This is a draft of a draft of a proposed Masters course on theological anthropology.... see what you think.
The rationale is that it is meant to engage both theological and non-theological voices and draw out a theological reading of scripture. The cases of torture at Abu Ghraib invites consideration of the human person in many contexts, since it was an attempt to strip certain human beings in terms of their gender, religion, culture, the image of their bodies, and their liberty. Not only that, but contemporary discourses about human rights circulate around this incident too. A theological analysis is not far away either - the cross of Christ is a similar incident, yet it is held to be a great human victory - or the inauguration of a new humanity...
What a Piece of Work is Man: A Theological Investigation into the Human Condition
1. Abu Ghraib and the Disappearance of Man
readings from M. Foucault Discipline & Punish
W. Cavanaugh Torture & Eucharist
Tertullian On the Spectacles
excerpts from Luther
Scripture text: 2 Corinthians 3-4
2. Born Free? Erasmus & Luther and Human Servitude
Luther & Erasmus texts
John Carroll The Wreck of Western Culture
Galatians
Philemon
3. Radiant Hair: Human Gender and the Glory of God
Luce Irigary This Sex That is Not One
Simone de Beauvoir The Second Sex
1 Corinthians 11
Genesis narratives
Song of Songs
4. Homo Laborans: The Human Task
Miroslav Volf A Theology of Work
Hannah Arendt The Human Condition
Ecclesiastes
5. After Humankind? White Teeth and the Human Future
Zadie Smith White Teeth
Michel Houllebecq Atomised
Donna Harroway FutureMouse
Moltmann The Coming of God
1 Corinthians 15
Revelation
6. The Gift of Speech
Habermas?
Alister McFadyen The Call to Personhood
Vanhoozer
Psalm 119
7. My Family and Other Animals
R. Gaita The Philosopher’s Dog
C. Darwin Origin of the Species
from Barth, CD. III
Gregory of Nyssa
Job; Genesis 6-9
8. Realising the Authentic Self with Charles Taylor and Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Charles Taylor Sources of the Self, The Ethics of Authenticity
Bonhoeffer Letter and Papers from Prison, Ethics
John 4
9. The Human Being on Trial: Temptation and Identity
Paul Ricoeur Oneself as Another
Bonhoeffer Temptation
Hebrews 4-5
Gethesamane, Wilderness narratives
10. Social Being, Human Rights and Violence
Cain & Abel; Revelation; Deuteronomy
Ellul The Meaning of the City
Volf Exclusion and Embrace
Rene Girard
11. Homo Adorans: The Religious Being
Hans urs von Balthasar Theological Anthropology
Proverbs; Acts 17
12. The Problem of Human Evil
Dostoyevksy, The Brothers Karamazov
McFadyen, Bound to Sin
Jenson, The Gravity of Sin
Romans
13. Memory, Imagination and the Inner Self
Augustine Confessions
Volf Memory
14. Martyrdom as a Type of Authentic Human Existence
29 comments:
Hi Mike,
I like the idea of selecting works from across the range of human thought, esp given it's a course on humanity. Nice.
How do you plan to use the non-theological (or not-specifically-theological) works in the course?
What was your criteria when selecting from such a wide range of genres?
I also note there's nothing which seems to reflect the idea of physical humanity and beauty (segment 5?). Maybe assign a year's worth of Cosmo...
Also: How long is each segment? It's a lot of reading over each week.
Hi Mike,
Although I haven't read him, I was wondering if you'd thought of including something from Peter Singer in section 7?
Thanks Roger - that's a great suggestion.
Marty - I would not be expecting full books to be read, only excerpts calibrated to the appropriate reading lengths etc.
Thanks for the tip re beauty. I was hoping the Hair issue might do it.
Looks terrific! On the topic of "work", I'd also recommend Giorgio Agamben, “In This Exile,” in Means without End: Notes on Politics (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000).
Just curious... are these kind of courses open to graduates from any discipline (to take a masters, PG-Dip or sth like that at Moore)? Or are they only for those who've already done the 4yr BDiv?
It's certainly safe from any accusation of being too restricted in focus! Which is perhaps a too-backhanded way of saying, it appears to seriously aim at comprehensiveness, as you intend. Which is a clunky way of saying, it looks like you could sell it to lugs like myself convincingly.
In such breakups, there are always decisions about what gets to be a focal point, and what has to be satisfied with hanging off others. So, while all of this may be covered already, my first impressions:
- is this too individualistic a structure? A theology of the human being, rather than of human beings?
- so, does more need to be made of key relationships such as marriage and church? (yes, I know 3 covers marriage, but as expressed it's from the perspective of gender, right? Ontology rather than teleology?)
- Does 4 include the goal of rest?
- I safely presume all these topics will draw on Jesus as the true man...but should this be a topic in itself?
- I assume your stuff on our bodies comes in under martyrdom etc?
I guess the course, being about 'the human condition', will look more at our fallen humanity rather than our future/ideal humanity. (Just thinking aloud there).
You don't mention race explicitly. Do you want to? The only obvious place for Babel at the moment is in the speech topic...
On logistics, briefly - my feel is that the breadth makes this difficult in intensive mode. You could do it, but you'd need to give plenty of notice on the readings (and prioritise them: at the moment you just get a lump of a list with no idea whether you're meant to start at random or with some unknown purpose). That being said, intensive mode is a much better way of doing things. You could possibly rebel and demand three smaller blocks, instead of the two 3-day blocks...
