MF 4333 Justice, Church and Society
Rev. Samuel L. Feemster
Spring 2021/Main Campus
MF 4333
Thursday 8:05 – 10:00 pm
Feemster
DESCRIPTION:
This course will challenge students to bring the transformational potential of the biblical texts to bear on critical current justice context as regarding the distribution of social benefits and penalties, the exercise of legitimate power; fairness and balance; and honoring the rights or entitlements of people made in the image of God. Reflecting upon and contrasting what we love and what God loves, students will critique religious behaviors congruent or incongruent with Biblical Justice.
SIGNIFICANCE FOR LIFE AND MINISTRY:
This course will further the student’s search for Biblical Justice by examining the relationship between the Church, Society, and Biblical Justice. Students will reflect upon the church’s activity in America, particularly as regarding its influence on the interpretation, apprehension, and application of Biblical Justice on American society, or the lack thereof.
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
Through participation in this course, students will:
• Develop an informed critique of the ongoing adverse impact of the separation of American society through de jure segregation
• Articulate reasons why formation, as revealed in scriptures, leads to Biblical Justice and Christian Formation
• Demonstrate an understanding of God’s Justice’s transformative power and ways the Church must engage her duty to identify, dismantle, and uproot entrenched biased systems and structures.
COURSE FORMAT:
A semester-long course taught as a series of lectures and interactive discussions interspersed with virtual museum tours. Cohort students will continue to develop the group project initiated during EH 3205 – In Search of Biblical Justice. Student assessment will include attendance, weekly assignments and reflections, participation in group discussions, contributions to the group project, and a final paper reflecting.
REQUIRED READINGS for MF 4333
Barram, Michael, Missional Economics: Biblical Justice and Christian Formation (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, MI., 2018)
Hart, Drew G.I., Who Will Be A Witness? Igniting Activism for God’s Justice, Love, Deliverance. (Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Va., 2020)
Rothstein, Richard, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, (Liveright Publishing Corporation, New York, NY, 2017)
Wilkerson, Isabel, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (Random House, New York, 2020).
SUGGESTED READINGS
Thurman, Howard, Jesus and the Disinherited (Beacon Press, Boston Mass. 1976)
Westfall, Cynthia. L., and Dyer, Bryan, R., EDS, The Bible and Social Justice: Old Testament and New Testament Foundations for the Church’s Urgent Call (Pickwick Publications, Eugene, Or., 2015)
PREREQUISITES: EH 3205 (For Cohort Students)
RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM:
This course meets a core curriculum requirement for the Masters of Christian Leadership (MCL), the Graduate Certificate in Leadership Studies, congregation and public life tracks, and the Graduate Certificate in Justice Formation.