Course and Outcomes

This 4-unit seminar course is open to RS majors and minors, and to others by permission. It is "a sustained exploration of the global enterprise of Christian theology as rooted in scripture and reflecting on the life of the church, conducted from an evangelical perspective and drawing on major theological methods, concerns, projects, thinkers, and contexts." (Undergraduate Catalog). Introduction to Christian Doctrine (rs20) or the equivalent is a prerequisite.

This course doubles as Senior Seminar (usually RS-180) for graduating seniors in Religious Studies for which it is a requirement. Senior Seminar class members may have additional responsibilities, at least informally. It also meets the General Education writing/oral communication requirement.

This intermediate-level theology represents the heart of our theological project — at least it should.

So what do students need to carry on lives of theological pursuit? I believe you need to know the mission of God and of the Church. To grow in following and leading. To understand theology's terrain, contexts, purposes, and uses. Its relationships with other subdisciplines, disciplines, and forms of life. What's at stake in this discipline. Formation in the practices theology serves. Deeper love.

Of course, these needs are already being met elsewhere in your lives, in the Westmont curriculum, and in your major. I've designed this course to meet them further and equip you not only to develop them further after college, but to begin putting them to work in your life and environment as soon as you learn them. Our activities mean to move you along in the process of becoming a disciple/disciple-maker, religious studies major, and fruitful participant in the church of Jesus Christ.

Students will demonstrate theological literacy by (1) identifying central doctrines of Christian faith and forces shaping the history of global Christianity, (2) identifying key voices, rival approaches, and persistent theological issues in the church’s history, and (3) applying skills of theological analysis, discussion, and presentation to wise living and Christian leadership. These demonstrations consist of activities, in-class discussions, written assignments, and written or oral examinations pertaining to concepts and details from lecture, assigned reading, and so on.

Vision and Goals

Westmont was founded "for the systematic and comprehensive study of the Holy Bible, and any and all other courses which are academic in nature, … and for practical and efficient training in Christian work; to create, maintain, and operate a center for the diffusion of Christian and secular knowledge ... for the dissemination of missionary information and the quickening of the missionary spirit ... for the publication and distribution of the Holy Scriptures and other evangelistic and academic literature" (Westmont Articles of Incorporation, 1940).

This course, then, serves those original purposes: study centering in the Bible but not restricted to it, training in Christian work, diffusion and publication of especially Christian knowledge, and enlivening the missionary spirit. Like Westmont itself, it stands or falls on how it succeeds or fails to do so.

The God of Israel plays a long game. What am I hoping you'll have gained from this class ten years out? Here's the intended fruit of a semester's engagement with course materials and concepts, from most important to least:

1. A manifest life change in the direction of new creation, bearing fruit of the active love of fellow disciples, the God who loved us, and God's beloved but lost world.
2. A life-trajectory-altering facility with key resources: the Bible, church practices such as prayer, witness, worship, and so on.
3. Experience in spreading these to others through key disciple-making practices in fulfillment of the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16–20) and Great Commandment (John 13:34–35).
4. Lasting skill acquisition and fruitfulness in thinking and acting "theologically."
5. Affection towards the discipline, with a resulting enthusiasm for pursuing its learning further (by obedience, sharing, leading, mentoring, and further equipping with helpful resources).
6. A persisting (if foggy) knowledge base in the historic Christian tradition, with more precise memory of a few key centers that will have been reinforced by your study, worship, and service as a graduate.

How can this little course do that? Simply by staying true to its subject, and by a medium that suits its message. A formidable challenge here is the present structure of college, its coursework, grades, costs, intellectual culture, social pressures, and taboos. Then there's popular culture, the anemic state of many of our churches, a decidedly mixed theological inheritance that has failed to fulfill both the Great Commission ("go and make disciples") and Great Commandment ("love one another"), rival authorities claiming and demanding our loyalty, confusions of the gospel with human traditions and ideologies and of the Triune God with other gods and lords, and on and on. These forces are much stronger than when I started teaching here, so the challenge is growing. But the power of the gospel continues to outdo all that and more—even in us, if we receive it with our whole hearts.

I believe God sees this course as a team gathered for God's Kingdom purposes, brought together for a season of transformation, growth, and multiplication through mutual training, challenge, equipping, and discipline in thought and action, all for new and lasting skill and fruitfulness in knowing God and serving God's mission and movement.

This course is structured so that its form aligns with its academic topic, which is the knowledge of God as Christians understand it to be revealed through lives of learning from, knowing, remaining in, obeying, and sharing the Father in the Son through the Holy Spirit within their inclusive and expanding fellowship of saints. The historical and cultural range of Christian practices that pursue this is vast, rich, and impossible even to survey adequately. The broad focus of this practical exercise in theology is narrower: a multiplication of disciple-making movements in which people across the world are coming to know God from vastly different backgrounds, in wildly different settings, and in history-making numbers. While on sabbatical I have been learning about these and passing on what I've learned, and that process will continue in our class.

"You are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers [and sisters]. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ" (Matthew 23:8–10 ESV). How well have we helped one another receive this word from our Lord? My role is not to be a conventional prof or expert teacher. It's to be a catalytic learner: a coach or a mentor within a chain of them that originates in Jesus Christ and his apostles and includes you and those whose lives you are shaping; a duckling following the line in front of me and with others behind; a mentor of mentors. And if you students are to learn theology that apprehends the Triune God in spirit and truth, then you must be apprentices, above all apprentices of Jesus, for "as the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you" (John 20:21 ESV), and "everyone when fully trained will be like his teacher" (Luke 6:40). So sharing theology calls us to learn how to learn and share all along the Lord's chain of duckling disciplemakers.

Your physical education courses would be ridiculous if they didn't involve practicing the sport. Theology is 'spiritual education,' which involves practicing the life that Christian teaching describes. Otherwise it's ridiculous too, even if our culture asserts otherwise.

'Doctrine' means 'teaching': not just information, but (as the military uses the term) guidance. And "you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers [and sisters]. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ" (Matthew 23:8–10 ESV). How well have we helped one another receive this word from our Lord? My role is not to be a conventional prof or expert teacher. It's to be a catalytic learner: a coach or a mentor within a chain of them that originates in Jesus Christ and his apostles and includes you and those whose lives you are shaping; a duckling following the line in front of me and with others behind; a mentor of mentors. And if you students are to learn theology that apprehends the Triune God in spirit and truth, then you must be apprentices, above all apprentices of Jesus, for "as the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you" (John 20:21 ESV), and "everyone when fully trained will be like his teacher" (Luke 6:40). So honoring Christian doctrine/guidance calls us to learn how to learn and share all along the Lord's chain of duckling disciplemakers.

So what can help learned disciples keep knowing God and about God? I believe you need to know the mission of God and of the Church. To grow in following and leading. To understand theology's terrain, contexts, purposes, and uses. Its relationships with other subdisciplines, disciplines, and forms of life. What's at stake in this discipline. Formation in the practices theology serves. Deeper love.

I've designed this course to equip you not only to develop these skills, habits, and instincts further during and after our time together, but to begin putting them to work in your life and environment as soon as you learn them. Our activities mean to move you along in the process of becoming a disciple/disciple-maker and fruitful participant in the church of Jesus Christ.