dr. Martin Madar on Thursdays, 6:00-8:30
Theology is both a process and a product. This course will focus on the former without neglecting the latter. The course is an introduction to theology seen as a creative process of constructing new interpretations of religious tradition in critical engagement with the contemporary situation, aiming at renewing the tradition. Students will read diverse works of constructive theology and analyze them in terms of the foundational theological and hermeneutical categories pertaining to the notion of “imagination.”
THEO 631: Theo-Ethics of Ministry
Taught by Dr. Marcus Mescher on Mondays, 6:00-8:30 PM
This course explores the foundational sources and methods for a theological and ethical analysis of pastoral ministry. It examines the power that pastoral ministers wield, the gifts and risks of the deep bonds of trust forged between ministers and faith community members, and how to discern prudent boundaries in the face of finite time and resources.
THEO 513: Women and Gender in the Hebrew Bible
Taught by Dr. Christine Thomas on Tuesdays, 6:00-8:30 PM
This class will engage a wide selection of scholarship on women and gender in the Hebrew Bible through in-depth study of selected biblical texts concerning female figures. We will consider these biblical women through a prism of approaches, each one yielding a unique vantage point on the text. While engaging multiple approaches to the study of women and gender, students will develop their own analytical skills as readers of biblical texts.
Fall 2025 Courses
THEO 555: Christian History: Turning Points
Taught by Dr. Walker Gollar on Thursdays, 6:00-8:30 PM
This course explores some of the key turning points in Christian History from the death of Jesus to modern times. While discussing select historical moments, the course also illustrates how all religious history might be approached. The course moreover challenges participants to consider their theology and their place amidst the issues raised in the past.
THEO 548: Bioethics
Taught by Dr. James Helmer on Tuesdays, 6:00-8:30 PM
THEO 542: Hindu Traditions and Women
Taught by Dr. Nick Tackes on Mondays, 6:00-8:30 PM