Course Syllabus

Instructors: Dr. Amy Erickson and Dr. Katherine Turpin

E-mails: kturpin@iliff.edu
aerickson@iliff.edu

Course Description

In a time where the disordered relationships between humans and their habitat are causing dire and perhaps irreversible changes to climatic patterns, to the biodiversity of the planet, to watersheds and air quality, and to the life and health of forests and oceans, faithful voices are needed to challenge the status quo of treating the earth as an inexhaustible storehouse and to imagine new ways of living upon the earth. This seminar introduces students to a variety of theologians, ethicists, biblical scholars, and other religious communities who are wrestling with deep and abiding questions about human relationships to their sources of food, to their nonhuman creaturely companions, and to the very land which sustains them. Beyond these voices, we will be asking what it means to nurture our own creative power to draw upon ancient wisdoms to cultivate more healing and sustainable narratives, relationships, and communal practices of daily life within our environment. Because this is a first year interdisciplinary seminar, in the midst of this engaging and serious work, we will also be attending to the academic skills necessary to thrive in graduate school, including digital library research skills, writing skills, and understanding the breadth of disciplinary approaches to theological education.

Late Work

Required Texts

Ayres, Jennifer. Good Food: Grounded Practical Theology.  Baylor University Press, 2013.

Davis, Ellen F. Scripture, Culture and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible. Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Other readings are posted within Canvas as they are assigned in pdf format.