Content

Christian beliefs and practices have been subjected to a variety of critiques of varying intensity over the centuries. Christian responses to these objections have themselves taken different forms: from apologetics, through to self-critical theological reflection. This unit critically evaluates a range of prominent objections from, for instance, disciplines such as a variety of sciences, psychology, and philosophy.

Unit code: CT3830Y

Unit status: Approved (Major revision)

Points: 18.0

Unit level: Undergraduate Level 3

Unit discipline: Systematic Theology

Delivery Mode: Blended

Proposing College: Yarra Theological Union

Show when this unit is running

Learning outcomes

1.

Demonstrate a critical understanding of a range of concerns with Christian belief and practice

2.

Evaluate and communicate the perspectives that ground and shape the concerns with Christian belief and practice

3.

Critically articulate the range of theological responses to the concerns with Christian belief and practice

4.

Demonstrate the capacity to research a specific topic in a critically rigorous, sustained and self-directed manner.

Unit sequence

Either an UG level 1 AP or CT unit

Pedagogy

Mixed mode – Face-to-face, online, blended learning, flipped classrooms

Indicative Bibliography

Arendt, Hannah, Love and St Augustine (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1996).
Eagleton, Terry, Reason, Faith and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009).
Fergusson, David, Faith and Its Critics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).
Girard, René, Violence and the Sacred, trans. Patrick Gregory (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1977).
Gunton, Colin E., The One, the Three and the Many: God, Creation and the Culture of Modernity. The 1992 Bampton Lectures (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993). Jantzen, Grace M., Foundations of Violence: Death and the Displacement of Beauty (London and New York: Routledge, 2004).
Martin, Michael (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Atheism (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
Taylor, Charles, A Secular Age A Secular Age (Cambridge, Mass., and London: Belknap Press, 2007).
Turner, Denys, Faith, Reason and the Existence of God (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004). Westphal, Merold, Suspicion and Faith: The Religious Uses of Modern Atheism (New York: Fordham University Pres, 1993).
Campbell-Jack, Campbell and McGrath, Gavin J. (eds.), New Dictionary of Christian Apologetics (Leicester: IVP, 2006).

Assessment

Type Description Word count Weight (%)
Essay 1500 35.0
Essay 3000 65.0
Approvals

Unit approved for the University of Divinity by Prof Albert Haddad on 6 Apr, 2022

Unit record last updated: 2022-04-06 13:15:09 +1000