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Divinity Courses 2011-2012
(as of July 20, 2011)
Courses fulfilling the distribution requirements for Institute students pursuing the M.Div. are indicated with a letter indicating the relevant subject area: W (Worship), M (Music), and/or A (Religion and the Arts – visual arts or literature).
The letter “a” following the course number denotes the fall term; the letter “b” denotes the spring term.
REL 643a/ MUS 617a, Music and Theology in the Sixteenth Century. The Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century was a “media event.” The invention of letterpress printing, the partisanship of famous artists like Dürer and Cranach, and not least the support by many musicians and composers were responsible for the spreading of the thoughts of Reformation. But while Luther gave an important place to music, Zwingli and Calvin were much more skeptical. Music, especially sacred music, constituted a problem, because it was tightly connected with Catholic liturgical and aesthetic traditions. Reformation had to think about the place music could have in worship and about the function of music in secular life. (M) Markus Rathey
REL 648b, Reel Presence: Liturgy and FilmWe live in an intensely visual culture, and film—as a key component of contemporary visual culture—shapes the cultural imagination as well as our own inner lives. Films thus function not only as “entertainment” but as significant “meaning makers.” The church cannot and does not stand apart from this, as witnessed by the frequency with which films turn up in homilies. Interestingly, Christian liturgy and religious ritual are present in many contemporary films. These “reel presences” are the subject matter of this course, which focuses on worship as it comes to be constructed and reflected in the medium of contemporary film. Representations of worship in films are never value-neutral; they carry within them rereadings and reinterpretations. How then do filmmakers image, exploit, or advance assumptions about Christian worship? In this course, films are seen as theologically and liturgically “pertinent texts” (Irena S. M. Makarushka) that can be interrogated. To sharpen our ability to “read” and interrogate the construal of Christian worship in popular films, films are paired with readings from the field of liturgical studies that illumine the topic embedded in the film’s (sub-)text on liturgy. Together, films and readings open a space for dialogue on contemporary concerns and insights about the meaning of liturgy. (W, A) Teresa Berger
REL 677b/ MUS 520b, Credo: Faith Prayed and Sung The classical expression of the Christian faith is summed up in the historic creeds of the Church, which are regarded as important foundation documents in ecumenical dialogue. But where did they originate? What do they teach? And how is this belief expressed in worship, in text and music? The course considers the origin of the creeds and the development of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381. It considers some of the key doctrines and beliefs expressed in the Creed. It also examines how these beliefs have been, and are, expressed in the public worship of the Churches, ancient and contemporary. It looks at the musical settings of the Credo and how they and other musical settings give expression to the creedal beliefs. (W, M) Markus Rathey, Bryan D. Spinks
REL 682a, Foundations of Christian Worship The course focuses on theological and historical approaches to the study of Christian worship, while also giving appropriate attention to pastoral, cultural, and contemporary issues. The first part of the course seeks to familiarize students with the basic elements of communal, public prayer in the Christian tradition (such as its roots in Hebrew Scripture, its Trinitarian basis and direction, its ways of figuring time and space, its use of language, scripture, music, the arts, etc.). The second part provides an outline of historical developments, from the biblical roots to the present. In addition, select class sessions focus on important questions such as the relationship between gendered lives and liturgical celebration, and between liturgical presence and presiding. (W) Teresa Berger, Bryan D. Spinks
REL 688a, Catholic Liturgy: Between Dogma and Devotion This course is designed as an introduction to Roman Catholic liturgical tradition and practice. It begins with some theological fundamentals and their historical development before focusing in on twentieth-century developments, which are crucial to Catholic liturgical life at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Key liturgical documents of the last hundred years are read and analyzed. Throughout the course and especially in its second half, attention is paid to the broader cultural realities in which liturgy always finds itself, e.g., gender constructions, ethnic identities, inculturations, and, more recently, media developments. (W) Teresa Berger
REL 801a–b, Marquand Choir
REL 802a–b, Marquand Gospel Choir Mark Miller
REL869a, The Roundtable Pulpit The course explores a process of sermon preparation that involves leading members of a congregation in group study of the biblical passage(s) on which the preacher’s sermon will be based. The course begins by tracing major theories about preaching that preceded this method, with students preaching sermons in “traditional,” “kerygmatic,” or “transformational” modes. The course then turns to the homiletical theory surrounding “roundtable preaching,” especially focusing on the work of Lucy Rose (Sharing the Word) and John McClure (The Roundtable Pulpit). Students engage in group Bible studies that become the basis for the sermons they prepare and preach using this method. Thomas H. Troeger (with Leonora Tubbs Tisdale)
REL 874b, Theologies of Preaching In recent decades, homileticians have increasingly turned from a focus on methods of preaching to a concern for the purposes of preaching. Why and what do we preach? How do we theologically understand the act of preaching? How is preaching something in which the gathered congregation participates? What is the interrelationship of the gospel and culture in preaching? How are our answers to these perennial questions shifting in a postmodern ethos? The course considers a number of recent works that provide a wide range of answers to these questions. Drawing upon the theological/homiletical principles that they encounter in their reading, students write brief essays, create and deliver sermons, and then critically analyze the theological character of their proclamation, seeing if it is congruent with their articulated theology of preaching. Thomas H. Troeger
REL 935a, Religious Lyric in Britain This course is a survey of the religious lyric in Britain from the seventh-century Anglo-Saxon Caedmon to Michael Symmons Roberts (b. 1963). Working within a British framework, and moving chronologically, the course traces a literary tradition that has a certain cultural and religious (i.e., Christian) coherence. With lyric poetry as the focus, the course looks at short, nonnarrative, often emotive work that stresses the speaker’s personal thoughts or feelings. Whereas secular lyric typically concentrates on human love, with all its ebb and flow, the religious lyric is concerned with the divine-human relationship. Our study mixes close textual analysis with attention to larger theological issues. (A)Peter S. Hawkins
REL 944a, Religious Themes in Contemporary Fiction: Short Readings in contemporary American short fiction with a particular interest in scriptural resonance and religious (Jewish as well as Christian) significance. Authors considered include Flannery O’Connor, John Updike, Allegra Goodman, Tobias Wol≠, and Andre Dubus. (A) Peter S. Hawkins
REL 966a, Material Sensations: Sense and Contention in Material Religious Practice This interdisciplinary graduate seminar explores the sensory and material histories of religious images, objects, buildings, and performances as well as the potential for the senses to spark contention in material religious practice. With a focus on American things and religions, the course also considers broader geographical and categorical parameters so as to invite intellectual engagement with the most challenging and decisive developments in relevant fields. The goal is to study not only the visual cultures of religions but also to investigate possibilities for scholarly examination of a more robust human sensorium of sound, taste, touch, scent, and sight—and even “sixth senses”—the points where the senses meet material things (and vice versa) in religious life and practice. Topics for consideration include the cultural construction of the senses and sensory hierarchies; investigation of the sensory capacities of (religious) things; and episodes of sensory contention in and among various religious traditions. In addition, the course invites thinking beyond the “Western” five senses to other locations and historical possibilities for identifying the dynamics of sensing human bodies in (trans)national religious practices, experience, and ideas. Yale will host a related conference, “Spiritual Sensations,” in early November; an exhibition on these subjects, titled Making Sense of Religion, will be on view in the Memorabilia Room of Sterling Memorial Library throughout most of the term. Permission of the instructor is required. (A) Sally M. Promey
REL 3910a–b, Colloquium 1 credit per term. Participation in seminars led by faculty and guest lecturers on topics concerning theology, music, worship, and related arts. Required of all Institute of Sacred Music students. Martin D. Jean
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