TH7391, Theological Capstone Seminar: Eschatology

Introductions

The capstone should synthesize the three areas of Theology at St. Mary’s.

One word shorthand	Scripture	Moral	Systematic
Longer variations	Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity	Christian Life and Practice	Used to be called dogmatic theology
Broadly includes	The historical and literary context surrounding scripture, history of formation of the canon, history of interpretation	Theoretical issues of conscience, choice, sin, and most matters of practice, ethics (especially medical and sexual), social justice, spirituality, pastoral ministry	History of and especially contemporary concern with how people have made sense of what they believe based on philosophpy, reason, experience, tradition, and scripture
Historical focus	Salvation history up through early Christianity, then history of interpretation	At St. Mary’s focuses on contemporary issues	At St. Mary’s tends to begin with Nicea (4^th century), more 20^th century
Brief way of distinguishing	How we know	What to do	What to believe
Connections to eschatology	History of ideas, sources, revelation, tradition, cultural context	Criteria for success in judgment (deeds), what we should do now in light of future judgment	Criteria for success in judgment (beliefs), what should we know about where we are going, how eschatology fits with other things we know about God

The capstone should look ahead to application of skills after the degree program.

Be able to communicate using theological language with peers
Be able to explain theological concepts and language to non-professionals
Know or know how to find information pertinent to questions people ask about theology

Let’s think about the collaborative nature of the course working backwards...

Everyone earns an A on the final exam
Everyone demonstrates the ability to identify accurate objective information and different viewpoints on persistent questions.
Everyone has a shared “notebook” that gathers essential information from the course.
We split up the work of becoming experts in separate topics (two topics each) and teaching each other.
The topic expert will help everyone else learn that topic, typically in stages of:
- Prepare a reading guide, preliminary notes, or something to guide work before class
- Lead the class session using the best teaching practices you know (some balance of visual aids, presentation, discussion)
- Assemble that section the shared notebook to most efficiently organize notes on the reading and discussion
- Follow up research may be necessary to clarify questions from the class discussion
- It will also be helpful to suggest multiple choice questions or ways in which viewpoints from the week fit larger questions of the course.
- Share resources and research approaches you found helpful (or not).
The other team members will support the topic expert by coming to class prepared to discuss and contribute to shared learning.