Course Category Archives: Christian History and Thought

This course will trace the origins and development of evangelicalism from the Second World War to the current state of the movement in the 21st century. Dr. Joe Thomas will argue that evangelicalism is best understood as a spiritual renewal movement which has allowed it to bear fruit across three centuries and in several different denominational and church settings. It loses its vitality, however, when it departs from this spiritual renewal impulse. To better understand the current moment, this course will flesh out the spiritual renewal aspect of evangelicalism’s history and evaluate the moments when it has lost its luster.

Please note that this course runs ten weeks, from January 27th to April 21st.

• Time: Thursday, 7:00 - 9:00 pm
  Credit: 2 hours
  Location: Online
  Instructor: Joe Thomas

This 5-week course will explore the lives and thought of the early church on such key topics as sexuality, slavery, spiritual formation, cosmic worldview and relations between Christians and the government. The ancient wisdom of early Christianity is sure to provide helpful insights as we grapple to understand how the Christian faith supplanted the mores, spirituality and basic cosmology of the Roman world. This study of the first Christians is sure to aid us in formulating answers to the perplexing questions of our own day as well.

Taught by Dr. Joe Thomas from Urbana Theological Seminary and Mark Draper from Evangelical Theological Seminary.

Class session dates: May 27, June 3, 17, 24 and July 8

• Time: Thursday, 6:00 - 9:00 pm
  Credit: 2 hours
  Location: Online
  Instructors: Joe Thomas and Mark Draper

This class will read and discuss the works of J. R. R. Tolkien while paying attention to not only the Christian themes in Tolkien’s work, but also to developing a Christian model for understanding and working with fiction.

Click “Read more” for more information about this course.

• Time: Wednesday, 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
  Credit: 3 hours
  Location: Online
  Instructor: Melody Green

While classical apologetics presents rational arguments for believing, imaginative apologetics (also called “cultural apologetics”) uses story to give context to the same concepts. While the term is new, the concept is not: Jesus used “imaginative apologetics” when telling parables. In this class we will look at works by recent scholars explaining what imaginative apologetics is, how it works and why it matters. We will also look at writings by twentieth century authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis who laid the groundwork for the study of Imaginative apologetics and examine stories that have been written for this purpose, applying these theories to the texts.

• Only meets four weekends:
  Dates: Jan 31-Feb 1, Mar 6-7, Apr 17-18, May 1-2
  Time: Friday, 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm; Saturday, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
  Credit: 3 hours
  Location: Grace Community Church
  Instructor: Melody Green

The life and thought of Dietrich Bonhoeffer has been celebrated in countless writings, biography and film. His inspirational life and profound theological insight into the disciple’s call to follow Christ and the idolatry of unchecked government power make his work timeless. Bonhoeffer: Costly Community will explore the interrelationship between Bonhoeffer’s life and thought and its importance for today.

• Time: Tuesday, 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
  Credit: 3 hours
  Location: Online
  Instructor: Joe Thomas

An overview of the writings of one of the most influential writers in western Christianity during the twentieth century, C. S. Lewis. This class will focus on themes that most heavily shaped his work, as well as the various genres in which he worked, including fantasy, science fiction, theology, apologetics, poetry and even a little of his literary theory.

• Time: Wednesday, 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
  Credit: 3 hours
  Location: Online
  Instructor: Melody Green

Our increasing technological powers over nature are continuing to reshape the discipline of medicine in ways that could scarcely have been foreseen a century ago. Christian Bioethics is concerned with addressing these, and related issues concerning medicine, the human body, and flourishing in light of the birth, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. In this course we will survey the history of medicine and the Christian contribution to it while learning to make biblically-informed, theologically sound judgments about medical and moral issues at the edges of life, human identity, justice, and well-being.

Class will meet as a modular on the following dates:
Aug 27-28
Sep 24-25
Oct 29-30
Dec 3-4

• Only meets four weekends:
  Dates: Sep 10-11, Oct 8-9, Nov 5-6, Dec 3-4
  Time: Friday, 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm; Saturday, 9:00 am - 4:00 pm
  Credit: 3 hours
  Location: Online
  Instructor: Todd Daly

Looking at how three historical figures–Bonhoeffer, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr.–understood the Sermon on the Mount as a force for social change.

• Time: June 6, 20, 27; July 11, 25; 6:00 - 9:00 PM
  Credit: 1 hour
  Location: Windsor Road Christian Church
  Instructor: Joe Thomas