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•      Degree Information
•      Selected Coursework
•      Qualifying Exam Bibliographies

PhD Candidate in Theology, degree expected June 2012

Dissertation: Parables of Freedom: Toward a Barthian Pneumatology of Culture for Engaging Popular Culture in the 21st Century

Committee: Kathryn Tanner (advisor), Kevin Hector and William Schweiker (readers)

PhD Qualifying Exams

• Theology I - History of Christian Thought: Ancient and Medieval (Willemien Otten)
• Theology II - History of Christian Thought: Early Modern (Susan Schreiner)
• Theology III - History of Christian Thought: Modern (Kathryn Tanner)
• History of Judaism III: Modern Jewish Thought (Paul Mendes-Flohr)

M.A. in Religious Studies, 2004

Advisor:  David E. Klemm

Masters Exams:

• Philosophical Theology
• Religious Ethics
• Sixteenth Century Religious and Social Thought

B.A. with distinction and honors in Religion, 2002

Advisor:  Ralph Keen

Honors Thesis:

• Surpassing Civilization: The Writings of Abraham Joshua Heschel in Light of Hasidic Thought

• 20th Century Art
• The Amish
• Arts and Entertainment in the U.S.
• Asian Humanities:  India
• Asian Religious Traditions (Grad Seminar)
• Biblical Archaeology
• Contemporary Theology (Grad Seminar)
• Early Medieval Art
• History of Religious Ethics
• History of Christian Thought I (100-500)
• History of Christian Thought II (500-1300)
• History of Christian Thought III (1300-1600)
• History of Christian Thought IV (1600-1800)
• History of Christian Thought V (1800-2000)
• Honors Seminar in the Natural Sciences
• Honors Teaching Practicum
• Introduction to Buddhism
• Jewish Mysticism
• Literature and Sexualities
• Living Religions of the East
• Medieval and Reformation Religious Thought
• Medieval Art
• Methods and Theories in the Study of Religion
• Modern Jewish Religious Thought
• Reformation Theology (Grad Seminar)
• Reinhold Niebuhr: Theology and Ethics
• Religion and Liberation
• Religion and Literature
• Religion and Society
• Religion and Women
• Religion and the Arts
• Religious Thought in the Enlightenment
• Religious Thought in the 19th Century
• Romanesque and Gothic Art
• Spirituality and Mysticism
• Teaching Religious Studies
• Theology of Culture
• Trends in Contemporary Christian Ethics
• Western Religious Traditions (Grad Seminar)
• Witch Trials and Witch Hunts

Theology I - History of Christian Thought: Ancient and Medieval

Justin Martyr, First Apology
———. Second Apology
———. Dialogue with Trypho
Irenaeus, Against Heresies (in Grant ed., Routledge edition and selections in Bettenson)
Origen, On First Principles
———. “Prologue”
———. Commentary on the Song of Songs
Gregory of Nyssa, Selections (in Meredith ed., Routledge edition)
Athanasius, Life of Antony
Augustine, Confessions
———. On Christian Faith
———. The Spirit and the Letter
———. On Grace and Free Will
———. On the Trinity, Books 8-9, 14
John Cassian, The Conferences, Book 1, 9-10, 18
Benedict of Nursia, Rule of Benedict
Gregory the Great, Dialogues, Book 2
Pseudo-Dionysius, On the Divine Names
———. Mystical Theology
Maximus the Confessor, Mystagogy (CWS)
———. On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ: Selected Writings from St. Maximus the Confessor (ed. Paul M. Blowers and Robert Louis Wilken)
Anselm of Canterbury, Prayers and Meditations
———. Proslogion
———. Why God Became Man
Bernard of Clairvaux, On Loving God,
———. On Grace and Free Will
———. Sermons on the Song of Songs
Thomas Aquinas, STh Ia, qq. 1-3; 44-46; STh IaIIae, qq. 109-114; STh III, q. 2
Bonaventure, The Mind’s Road to God
Marguerite Porete, The Mirror of Simple Souls
Meister Eckhart, “Prologue”
———. Commentary on John
———. German Sermons
Francis and Clare, The Complete Works
James of Vitry, The Life of Marie of Oignies