I'll stop now. With the encouragement to make sure you succeed in upgrading it from 'proposed' to 'actual', and make sure it's timetabled conveniently for me ;-)
Looks great. Can you give us more of an idea of how you see the structure fitting together?
Byron - I am going to work hard on the structure/sequence. I would like the course to have a strong 'narrative' to it, which I hope will emerge as I actually read and think. Continuity will be present in terms of a christo- and cruci- centric theme.
Anthony - that feedback is very very helpful. I can't answer all the questions - I'll just have to think about them.
Annette - I am sure you could apply to audit. At the moment, the prerequisite for the course is the BDiv. It would be interesting to explore different ways of doing it of course.
Technically, Michael, unless there's been a very recent change, the prereq is a BD or BTh, from either MTC or an ACT-affiliated institution, or an equivalent tertiary degree. And there's a fair degree of discretion allowed to the college to let people in if they wish.
Wouldn't want to discourage Annette, right? ;-)
Nothing explicitly on Death? I suppose you would discuss it under 'Martyrdom' or 'The Human Future'. Lots of uses of 'authenticity/authentic' but nothing from Heidegger.
Reason? don't know anything about Heidegger!
Pssh, as if that's ever stopped anyone ;-)
I think I once saw Dr Höhne holding a copy of Being and Time - could have been off to burn it, not sure.
What a banquet but I think that the comment on the individualistic nature of it is weightier that you think. At the very least you need an element of "human-being-with" as phenomenological category. Certainly Bonhoeffer will press you to consider human being as a plural being
Abu Ghraib is a left wing beat up. It didn't even hit the headlines here in any significant way until a year after first details emerged.
The cross of Christ was NOT a similar example.
I confess I groaned when I read Abu Ghraib.
The fact that you had to justify its inclusion suggests you have some unease about it too.
Anonymous - Why do you think it was a beat up?
The fact that you had to justify its inclusion suggests you have some unease about it too.
I'm confused; where did Michael justify its inclusion?
It was a beat-up all right... but it was the prisoners who got beat up.
You beat me to the punch(line), Michael!
I confess that the length of time to get a headline seems an odd reason to reject it. Is Anonymous commenting on the extent of the coverup? The spinelessness of the press? The apathy of the masses?
I'm sure that such things are of little relevance to the course...
Sorry, mate, I know this is meant to be constructive criticism, but I would gladly do any masters level doctrine course you run.
I'd also throw in a little controversy with Weinandy, 'In the likeness of sinful flesh'. And perhaps on gender, Ursula Le Guin, 'The Left Hand of Darkness'. Perhaps a section on human identity as isolate and/vs social construct.
Paget - if you're going to add more material, you've got to suggest what ought to be dropped too. :-)
See, Byron, it's people like you who always try to make life into a zero-sum game.
Just for that, I'll add JPII's Laborem exercens to the 'Work' section, along with a bit of Aquinas on the via activa and via contemplativa; Augustine's 'On the literal interpretation of Genesis' to Darwin (as well as some more Aquinas on secondary causality); and Lucy holding the ball for Charlie Brown to kick for the problem of sin.
And it's people like you who overload courses.
And people like me too. One is always the sharpest accuser of one's own faults.
I'd also like to suggest that you include the comments from this blog post in the reading list. Says a fair bit about human nature!
It wouldn't be the first time blog comments have found their way into print under your auspices, after all ;-)
Touche!
You could add some great linguistics stuff in the speech one. How about Lakoff's "Women, Fire and Dangerous Things"?
Yes I will maintain Abu Ghraib was a beat up. Were there cases of abuse? Yes. Was it systematic, sanctioned abuse? Nope. Bad eggs in one hell hole (where even the Iraqi prisoners begged to have Americans instead of Iraqis serve as wardens in the early years)
But if you want torture and abuse why not have a little saunter through Saddam's torture and rape rooms? Try Stalinist Russia, Maoist China, Pol Pot's Cambodia, or just try a few Christian martyrs who weren't exactly imprisoned for being Saddam's henchment or trying to blow up their neighbours.
Seriously, I'm not one for mistreating prisoners but when you find Christians standing up for the oppressors instead of the victims you do start wandering about upside down kingdoms.
Was it systematic, sanctioned abuse? Nope.
On what are you basing this claim?
The Abu Ghraib point I would make concerns the course digest. This places AG up-front-and-centre, and if one wanted to be uncharitable, one could interpret the statement that AG "invites consideration of the human person in many contexts ..." as mere trendiness: as if there were no stimuli to consideration of the human person before this!!
At the moment, AG is inescapable as a reference point for discussion on some topics, and so it certainly belongs in the reading list, and maybe as a reference in the digest. But the prominence you've given it invites the sort of reaction there's been up-list. I'll go so far as to say that I think the discussion a distraction (anonymous, Byron: peace to you) but the wording does tend to provoke it.
Michael, you can't not include Pascal's comments about Man as the "Glory and Garbage" of the Universe, surely?
And I notice you have The Brothers Karamazov, but how about Crime and Punishment as well for an examination of Man as inveterately moral and conscionable?
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