Unit information: Mission in a Global Context: Concepts and Practices in 2011/12

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Unit name Mission in a Global Context: Concepts and Practices
Unit code THRSM0094
Credit points 20
Level of study M/7
Teaching block(s) Academic Year (weeks 1 - 52)
Unit director Reverend Dr. Corrie
Open unit status Not open
Pre-requisites

None

Co-requisites

None

School/department Department of Religion and Theology
Faculty Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit:

  • develops the theology of mission and how it is understood from different perspectives
  • critically reviews the history and models of the missionary movement and its contexts in the 19th and and 20th centuries, with a view to evaluating today's mission practice.
  • explores how Ecumenical, Roman Catholic and Evangelical traditions have expressed the meaning of mission, and critically engages with original documents from these traditions.
  • reviews the developments which have led to calls for new ways of thinking about mission and new theological understanding of the Churchs mission in a postmodern context.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On completion of the unit students should:

  • have acquired a model of mission which is biblically informed, intellectually coherent, historically aware, culturally sensitive, and practically based;
  • be able to think theologically about mission and think missiologically about theology;
  • be able to apply this integrated thinking to an informed engagement with the changes and challenges of contemporary mission.

Teaching Information

The unit will be taught through interactive seminars, including a variety of media such as DVD, the Internet, case studies. Students are expected to have completed prior reading and to come ready to discuss it.

Assessment Information

Formative assessment will be through engagement with prior reading and exercises of private study which are then discussed in class. Summative assessment will be through an essay of 4,000 words.

Reading and References

  • Bevans, S.B. and Schroeder, R.P., Constants in Context (New York, Orbis, 2004)
  • Hanciles, J.J., Beyond Christendom (New York, Orbis, 2008)
  • Jenkins, P., The New Faces of Christianity (OUP, 2006)
  • Porter, A, Religion versus Empire? (Manchester, MUP, 2004)
  • Walls, A.F., The Missionary Movement in Christian History (New York, Orbis, 1996)
  • Wright, C. H. J., The Mission of God (IVP Academic, 2006)