Secondary Texts:
John Baldwin, The Scholastic Culture of the Middle Ages, 1000-1300
Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo
J. Patout Burns (ed.), Theological Anthropology
Caroline Walker Bynum, Fragmentation and Redemption, pp. 119-297
M. D. Chenu, Man, Nature, and Society in Twelfth Century Thought
Elizabeth Clark, Reading Renunciation, pp. 1-232
R. P. C. Hanson, The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God
David Knowles, The Evolution of Medieval Thought
Henri de Lubac, Medieval Exegesis: The Four Senses of Scripture, Vol. 1
Jean Leclerq, The Love of Learning and Desire for God
Bernard McGinn, The Presence of God, Vol. 1-3.
Kevin Madigan, Olivi and the Interpretation of Matthew in the High Middle Ages
E. Ann Matter, “The Church Fathers and the Glossa Ordinaria,” in Reception of the Church Fathers in the West, Vol. 1 (Leiden: Brill, 1997), pp. 87-111.
Richard A. Norris (ed.), The Christological Controversy
William G. Rusch (ed.), The Trinitarian Controversy
R. W. Southern, Saint Anselm: A Portrait in a Landscape
Brian Stock, Augustine the Reader
Robert Wilken, The Spirit of Early Christian Thought
Frances Young, Biblical Exegesis and the Formation of Christian Culture
———. From Nicaea to Chalcedon

Theology II - History of Christian Thought: Early Modern

Late Medieval Theology:
Hyman, Albert and J. J. Walsh. Medieval Philosophy, Section on the 1270 and 1277 Condemnations.
Courtenay, William, J. “Nominalism and Late Medieval Religion,” in The Pursuit of Holiness. Edited
Trinkaus and Oberman (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1974), pp. 26-59.
Wippel, J. F., “The Condemnations of 1270 and 1277 at Paris,” The Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 7: 169-201.
Oberman, Heiko, “Some Notes on the Theology of Nominalism,” Harvard Theological Review 53 (1960): 47-76.
———. Dawn of the Reformation. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1986.
¬———, ed. Forerunners of the Reformation: The Shape of Late Medieval Thought Illustrated by Key Documents. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1966, 1981.
Hendrix, Scott, “In Quest of the vera ecclesia: The Crisis of Late Medieval Ecclesiology,” Viator, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 7: 347-378.
Nicholas of Cusa, Selected Spiritual Writings. Translated by H. Lawrence Bond. Classics of Western Spirituality. New York: Paulist Press, 1997.
Julian of Norwich, Showings, long text. Use the edition by Penguin Classics or Classics of Western Spirituality.
The Theologia Germanica of Martin Luther. Classics of Western Spirituality. New York: Paulist Press,
1980.

Readings in Reformation Theology:
Luther, Martin, Freedom of a Christian, any edition
———. Lectures on Galatians (1535). American Edition of Luther’s Works, Vol 26. Saint Louis:
Concordia Publishing House, 1963, chapters 2-4.
———. Lectures on Genesis, American Edition of Luther’s Works, chapters 1-3, 15, and 22-25.
———. Lectures on Isaiah. American Edition of Luther’s Works. Vol. 17. Chapters 40-44, 48, 52, and 64.
Luther and Erasmus, On Free Will and Salvation, Library of Christian Classics XVII. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1969.
Calvin, John, Institutes of the Christian Religion. Edited by John. T. McNeill and translated by Ford Lewis Battles. Library of Christian Classics, Volumes XX-XXI. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press.
Spiritualist and Anabaptist Writers. George W. Williams, ed., Library of Christian Classics, Vol. XXV. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1962, pp. 49-70, 88-135, 147-181, 320-390.
Zwingli, Ulrich, On Providence and Other Essays, including Eck’s “Refutation of Zwingli,” Durham, North Carolina: Labyrinth Press, 1983; repr. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1999,
Leith, John, ed. Creeds of the Church. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1982, pp. 282-292. (Schleitheim Confession).

