Religious Studies 1 - RETA8031

• Title: RP-Religious Studies 1
• Guaranteed by: Department of Religious Studies (27-R)
• Faculty: Protestant Theological Faculty
• Actual: from 2022
• Semester: summer
• Points: 2
• E-Credits: 2
• Examination process: summer s.:
• Hours per week, examination: summer s.:2/0, C [HT]
• Capacity: unlimited / unknown (unknown)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment
• Guarantor: doc. Mgr. Pavol Bargár, Ph.D.

Annotation

Last update: doc. Mgr. Pavol Bargár, Ph.D. (29.11.2022)

Introduction to World Christianity

This course will offer an introduction to the academic study of World Christianity. The latter term has recently been used to account for the diversity and multiplicity of Christianity across time and space. In addition, this notion places Christianity alongside other world religions. This reflects a 20th-century “global shift” in Christianity from a largely North Atlantic religion to one that is found all around the world. In short, World Christianity is a concept that seeks to describe the global nature of the Christian religion.
The course will explore topics such as contextual theologizing, inculturation, independence and ecumenism, diaspora, decolonization, and mission. It will aim at providing a basic orientation and insight into this diverse phenomenon.

Literature

Last update: doc. Mgr. Pavol Bargár, Ph.D. (07.02.2023)

Stanley, Brian. Christianity in the Twentieth Century: A World History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2018.

Cabrita, Joel, David Maxwell, and Emma Wild-Wood, eds. Relocating World Christianity: Interdisciplinary Studies in Universal and Local Expressions of the Christian Faith. Boston: Brill, 2017.

Chow, Alexander, and Emma Wild-Wood, eds. Ecumenism and Independency in World Christianity: Historical Studies in Honour of Brian Stanley. Boston: Brill, 2020.

Sunquist, Scott W. The Unexpected Christian Century: The Reversal and Transformation of Global Christianity, 1900–2000. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2015.

Kim, Kirsteen, Knud Jørgensen, and Alison Fitchett-Climenhaga, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Mission Studies. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022.

Course completion requirements

Last update: doc. Mgr. Pavol Bargár, Ph.D. (07.02.2023)

Requirements for passing the course:

·       active participation at class (incl. assigned readings)

·       oral presentation on a session theme of student’s choice

·       identifying media coverage on the theme of religion (1 text per a week)

·       final essay (ca. 1,000 – 1,500 words)