The module aims to,

1. introduce biblical, traditional and varied modern conceptions of  Christian ‘church’, its nature, identity and meaning, as a background for critical analysis in the concepts of ‘ministry’ and ‘mission’

2    introduce biblical, traditional and modern theologies of ministry and sacraments associated with ‘church’ 

1. enhance critical skills through examination of some crucial modern debates in the field, especially around guiding themes/models, organization and issues of dynamics
2. provide a historical background for study of the theology of mission and explore some important modern debates in the field

enable development of an ongoing  reflective theological basis for practice

Knowledge and Understanding:

1. explain clearly the main features of the biblical background for Christian ideas of ‘church’ and the some prime historical anchors of the tradition
2. analyze and evaluate leading ways of conceiving ‘the church’ in relation to the world, and as one community yet in many expressions
3. analyze and evaluate some attempted resolutions of the problematic of ‘church’ as ‘one and many’, viz. universal yet local.
4. analyze and evaluate alternative, significant varied approaches to church leadership, organization and sacraments
5. trace historic landmarks for the theology of mission and critically appraise approaches to some current issues in the field

The groundwork entails a greater amount of tutor introduction of material in the early stages. However this gives way fairly quickly to more interactive ways of learning appropriate to religious professionals learning through practice and reflection. These interactive ways include peer exchange on prior reading, group and plenary discussion, tasks to help tutor in feedback and, of course, question time. OHP and/or Powerpoint projection appear at significant points and printed course material will figure at all stages, as will some level of class interaction.

Intellectual Skills:

 (a)  explain complex issues clearly

(b)  analyse critically and empatheticically

(d)  compare varying approaches to a subject

(f)   evaluate systematic approaches to a subject

(g)  present findings clearly, logically and informatively

(h)  link theories and ideas to issues of practice

(i)  present material in line with appropriate academic presentation standards.

Discipline Specific (including practical) Skills:

(a)explain and analyze some key notions in Christian thinking on ‘the church’

1. critically identify, analyze, and relate some current issues in theology of the church, drawing together biblical, historical, dogmatic and social dimensions
2. explain and analyze key historical milestones in Christian thinking on mission,
3. critically identify, analyze, and relate some current issues in theology of mission, especially appropriate fields of involvement for the church in the wider world.
4. explain and evaluate reflectively alternative current practices of particular churches, especially in relation to organization, ministry, sacraments and mission in the world, 
5. begin to discuss appropriate mission strategies for churches of the future.

Transferable Skills:

Generic

1. identify empathetically with varied approaches to a subject
2. collect and analyze alternative viewpoints, past and present
3. critically explain and evaluate ideas
4. communicate ideas, someone else’s or the student’s own, with clarity
5. recognize appropriate fields for focused exploration and present findings in an orderly way

Employability

1. critically analyze 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. develop 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. negotiate collegially in enquiry and adaptation of perceptions

Summative assessment(evaluating student performance) consists of portfolio of two assignments:

1. an evaluative and analytic essay set by the tutor (s) (3,000 words: 50% of assessment)

2. a project (equivalent of 3,000 words: 50% of assessment) designed to engage with a context (set by, and/or negotiated with, the tutor) such as some aspect of culture or society or a student placement, with special attention to reflection and rigor

 Areas covered include

(a) biblical background,

(b) key points in the history of ‘ecclesiology’, viz. Christian teaching on church (eg. early, reformed, post-reformed and modern),

(c) anchors of the tradition,

(d) leading models for conceptualizing church

1. church catholicity, unity and sacramental theologies

(f)  power and church

(f) organization (‘polity’), leadership and related office, authority

General: Ecclesiology

Avis, Paul                     The Anglican Understanding of the Church. An Introduction, London, SPCK, 2000

Bradshaw, T                  The Olive Branch. An Evangelical Anglican Doctrine of the Church, Carlisle, Paternoster, 1992

Dulles, A                       Models of the Church, New York, Gill & MacMillan, 1981 (and more recent editions)

Giles, Kevin,                 What On Earth is the Church? A Biblical and Theological Enquiry, London, SPCK, 1995

Gunton, C, &

Hardy, D W                   On Being The Church, Edinburgh, T & T Clark, 1989

Jinkins, Michael,            The church faces death : ecclesiology in a post-modern  context  New York , OUP, 1999

Moltmann, J                  The Church in the Power of the Spirit, London, SCM,  1975 and many reprints

Thwaites, James,           The church beyond the congregation Carlisle : Paternoster Press, 2000

Volf, Miroslav,              After Our Likeness. The Church as the Image of the Trinity, Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1999

Theology of Mission

Textbooks

Bosch, David J                         Transforming Mission. Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission, Maryknoll, Orbis, 1998

Kirk, J Andrew               What is Mission? Theological Explorations, London, Darton Longman, 1999

Other typical reading:

Bediako, Kwame,          Theology and identity, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1999.
Bosch,  D                     Witness to the World. The Christian Mission in Theological Perspective, London, Marshalls, 1980

Church House               Mission-ShapedChurch. Church-planting and fresh expressions of church in a changing context, London, Church House 2004

Davies, J G                   Worship and Mission, London, SCM, 1967

Drane, J                        The McDonaldization of the Church, London, Darton Longman, 2000

Gibbs, E & Coffey, I      Church Next. Quantum Changes in Christian Ministry,  Leicester, IVP, 2001

Murray, Stuart               Church After Christendom, Carlisle, Paternoster, 2004

Saayman, W & Kritzinger, K                  Missionin Bold Humility, Maryknoll, Orbis, 1997

Scherer, J A & Bevans, S B                  New Directions in Mission and Evangelisation 3: Faith &  Culture, Maryknoll, Orbis, 1999

Shenk, W R,                  Changing Frontiers of Mission, Maryknoll USA, Orbis, 1999

Ministry

M.A.H. Melinsky            The Shape of the Ministry.  Canterbury 1992.

G. Guiver                      Priests in a People’s Church.  SPCK 2001

W. Carr                         The Priestlike Task: A Model for Developing Training and the Church's Ministry, SPCK, 1986

S. Croft                          Ministry in Three Dimensions, DLT 1999.

R. Greenwood               Transforming Priesthood, SPCK1994.

Sacramental theologies

Joseph Martos              Doors to the Sacred.  A historical introduction to the sacraments of the Christian Church,  SCM 1981.

Alexander Schmemann  For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy, St Vladimir's Seminary Press 1997

Edward Schillebeecx     Christ the Sacrament of the Encounter with God, Sheed and Ward 1963.