The module aims to

1. enhance critical and empathetic understanding of how Christian beliefs hold together, by exploring in context various key
2. enable an approach to key Christian doctrines that releases them as resources for engagement with experience and practice, reflection and constructive contribution to culture and society.
3. enablea critical and reflective understanding of Christian life and practice by relating it to key Christian accounts of God, humanity and their interaction,  expressed in the doctrine of the Trinity and accounts of the person and nature of Jesus Christ.

enable critical understanding of Christian life and practice by relating it to key Christian versions of ‘salvation’ in history and experience, particularly focusing on ‘atonement’ theory, the place and role of the Holy Spirit in theology and selected approaches to questions about human and cosmic destiny

Knowledge and Understanding:

1.  explain and critically analyse some key theological debates in Christian thinking on ‘salvation’ including human and cosmic destiny

explain and critically analyse some key theological debates in Christian reflection on the person and nature of Christ, and God as Trinity.

Intellectual Skills:

1. relate and analyse explanations of Christian life and practice in the light of  discussions in 1 and 2 above
2. relate theological formulations in 1 and 2 above to their historical setting, to the context of thought today and to possible Christian aspirations in the modern world.

Discipline Specific (including practical) Skills:

1. explain and analyse key notions in Christian thinking on the Trinity, Christology, Salvation, Holy Spirit and the Last things, in a manner that engages the imagination and interest of small groups that are not theologically informed.
2. demonstrate ability to reflect on and begin to explore the relation of doctrine to Christian imagery and to personal growth and spirituality.

Transferable Skills: Generic

1. identify empathetically with varied approaches to a subject
2. critically explain and evaluate ideas, past and present
3. communicate ideas, someone else’s or the student’s own, with clarity

Employability

1. critically analyse and evaluate evidence together
2. model problems and progress in an orderly way towards their solution
3. communicate clearly in oral and written forms
4. organize and produce documents by means of a PC-computer
5. improve a grasp of information and skills through personal discipline
6. listen to another viewpoint but also enter into its merits
7. detect defects even in a highly skilled argument – in its assumptions, argument, conclusions and applications
8. work collegially in enquiry and negotiation and adaptation of perceptions

Lectures and Handouts deliver the often complex historical and analytical content required by this module

Visual presentationsaid the use of imagination in appropriating these materials, helping students explain and critically analyse the key theological debates, and explore how doctrine may be embodied in art.

Discussion and reflective exercisesenable students to relate this ‘tradition’ to the context of thought today, to possible Christian aspirations in the modern world, and to Christian life and practice

Intellectual Skills:

1. relate and analyse explanations of Christian life and practice in the light of  discussions in 1 and 2 above
2. relate theological formulations in 1 and 2 above to their historical setting, to the context of thought today and to possible Christian aspirations in the modern world.

 Discipline Specific (including practical) Skills:

1. explain and analyse key notions in Christian thinking on the Trinity, Christology, Salvation, Holy Spirit and the Last things, in a manner that engages the imagination and interest of small groups that are not theologically informed.
2. demonstrate ability to reflect on and begin to explore the relation of doctrine to Christian imagery and to personal growth and spirituality.

Transferable Skills: Generic

1. identify empathetically with varied approaches to a subject
2. critically explain and evaluate ideas, past and present
3. communicate ideas, someone else’s or the student’s own, with clarity

Employability

1. critically analyse and evaluate evidence together
2. model problems and progress in an orderly way towards their solution
3. communicate clearly in oral and written forms
4. organize and produce documents by means of a PC-computer
5. improve a grasp of information and skills through personal discipline
6. listen to another viewpoint but also enter into its merits
7. detect defects even in a highly skilled argument – in its assumptions, argument, conclusions and applications
8. work collegially in enquiry and negotiation and adaptation of perceptions

Formative assessment through feedback and class discussion, and to draft essays and projects.

Summative

1. One essay 2,000 words 
2. One project, 2,000 words in all,  of no more than two parts, which may at the discretion of the tutor be related to placement work or to a specific aspect of society and /or culture.

Must relate to a different ‘Part’ (see syllabus content) of module from item 1.

To assess outcomes 3, 4, 5 and 6.

 

A study of the origins, development and contemporary relevance of the core Christian beliefs concerning God, highlighting connections with culture and society, in 2 parts, 5 sections:

 Part 1:

1. The doctrine of the Trinity
2. The person and nature of Christ

Part 2:

1. Salvation
2. The Holy Spirit
3. The Last Things

INDICATIVE READING LIST:

Walter Wink                            Engaging the Powers, Fortress 1992