Faculty: Ann Kline, BCC (Profile)
ABOUT THE COURSE
This course explores theological visions of the relationship among God, humanity, and the living Earth, asking what becomes possible when the world is understood not as spiritually inert matter but as deeply participating in divine life. Drawing on process-relational, ecological, evolutionary, and incarnational perspectives, students will examine understandings of embodiment, nature, matter, creation, Christ, and Spirit that challenge traditional separations between sacred and secular, spirit and matter, God and world. Particular attention will be given to Sallie McFague’s ecological theology, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s evolutionary vision, process-relational understandings of God-world relationship, and Anna Case-Winters’s theology of incarnation. Through weekly critical reflection, individual conversation with the professor, and a final integrative essay, students will place these perspectives into conversation and develop their own constructive theological understanding of divine presence, human participation, and what it means to inhabit a living, sacred, and relational world.