This course will be a study (1) of biblical perspectives on the physical world (i.e., God’s creation) that humans inhabit and on the divine mandate for humans to care for this world that God has created. It will be a study (2) of the practical implications of this biblical call to creation care for the present day life of the church. The course will include both study of the biblical evidence—both Old and New Testament—which addresses the issues of creation care and consideration of the theme of creation care as focused through the lenses, each in turn, of the various theological disciplines that make up the Eastern Mennonite Seminary curriculum. This course is open to persons with or without previous courses in Hebrew or Greek.
Course Objectives:
This course seeks to assist students in becoming:
Wise interpreters: who are competent in the basic skills of inductive Bible study vis-à-vis the questions of creation and creation care and who can place the relevant biblical texts, their authors, and their original readers within their social/historical/theological contexts.
Mature practitioners: whose perspectives are shaped by the creation care message of the Scriptures and whose day-to-day praxis reflects care for the natural world in tangible ways.
Discerning communicators: who are prepared to reflect on the significance of the “creation care” message spoken into the ancient Mediterranean world and who are prepared to translate/communicate these messages into/in the language, the thought patterns, and the social/historical/theological context of the 21st century global church and the world beyond the church.
Transformational leaders: who are equipped to use their skills in inductive Bible study, exegesis, and cross-cultural communication vis-à-vis creation care to “engage God’s saving mission in the world, embodied in Jesus Christ” and who are equipped to call the church to an ongoing lifestyle and collective life practices which reflect care for God’s creation.
Required Course Texts:
The Green Bible (NRSV). HarperOne: San Francisco, CA, 2008.
Recommended Course Texts:
There are no specific course texts for this course apart from The Green Bible (NRSV). Instead, all of the sources listed in the Bibliography will serve as “recommended reading” for this course. Students are urged to read broadly as they fulfill the stated reading requirements for this course.
Course Procedures:
The “first hour” of each class session will consist of an (in-class and corporate) inductive Bible study led by the course instructor and focused on a text or texts dealing with the theme of the evening. The “second hour” of each class session will consist of a “guest presentation” by an EMS/EMU faculty member on the theme of “Creation Care and [Their Academic Discipline] in the Life of the Church.” Course requirements for the students are listed below.
Semester Schedule:
Week 1: 1st Hour-Course Introduction; 2nd Hour-Where Are We Coming From? Where Are We Headed? Issues and Questions for the Coming Semester
UNIT ONE: ORIGINS: CREATOR AND CREATION IN BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE
Week 2: School for Leadership Training
Week 3: 1st Hour-God the Creator: “In the beginning God created . . . .”; 2nd Hour-Jim Engle: Creation Care and Bible Study in the Church
Week 4: 1st Hour-Christ and Creation: “And the Word became flesh.”; 2nd Hour-Dan Garrett: Creation Care and Theology in the Church
Week 5: 1st Hour-Spirit, Creation, and Recreation: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.”; 2nd Hour-Matt Hunsberger: Creation Care and the Songs of the Church
UNIT TWO: ISSUES: CREATION CARE THEMES IN BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE
Week 6: 1st Hour-Land/Seas: “God called the dry land Earth and the waters . . . seas.”; 2nd Hour-Wendy Miller: Creation Care and the Prayers of the Church
Week 7: 1st Hour-Vegetation: “Let the earth put forth vegetation.”; 2nd Hour-Heidi Miller Yoder: Creation Care and the Church at Worship
Week 8: 1st Hour-Sun/Rain (Weather): “God made the two great lights”; 2nd Hour-Lonnie Yoder: Creation Care and Pastoral Care in the Church
Week 9: 1st Hour-Living Creatures: “Let the waters . . . and the earth bring forth.”; 2nd Hour-Lawrence M. Yoder: Creation Care and the Mission of the Church
Week 10: 1st Hour-Humankind: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.”; 2nd Hour-Jennifer Davis Sensenig: Creation Care and the Church’s Proclamation
Week 11: 1st Hour-Sabbath: “And God rested on the seventh day.”; 2nd Hour-Kenton Derstine: Creation Care and the Church’s Work of Chaplaincy
Week 12: 1st Hour-Consumption of Resources: “He will take one-tenth of your grain.”; 2nd Hour-Sara W/S: Creation Care and Formative Practices of the Church
Week 13: 1st Hour-Violence and Nonviolence: “Put your sword back into its place.”; 2nd Hour-Gerald Shenk: Creation Care and Ethics in the Church
UNIT THREE: DESTINATION: CREATION AND CULMINATION IN BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE
Week 14: 1st Hour: Creation/Culmination: “See, I am making all things new”; 2nd Hour-Nate Yoder: Creation Care and the Direction of History
Week 15: EXAM; What have we learned? Where do we go from here? Presentation of Reflection Papers, Hours 1 and 2
This syllabus pertains to when the course was offered in 2010