Learning & Inquiry 4

Course Description

Learning & Inquiry 4: Global Issues

Students will be able to:

Section Descriptions

Anibueze, Mary-Reginald

Postcolonial African Christianity: Encounters with Mission and Modernity

"How dare we adopt a hostile or scornful or even indifferent attitude to any person of another color or culture if our God is the God of 'all the families on the earth'? We need to become global Christians with a global vision, for we have a global God." [John R. W. Stott]

This course considers Christianity from historical, theological, and contemporary perspectives with particular attention to African Christianity in the era of post-colonialism and missionary encounter. Students will examine how European and American missionary movements shaped African Christian communities; how African societies received, resisted, and reinterpreted Christian faith; and how indigenous religious traditions interacted with missionary Christianity in colonial and post-colonial contexts. Special attention will be given to African Independent Churches, African Christologies, and the ongoing legacies of colonialism in African Christian thought and practice, so that students can analyze African Christianity as "truly Christian and truly African" in a post-colonial world.

Pimienta-Bey, José

The Muslim Presence within Europe: From the Medieval Era to Present Day

This course explores both the historic and contemporary presence of Islamic peoples within Europe. For well over a millennium, Muslims have resided within a traditionally “Christian” Europe. The course begins with the large-scale settlement of what were primarily African Muslims from the maghrib living within Medieval-era Spain and concludes with an overview of the contemporary presence of diverse Muslim peoples (i.e.- Turks) throughout the European continent. Using both historical and journalistic sources this class will provide scholarly details concerning when, where, why, and how, Muslims came to live within Christian European countries. Finally, the course will identify and explore several of the benefits and challenges associated with this long Muslim presence within Europe.