INST - Intercultural Studies

This course introduces students to the theology of God's global missions. Students will examine the relationship between biblical interpretation, theology, and the practice of Christian missions. Students will assess the importance of reading and the teaching of the Bible through the lens of the metanarrative of God's mission in, to, and for the world. This course invites students to engage the skills, the basic perspectives, and tools of missiological investigation and integration.

This course seeks to equip students with knowledge and skills to understand the dialectic relationship between the church and its surrounding cultures/societies and the church's call to be an effective and prophetic witness in the contemporary world. The students will acquire tools which will help them engage people in other religious communities and learn to formulate a theological response to other religions. The students will develop contextual models of discipling and nurturing Christian converts from different religious background.

This course develops students' awareness of the irreducible contextuality of scripture and its interpretation. Students will be guided to articulate and reflect upon their own cultural embeddedness while being exposed to theories and practices of intercultural hermeneutics. Themes will include the missiological aims of biblical texts, the cultural diversity within scripture and church history, and the "trialogue" among the Bible and readers of different cultures.