Readings in Early Modern Catholicism
Eck, John. Enchiridion of Commonplaces, Translated by Ford Lewis Battles. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker
Book House, 1979, pp. 7-88, 193-200, 210-219, 258-263.
Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises and Selected Works. Edited by George E. Ganss, S. J. Classics of Western Spirituality. New York: Paulist Press, 1991.
Leith, John, ed. Creeds of the Church. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1982, pp. 400-441. (Decrees of the Council of Trent).
Francisco de Osuna, The Third Spiritual Alphabet. Translated by Mary E. Giles, Classics of Western Spirituality. New York: Paulist Press, 1981, pp. 45-54, 97-112, 158-205, 269-336, 405-514 547-562.
Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle.

Readings in Humanism:
Cassirer, Ernst, and Paul Oskar Kristeller, John Herman Randall, Jr. The Renaissance Philosophy of Man. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948.
Erasmus, Enchiridion. Any edition. The text can most easily be found in Advocates of Reform From Wyclif to Erasmus. Ed. Mathew Spinka, Library of Christian Classics, Vol XIV. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1953, pp. 295-379.
Montaigne, Essays.
Shakespeare, Hamlet and Othello.

Major Interpretations of the Early Modern Era:
Blumenberg, Hans, The Legitimacy of the Modern Age. Translated by Robert M. Wallace. Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press, 1983, parts III and IV
Dupré, Louis. Passage to Modernity: An Essay in the Hermeneutics of Nature and Culture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.
Harries, Karsten. Infinity and Perspective. Cambridge: MA: MIT Press, 2001.

Secondary Sources:
Cassirer, Ernst. The Individual and the Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy. Translated by Mario Domandi. New York: Harper, 1963.
Oberman, Heiko. Luther: Man between God and the Devil. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1989.
Von Loewenich, Walther, Luther’s Theology of the Cross. Translated by Herbert J. A Bouman. Minneapolis: Minnesota, 1976.
Barth, K. and Brunner, E. Natural Theology, comprising Nature and Grace by Emil Brunner and the Reply No by Karl Barth, tr. P. Fraenkel
Dowey, Edward, The Knowledge of God in Calvin’s Theology. New York: Columbia University Press,
1952.
Frame, Donald, M. Montaigne: A Biography. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.1965; repr. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1984 (paperback).
Kelley, Donald, R. Foundations of Modern Historical Scholarship: Language, Law, and History in the French Renaissance. New York: Columbia: Columbia University Press, 1970.
Bornkamm, Heinrich, Luther and the Old Testament. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969.
Grassi, Ernesto, Rhetoric as Philosophy: The Humanist Tradition. Translated by John Michael Krois and Azizeh Zaodi. Carbondale and Eswardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1980.

Popkin, Richard, H. The History of Scepticism from Savonarola to Bayle. Revised and Expanded edition.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 3-127.
Quint, David, Montaigne and the Quality of Mercy: Ethical and Political Themes in the Essais. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998.
Ozment, Steven, The Age of Reform 1250-1550: An Intellectual and Religious History of Late Medieval and Reformation Thought. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1980.
Grene, Nicholas, Shakespeare’s Tragic Imagination. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992.
Schiffman, Zachary, S. On the Threshold of Modernity: Relativism in the French Renaissance. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991.
Spencer, Theodore, Shakespeare and the Nature of Man. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1942.
Trinkaus, Charles, In Our Image and Likeness: Humanity and Divinity in Italian Renaissance Thought. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1995.

