Content

This elective unit surveys christologies developed in languages perhaps not familiar to the western cultural and historical frame of reference. This will include images of Jesus Christ developed through such language as ‘Bodhisattva’, ‘Avatara’, ‘guru’, ‘prophet’, or ‘ancestor’, Asian treatments of the ‘cosmic’ Christ, the possibility of a ‘hyphenated-Jesus’ or of M. M. Thomas’ ‘Christ-centered Syncretism’ in relation to Hinduism, liberation christologies within Latin America, and Jesus as the power against the demonic within Africa. A number of issues present themselves through this discussion: the question of theological tradition and method, the use of local sacred sources, the social and political implications of thinking Jesus Christ through a range of lenses, the question of 'voice' (the dominance of female voices in these christological developments) and the issues of contextualisation.

Unit code: DM9070P

Unit status: Approved (Major revision)

Points: 24.0

Unit level: Postgraduate Elective

Unit discipline: Missiology

Delivery Mode: Face to Face

Proposing College: Pilgrim Theological College

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Learning outcomes

1.

Articulate a range of Christological formulations and the central theological concerns they embody;

2.

Identify the background cultural issues and values prompting these theological developments;

3.

Evaluate the potential benefits of these formulations for theological discourse within multicultural Australia;

4.

Develop an in-depth critical engagement with one of the Christologies examined.

Pedagogy

Student-centred learning through synchronous tutorials builds competency in negotiating with theological difference while promoting improvement between assignments through repeated tasks. The unit engages with primary material and encourages close reading of texts with contextual understanding and higher-level critical analysis.

Indicative Bibliography

  • Biehl, Michael, Traugott Hopp, Claudia Jahnel, Michael Kisskalt, Hanna Stahl, and Klaus Vellguth, eds. Witnessing Christ: Contextual and Interconfessional Perspectives on Christology. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag, 2020.
  • Brinkman, Martin E., Henry Jansen, and Lucy Jansen. The Non-Western Jesus: Jesus as Bodhisattva, Avatara, Guru, Prophet, Ancestor or Healer? Routledge, 2014.
  • Clarke, Clifton R. African Christology: Jesus in Post-Missionary African Christianity. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2011.
  • Green, Gene L., Stephen T. Pardue, and K. K. Yeo, eds. Jesus without Borders: Christology in the Majority World. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2014.
  • Green, Gene L., Stephen T. Pardue, and K. K. Yeo, eds. Majority World Theology: Christian Doctrine in Global Context. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2020.
  • Johnson, Elizabeth A., ed. The Strength of Her Witness: Jesus Christ in the Global Voices of Women. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2016.
  • Orevillo-Montenegro, Muriel. The Jesus of Asian Women. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2007.
  • Schreiter, Robert J., ed. Faces of Jesus in Africa. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995.
  • Stinton, Diane B. Jesus of Africa: Voices of Contemporary African Christology. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2004.
  • Vashum, Yangkahao. Christology in Context: A Tribal-Indigenous Appraisal of North East India. New Delhi: Christian World Imprints, 2017.

Assessment

Type Description Word count Weight (%)
Essay - Essay

Critical 5000 word essay focused on a particular christology or christological theme. This is academic groundwork which will be used for the next assessment task.

5000 50.0
Learning Resource - Learning Resource

Create a learning resource for a church community on a couple of different christological accounts, with a focus on why these differences are important for our understanding of who Jesus Christ is. This is an exercise in translating the learning from the essay into a community context.

2000 50.0
Approvals

Unit approved for the University of Divinity by Prof Albert Haddad on 24 Aug, 2022

Unit record last updated: 2022-08-24 15:26:17 +1000