Summer 2008
Eastern Mennonite Seminary offers a number of May and June term courses. These courses generally run for two or three weeks. The following are the summer course offerings for 2008.
May Term Courses
May-June Courses
Summer Online Course
Download Summer Registration Form
Fall 2008 Courses
Spring 2009 Courses
May Term Courses
CM 613 Cross Cultural Church Experience
Date: May 1, 2 & 5
Credit: 3SH
Cost: $1245
This course begins with three days of in-class work on May 1, 2 and 5 (before May-term begins), but it consists mostly of each student spending 85 hours doing direct fieldwork in a social/cultural setting of their choosing, which is distinctly different from ones with which he or she is already familiar. Generally speaking, “distinctly different” means of another race or having another mother tongue. Recent students in this course have done their fieldwork in Belize, Jamaica, Trinidad, Russia, Greece, an African American community of North Carolina and the Hispanic community in Harrisonburg. The basic goals of the course include practicing the methods of learning the culture of a community directly from the people of the community concerned, acknowledging that they know many things about their world that we can learn from no other source. This method of learning, called “participant observation,” includes careful efforts to appreciate the values, beliefs, practices, patterns and ways of thinking of the community, finding people there to “teach” us about their culture and way of life, and making careful record of what we hear and observe. It also involves careful attention to our own personal reactions and responses in this cross-cultural setting through journaling and group reflection. Special attention is given to how the Christian faith is communicated and expressed (contextualized) in these settings and how it engages everyday realities in that context. This requires finding a Christian church that is indigenous to the community where the student is working. Each student is responsible to identify and get approval for the cross-cultural community where they will do their fieldwork. Students may do their fieldwork for the course in May and/or June. The learning process culminates in each student writing a substantial ethnographic essay consisting of a "thick description" of the culture of the community, expositing the fruits of what they have learned through their participant observation and making a presentation in class by the end of June.
Instructor: N. Gerald Shenk is professor of church and society at Eastern Mennonite Seminary. He has spent many years teaching and working for peace among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia before and after the bloody collapse of communism in the Balkans and has recently spent a semester in Jerusalem He is convinced that biblical scholarship is best rooted in the practices of believing communities.
CTT 523 Anabaptism Today: Learning with Yoder and Hauerwas
Date: May 6 – 23
Credit: 3SH
Time: Tuesday & Thursday, 8:00 – 2:15
Wednesday & Friday, 8:00 – 12:00
Cost: $1245
John Howard Yoder articulated a compelling vision, attracting many around the globe to “the politics of Jesus.” Yoder demonstrated that the Anabaptist movement was fundamentally a new way of viewing Christian faith and life—including the centrality of Jesus, a re-imagining of church and world and a commitment to love both enemies and neighbors. This course focuses on the contemporary challenges of Anabaptism as mediated through Yoder and his most influential convert—Stanley Hauerwas.
Instructor: Mark Thiessen Nation is Associate Professor of Theology at EMS. He received a Ph.D. in ethics and theology from Fuller Theological Seminary in 2000. He has many years of pastoring experience, was founder and executive director of the Champaign-Urbana Peace Initiative and recently served as the Director of the London Mennonite Centre.
BVOT 713 Jeremiah,
Date: May 6 – 23
Credit: 3SH
Time: Tuesday & Thursday, 8:00 – 2:15
Wednesday & Friday, 8:00 – 12:00
Cost: $1245
Jeremiah is one of the "big three" Major Prophets of the Old Testament. Jeremiah reveals more of his personal life than any of the other prophets; one wonders if Jeremiah intended for his laments to be published! Events in the book of Jeremiah are often clearly located historically, and connect with archaeological finds at several points.
You are invited to study Jeremiah's literary work and theological themes while also paying attention to the historical/political backgrounds of the book. The class will normally concentrate directly on the Jeremiah text (in English), but will also introduce some of the scholarly ideas on the writing of the book and on its importance in the Judeo-Christian tradition.
Instructor: Jim Engle is Professor of Old Testament at Eastern Mennonite Seminary. He has participated in several seasons of archaeological work in Jordan and Israel, and has spent sabbatical time in Israel and Ethiopia. Jim takes great delight in equipping others to use Scripture as a faith resource and tool for ministry. He feels called to undergird our existential, daily experience with the longer history of faith, especially that which is narrated in the Hebrew Scriptures.
Mennonite Faith and Polity: Date: May 6-16 Credit: 2SH
Time: Tuesday & Thursday, 8:00 – 2:15
Wednesday & Friday, 8:00 – 12:00
Cost: $815
Instructor: Diane Zaerr Brenneman has served as pastor, seminary administrator, and denominational minister for 16 years in ministry. For the past 6 years, she has read the MLI's of all pastors in transition in Mennonite Church USA. Her conviction is that polity is descriptive of our practice as a church rather than legistative that dictates, and a solid awareness of current and past polity grounds us to do our most creative thinking and leading. She resides on an Iowa farm with her husband and two children, where she combines her passions for ministry and agriculture.
SMCL 563 Ministering in Times of Trauma
Dates: May 27-31
Time: 9 am-3:15 pm
Credit: 1SH
Cost: $415
Traumatic life experiences come in many forms, touch multiple networks of relationships and systems, and call for a complex set of responses. The church must be equipped to respond. This course examines the physiological, psychological, spiritual and social impact of trauma. It explores how the Christian narrative/community with its transforming practices of truth-telling, forgiveness, reconciliation, restorative justice and peacebuilding can lead to the shalom of God's present and coming kingdom, both within the church, and through the church, to the larger world. Pastors, church leaders, missionaries, counselors and others who seek to become agents of trauma healing will examine a healing path that integrates theology, spiritual practices and counseling skills.
Instructor: Mary Thiessen Nation received a Ph. D. in Inter Cultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary in 2004. She lived and ministered in inner city Los Angeles for 18 years prior to her studies. She has drawn on her experience and studies to serve as a consultant, lecturer and trainer in areas of spirituality, urban mission, congregational conflict and trauma at the London Mennonite Centre and more recently at EMS.
CTE 713 – Ethics & Nonviolence: Sermon on the Mount,
Dates: May 27 – June 6, 2008,
Time: 9am – 3:15pm
Credits: 3SH
Cost: $1245
The teachings of Jesus have reached across many centuries with a strong witness against violence: “Love your enemies.” People in many cultures have found the Sermon on the Mount foundational for understanding the core of Jesus’ ethical teaching and practice. The earliest Christians placed this instruction at the forefront of their witness on what it means to be Christian. Are we willing to be instructed in this way of Christ today, as the movement takes form in the third millennium? This course builds on the Old Testament Jewish backgrounds for Jesus’ teaching. Two further horizons are surveyed: the resonance with this core (Matthew 5-7) in other ethical instruction of the New Testament and the strong echoes down through Christian history where this teaching has been translated into lived practices.
Instructor: N. Gerald Shenk is professor of church and society at Eastern Mennonite Seminary. He has spent many years teaching and working for peace among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia before and after the bloody collapse of communism in the Balkans and has recently spent a semester in Jerusalem He is convinced that biblical scholarship is best rooted in the practices of believing communities.
Summer Institute for Spiritual Formation
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