WEMTCCourses

TM101 Doing Theology

Contents:
Doing Theology

What is this Module all about?
Useful resources for TM101
TM101 at Bristol
TM101 at Cheltenham
TM101 at Ludlow
The Student Spot

Resources Addition Form
Contributions to this page

This module introduces students to the key skills and resources (e.g. Scripture, Tradition, experience, reason) for the practice of Christian theological reflection. It considers the spiritual goals of such Reflection and its place in a multi-faith world. This module may also be taken at level two see TM201 Doing Theology

Doing Theology

Welcome to the TM101 Doing Theology web page. This page is designed to provide useful resources for those studying or about to study TM101 with WEMTC. If you have found useful resources or have questions you would like ask, please do contribute.

What is this Module all about?

TM101 is a general Introduction to Theological Reflection for first year students. The class is taught at University Level One. This module introduces students to the key skills and resources (e.g. Scripture, Tradition, experience, reason) for the practice of Christian theological reflection. It considers the spiritual goals of such Reflection and its place in a multi-faith world. It is done in a broadly academic environment acknowledging the various methods of modern scholarship but with a view to understanding how this greater knowledge can enhance our personal understanding and relationship to God. Click here for:

Useful resources for TM101

Books

The following are indicative resources for this subject, but each lecturer will issue their own booklist:

Brueggemann, W. The Bible makes Sense Minnesota, St Mary's Press 1997
Ford, D. Theology, a Very Short Introduction, Oxford, OUP 1999
Goldingay J Models for Scripture Carlisle, Paternoster Press 1994
Green, L. Let's Do Theology, London, SPCK, 1990.
Marsh, C. Christianity in a Post-Atheist Age, London, SCM 2002.
McGrath, A., Christian Theology, an Introduction,3rd edition Oxford, Blackwell Publishing 2001.
McGrath, A., Christian Spirituality - an Introduction Oxford, Blackwell Publishing 1999

For more detailed bibliographies see our Sample book list.
Why not tell us of some books you have found useful? If the webmaster agrees we'll list them here.

TM101 Doing Theology Web Resources

You may find the following web sites helpful when studying 'Doing Theology'. Material on the net has no quality control making tutors very wary - and rightly so! Nevertheless there is a growing amount of first class academic work on line particularly coming from Religious Studies Departments of good Universities. Treat with care and you'll find it very useful for essays.

The Internet is not 100% reliable and documents move, disappear and change their names. If you find a link does not work, try again in an hour, a day, or a week. But do feel free to email us to report a link doesn't work. Don't forget to tell us the name of the link!

Jargon Busters (Glossaries of technical terms)

Alister McGrath's Glossary of Theological Terms: Pages from the back of his Christian Theology, 2nd edition - good for sorting out the jargon.
Judaism, Christianity and Islam Glossary: Glossary of terms from used by these three religions by the Department of Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania.

General Theological Information (General databases of Religious Links worth looking at for any subject)

Blackwell Publishers: Many religious links on all sorts of topics collected by the major Oxford publisher Blackwells and checked by Alister McGrath.
Open Directory Religion and Spirituality: The Open Directory Project seeks to be an internet wide database of links on every topic under the sun, maintained by the general public. Its Christianity section provides academic, social and devotional headings and at last count 78,040 links - should keep you going for a while!
Virtual Religion Index: Links for Research on Religion by M Smith of Rutgers University
Facets of Religion - WWW Virtual Library: Categorised Christianity links
Judaism and Christianity: List of Internet resources for the study of Judaism and Christianity
General theology gateway: Useful for general access to biblical, theological, church history and other web resources from Oxford Universities -now merged into the Humbul Humanities Hub (see Religion and Theology) which also has some links but is less easy to use.
BUBL Strathclyde University: A source of annotated links to relevant resources - see under Humanities the Theology, Biblical Studies and Religion pages in particular.
The Vatican web site: A varied collection of historic documents as well as modern Catholic material is available if you search.
The Eastern Region Ministry Course's Links: Haven't found anything you linke from our website? Then try our sister course's (the Eastern Region) choice

Introductions to Theology

Introduction to Theology: The Australian Catholic University has put up some samples fo their distance learning courses. This is a good overview course of Theology and do explore their other material

The Bible as a Source of Theology

Trends in NT Study: "Drawing from the Treasure both Old and New" an article by Mark Goodacre NT Lecturer at Birmingham from Scripture Bulletin 27/2 on current trends in NT Studies.
Biblical Authority?: An articulate and well researched, but rather polemical Muslim's reasons for not accepting biblical authority. What do you think?
New Testament Canon Org: A comprehensive site on the development of the New Testament Canon, based on the two leading works of Metzger and Schneemelcher.
The Bible Researcher: A site for Bible students who are looking for detailed information on the history of the canon, texts, and versions of Scripture.
Tyndale House's 100+ Bible Versions: Listing over 100 bible versions this site gives a brief description of each version and 3 comparison verses. It gives you an idea where a particular version is coming from
Septuagint, Peshitta and Vulgate: A short description of these threee important translations of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures by the United Methodist Women in Mission Organisation.

General Spirituality Links

St Benedict and St John's Spirituality Links: College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University (USA Catholic) links on Spirituality. Especially good on the classic spiritual traditions e.g. St Benedict, John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila etc, but also has links to more recent spiritual classics by people like Evelyn Underhill and Thomas Treherne.
Monks of Adoration Catholic Spirituality Links: Part of the Monks of Adoration Catholic Internet Yellow Pages. There are lots of links here although unfortunately the really interesting ones were broken when I looked.