Theology III - History of Christian Thought: Modern

Descartes, Meditations
Pascal, Pensees
Voltaire, ‘Pascal’ (Philosophical Letters)
Rousseau, Creed of a Priest of Savoy (Emile)
Locke, Essay on Human Understanding, selections from Bk 4
———. Reasonableness of Christianity
Hume, ‘Miracles’, ‘Of Particular Providence and a Future State” (Treatise)
———. Dialogues on Natural Religion
Spinoza, Theological and Political Treatises
Lessing, Theological Writings
Kant, Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone
Schleiermacher, Speeches on Religion
———. Christian Faith
Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion (Intro and Part 3)
Newman, Essay on the Development of Doctrine
Kierkegaard, Philosophical Fragments
Feuerbach, Essence of Christianity
Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra
Harnack, What is Christianity?
Loisy, Gospel and the Church
Troeltsh, ‘Essence of Religion’
———. ‘The Dogmatics of the History-of-Religions School’
———. ‘Historical and Dogmatic Method in Theology’
———. ‘Significance of the Historical Jesus for the Life of Faith’
Buber, I and Thou
Rosenzweig, Star of Redemption
Barth, Church Dogmatics, Vol. 1.1
Tillich, Systematic Theology, Vol. 1
Rahner, Hearers of the Word
———. Foundations of the Christian Faith, chs 1-4
Von Balthasar, Glory of the Lord, Vol. 1
Livingston, Modern Christian Thought from the Enlightenment to Vatican II

History of Judaism III: Modern Jewish Thought

Primary Sources:

• Baeck, Leo.  The Essence of Judaism.  New York: Schocken, 1976.
• Cohen, Hermann. Reason and Hope: Selections from the Jewish Writings of Hermann Cohen. Eva Jospe, trans. New York: Norton, 1971.
• ———.   Religion of Reason out of the Sources of Judaism.  Simon Kaplan, trans. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995.
• Geiger, Abraham. Judaism and Its History. Charles Newburgh, trans. Lanham, MD: University Press of America. 1985.
• Kant, Immanuel. The Conflict of the Faculties = Der Streit der Fakultäten. Mary Gregor, tr. New York: Abaris Books, 1979.
• Mendelssohn, Moses. Jerusalem or On Religious Power and Judaism.  Allan Arkush, trans. Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1983.
• Rosenzweig, Franz.  The Star of Redemption. William W. Hallo, trans.  New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston. 1970.
• Scholem, Gershom. “The Science of Judaism- Then and Now,” in The Messianic Idea in Judaism and Other Essays on Jewish Spirituality. New York: Schocken Books, 1971.
• Spinoza, Baruch. Theological-Political Treatise.  Samuel Shirley, tr. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1998.
• Yerushalmi, Yosef Hayim. Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1982.

Secondary Sources:

• Glatzer, Nahum N., ed. Franz Rosenzweig: His Life and Thought. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 1998.
• Gotzmann, Andreas and Christian Wiese, eds.  Modern Judaism and Historical Consciousness: Identities, Encounters, Perspectives.  Boston: Brill, 2007.
• Guttmann, Julius.  Philosophies of Judaism.  D.W. Silverman, trans. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964.  (Part III)
• Meineke, Stefan. “A Life of Contradiction- The Philosopher Franz Rosenzweig and his Relationship to History and Politics.” Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook, XXXVI (1991): 461-489.
• Mendes-Flohr, Paul. German Jews: A Dual Identity. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999.
• Mendes-Flohr, Paul and Jehuda Reinharz.  The Jew in the Modern World:  A Documentary History. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
• Meyer, Michael, ed. German-Jewish History in Modern Times. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996-1997.
• ———, ed. Ideas of Jewish History. New York: Behrman House, 1974.
• ———.    The Origins of the Modern Jew: Jewish Identity and European Culture in Germany, 1749-1824.  Detroit: Wayne State University Press. 1967.
• Myer, David. Resisting History: Historicism and its Discontents in German-Jewish Thought. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2003.
• Roemer, Nils. Jewish Scholarship and Culture in Nineteenth-Century Germany: Between History and Faith. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2005.
• Rotenstreich, Nathan. Tradition and Reality: The Impact of History on Modern Jewish Thought.  New York: Random House, 1972.