Seminary: Seattle University School of Theology and Ministry
Location: 901 12th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98122
Course number: STMA 5690
Instructor: Dr. Alexandra Kovats
Website: https://www.seattleu.edu/stm/
Course Description
Humankind in our day faces a moral challenge never before encountered by our species. It is to forge ways of living that Earth can sustain while also building social justice between and among societies. Thomas Berry refers to building sustainable Earth-human relations as the Great Work of our era. When something new is required of humankind something new is required of religion. It is to discover how religious traditions can contribute to this great work and then bring the spiritual and moral wisdom and other resources of religious traditions to this pan-human great work of our day. Students and professor in this course will explore collaboratively these resources within Christian traditions. Said differently, we will explore pathways for shaping Earth-honoring faiths and ways of living in the context of the socio-ecological crisis facing humankind today.
Participants will probe the connections between moral anthropology, theological cosmology, faith, science, and central theological concepts. The complex intertwining of ecological degradation and social injustice in its many forms will be a central focus. The methodological lens will be Christian ethics, and the primary religious lens will be Christianities (plural). The course will approach religious traditions with a hermeneutic of critique, retrieval, and reconstruction. Participants will be encouraged to formulate or refine their working understanding of normative Earth-human relations, and their understanding of human vocation in relationship to the rest of creation. The informing undercurrent of this course will be hope and moral-spiritual power in the face of the profound moral challenge posed by unsustainable Earth-human relations.