Particular Spiritual Traditions

The Jesuits and Ignatian Spirituality: The Irish Jesuits have a very good site but include links to English Jesuits and American Jesuits Among other things the site hosts Sacred Space a daily prayer session in the Ignatian Tradition.
Anglican Franciscans: The Franciscans include the Life of St Francis, their history as well as details of their current activities on their website. The Third Order Page includes prayer suggestions. See Celebrating Common Prayer for the Franciscan Daily Prayer Book.

See the general religion links as a starting point for your own searching

Ministry

Nothing specific to recommend at present - can you suggest something?: See the general religion links as a starting point for your own searching

Why not tell us of some sites you have found useful? If the webmaster agrees we'll list them here.

TM101 at Bristol

This module is taught at Bristol by Elizabeth Harper, Mervyn Davies and Jonathan Pye
The module is always taught in the Autumn Term. Click here for the Bristol timetable and exact dates for this year.

Documents for this module online include:

Class timetable and schedule
Book list
Current essay titles (if not yet available you will see sample essay titles. The same essay titles are used at all three Centres)
Any handouts submitted for circulation (many tutors are not yet happy to have their handouts online - but the number available is growing -so keep checking)

TM101 at Cheltenham

This module is taught at Cheltenham by Mike Parsons, Jane Kenchington, Keith Crouch and Elizabeth Harper.
This module is always taught in the Autumn Term. Click here for the Cheltenham timetable and exact dates for this year.

Documents for this module online include:

Class timetable and schedule
Book list
Current essay titles (if not yet available you will see sample essay titles. The same essay titles are used at all three Centres)
Any handouts submitted for circulation (many tutors are not yet happy to have their handouts online - but the number available is growing -so keep checking)

TM101 at Ludlow

This module is taught at Ludlow by Keith Crouch and Gill Sumner
This module is always taught in the Autumn term. Click here for the Ludlow timetable and exact dates for this year.

Documents for this module online include:

Class timetable and schedule
Book list
Current essay titles (the same essay titles are used at all Centres - if not yet available you will see samples from previous years.)
Any handouts submitted for circulation (many tutors are not yet happy to have their handouts online - but the number available is growing -so keep checking)

The Student Spot

This spot is for contributions from those who are doing or have done TM101. It needs your contributions - books that have been helpful, questions you would like answered, adverts for things related to the module etc. Content is monitored by the webmaster with reference to the tutors and class reps if necessary. Click here to submit something for the page.

Go ahead - be the first to submit something

TM101 Module Decription

Code and title

TM101 Doing Theology

Tutor

Bristol: Elizabeth Harper, Dr Mervyn Davies, Dr Jonathan Pye
Cheltenham: Revd Dr Mike Parsons
Ludlow: Revd Keith Crouch

Brief description

Level and Credits

Level I : 15 credits

Status

Core for Certificate and Diploma

Type

Standard

Prerequisites

Nil

Recommended prior study*

Nil

Restrictions*

Nil

Content summary

This course will cover:

What is theology? Different responses to this question.
The pastoral cycle as a tool for theological reflection
The nature and use of theological language
Scripture, tradition, reason and experience as resources for Christian theology.
Christian spirituality as source and object of theological reflection.
Christian theology in a world of faiths.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this module students should:

Knowledge and Understanding
- Be able to offer a provisional definition of theology.
- Have understood the elements of the Pastoral Cycle and seen several applications.
- Be aware of issues in the nature and use of theological language.
- Be able to identify the key resources for theology and relate them to each other.
- Be aware of Christian theology's setting in a world of many faiths and world views.
Skills
- Have begun to handle theological texts with discrimination and understanding.
- Have begun to develop the skills necessary for theological reflection.
- Be able to use a journal to reflect on their learning.
- Be able to gather and evaluate information for relevance to a particular issue including the ability to use library resources in order to identify source material, compile bibliographies, inform research and enhance presentations.
- Be able to express conclusions and communicate information and ideas, clearly and cogently with appropriate evidence and support material.

Teaching and learning

120 hours
20 hours class contact
100 hours personal study (learning journal, reading, assignments, class preparation)

Assessment

One Theological Reflection using the Pastoral Cycle of 2000 words or equivalent. (50%)

One assignment of 2000 words or equivalent. Some of the assignment options will engage the student in reflecting on the application of their study to contemporary Church situations. (50%)

Indicative resources

Brueggemann, W. The Bible makes Sense Minnesota, St Mary's Press 1997
Ford, D. Theology, a Very Short Introduction, Oxford, OUP 1999
Goldingay J Models for Scripture Carlisle, Paternoster Press 1994
Green, L. Let's Do Theology, London, SPCK, 1990.
Marsh, C. Christianity in a Post-Atheist Age, London, SCM 2002.
McGrath, A., Christian Theology, an Introduction,3rd edition Oxford, Blackwell Publishing 2001.
McGrath, A., Christian Spirituality - an Introduction Oxford, Blackwell Publishing 1999

Resources Addition Form

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Contribution to the TM101 Page

Sorry due to concerted spam attacks we have unfortunately had to remove our forms Please email the webmaster with your contribution (webmaster @ the wemtc address)

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Email to office (at) wemtc.org.uk Office hours are Monday to Thursday, 9.30am to 2.30pm

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