Theological Studies

THEO 212/AA (Winter 2025): FAITH, REASON & RELIG SENSE

THEO 315/A (Winter 2025): GOSPELS AND ACTS

THEO 322/A (Winter 2025): HIST OF CHRISTIANITY/REF&MOD

THEO 655/AA (Winter 2025): Christian Faith in Postmodern Context

This seminar examines the links between postmodern philosophy, Radical Orthodoxy (RO), and contemporary religious thought, focusing on their interactions with modernity, secularism, and religious experience. Through a critical reading of key texts and case studies, we will explore the intellectual foundations of Radical Orthodoxy and its reception in other academic and theological landscapes. Students will also examine the dynamics of religious experience in modern and postmodern contexts, investigating how Radical Orthodoxy’s critique of modernity and secularity provides a rationale for studying experiences of healing, deliverance, and divine presence within Pentecostal religious practices. In this seminar, students will gain a nuanced understanding of the complex relationship between philosophy, theology, and religious practice in the postmodern world, through an integrated approach that includes both theoretical readings and practical case studies.

THEO 291/AA (Summer 2025): THE ICON: THEOLOGY IN COLOUR

THEO 203/A (Fall 2025): INTRO. TO THE NEW TESTAMENT

THEO 242/A (Fall 2025): THEOLOGY AND ARTS

THEO 298/A (Fall 2025): SEL TOPICS IN THEO STUDIES

THEO 304/A (Fall 2025): PROPHETIC/WISDOM LIT/HEBREW BI

Course description and objectives for THEO 402/2:  Pastoral Ministry

Prof: Brian McDonough, tel: 514-768-7801; e-mail: brian.mcdonough@concordia.ca

 Monday evenings, 17:45 to 20:15 – FG B080 SGW

All Christians are called to holiness, discipleship, and mission.  In this sense, any “service” offered to others can be seen as a share in the Church’s mission.  But more specifically, pastoral ministry refers to “service to others, performed in the name of Christ, and recognized by the Church as necessary to the fulfillment of its mission in the world.” This course will explore such questions as: What comprises Christian ministry?  What are its biblical foundations?  What are its theological and ecclesial foundations?  How does social context shape this ministry and its goals? What practical skills and formation are required for the exercise of ministry?   How is ministry nourished by the development of ethical virtue and spiritual maturity?  Why is it important that those engaged in ministry do so not as “lone rangers”, but collaboratively.

We will seek to answer these questions by considering the lives of six exemplars: Dorothy Stang, Dorothy Day, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Oscar Romero, and Pierre Claverie.  We will consider their corresponding models of pastoral ministry: stewardship (or care of creation), hospitality, compassion (including spiritual accompaniment), advocacy, solidarity, and witness (through dialogue & lifestyle choices). We will evaluate these different models, establish the rootedness of each one in the Bible, point to the potential for personal growth each one offers, and identify the strengths and weaknesses of each one.

Simultaneously, we will be considering the skills and requirements involved in pastoral ministry, especially in an intercultural setting. These include the radical respect for the other, trust-building and confidentiality, understanding processes of change, the significance of storytelling, theological reflexivity and accountability, struggling with suffering and evil, and coping with loss and violence.

The objective is for each student to build a foundation of intellectual, personal, and spiritual resources on which a meaningful pastoral ministry can be constructed.  To this end, students are expected to attend faithfully, participate actively, and do the reading assignments in anticipation of each class. 

 There are two textbooks required for this course: The Practice of Pastoral Care: A Postmodern Approach, by Carrie Doehring, (Westminster John Knox, 2015) Price (Indigo): $48.00. (To facilitate and accelerate students’ acquisition of this textbook, I have ordered 7 copies, which I will be selling in class.) This book considers caring relationships in intercultural settings, embodied listening, and narrative themes of loss, violence and coping. A Step Along the Way: Models of Christian Service, by Stephen J. Pope, (Orbis, 2015) Price (Amazon): $14.91 for the Kindle version. This book is especially written for students who want to think more clearly and deliberately about the meaning and significance of service in a Christian perspective. Some people find it difficult to talk about the connection between Christian faith and service. This book has been written to help overcome the gap between our language and our experience.

 Method of Evaluation:

Students will be required to submit four (4) short summaries of the excerpts from our textbook The Practice of Pastoral Care. Each summary must be submitted before the class when that particular excerpt will be discussed in class. Each summary (ideally a Word document, 1.5 spaced, 12-point) should not be longer than 3 pages. Each summary will be worth 20% of the final mark. The four summaries will amount to 80%.

For the final assignment (take-home, open book), students will submit a 6-to-8-page written report based upon an interview with a pastoral minister active in a particular area of Christian service. (I will provide a list of such pastoral ministers.) In their report, students will be expected to make connections with the exemplars they will have encountered in Stephen Pope’s A Step Along the Way and to draw upon the different models presented in that textbook. Students are strongly urged to refer to what they will have learned from Carrie Doehring’s The Practice of Pastoral Care. This assignment will give students the opportunity to understand the practical skills required when serving in an intercultural setting and the ways of dealing with difficult situations encountered in pastoral ministry. The date for submitting the final assignment has not yet been determined. This final assignment will be worth 20%.