Course Descriptions — Contextual Studies
Courses are for 3 credits unless otherwise noted.

CS251-252 Religious Leadership, Organization, Administration, and Finance in Context I & II
Trish Greeves
Utilizing a placement in a congregation (10-12 hours per week) and a concurrent seminar, the course explores issues, theories, and practices for the exercise of leadership in religious organizations. The primary methodological approach of the course is reflection on practice. Such praxis involves: (1) students’ own exercise of leadership as interns in ministry; (2) analysis of congregational systems operating within larger social contexts; and (3) theological reflection on communal and ecclesial systems and on leadership practice. CS251-252 must be taken in the same year. In the first semester, particular attention will be given to issues of organization and administration and to analysis of the social context for religious organization. In the second semester, particular attention will be given to nuances of leadership and service within human and financial systems and to theological reflection on our diverse experiences of leadership and service in context. (4.5 credits per term; 9 credits total)
CS251 Prerequisites: IS151, IS152, CH161, CH261, and two of CL330, CL336, CL440, or CL670
CS252 Prerequisites: CS251

CS253 Ministry Practicum
Trish Greeves
The ministry practicum consists of a 400-hour supervised ministry experience. Students wishing to complete this practicum by completing a full-time summer internship, a part-time school year internship, or a full-year full-time internship should register for this course rather than CS254. These internships may consist of parish ministry, institutional chaplaincy, or some other appropriate form of ministry experience. Students are invited to play an active role in determining the setting for this practicum. Decisions about internship sites should be made in consultation with the CS253/4 coordinator. A final project is required. Students officially appointed as pastors who have used their ministry sites to meet the requirements of CS251-252 are required to take their ministry practicum as a unit of CPE and should register for CS254, rather than this course.
Prerequisites: CS251-252, S151, IS152, first unit of assessment at North Central Ministry Development Center, student’s self-assessment for ministry development

CS254 CPE Ministry Practicum
Instructor TBA
The ministry practicum consists of a 400-hour supervised ministry experience. Students wishing to complete this practicum by completing a basic unit of Clinical Pastoral Education should register for this course rather than CS253. This option is open to all students, but is required of students officially appointed as pastors who use their ministry sites to meet the requirements of CS251-252. Decisions about CPE placement should be made in consultation with the CS253/4 coordinator.

CS730 Global Justice Trip to the Philippines
Eleazar Fernandez
The Philippine globalization trip is an exposure-immersion trip to the Philippines. The program offers an alternative view of tourism. Students will have the opportunity to live and learn with Filipinos and to see how the people's faith translates into struggle for empowerment, peace, and justice. This course satisfies the globalization/cross-cultural requirement.
No prerequisites

CS731 Global Justice Trip to Palestine-Israel
Eleazar Fernandez and Makari
TBA

CS746 Global Encounters on Your Doorstep
Eleazar Fernandez
The global trip is not simply “out there” but it is also “in here,” wherever our location is. This course brings to the student’s consciousness the interweaving of the global and local realities in our daily living through theoretical analysis and face-to-face encounter with the “others” at our doorsteps. Furthermore, it gives students the opportunity to reflect on the challenges that our globalized context poses for doing theology and ministry. This course satisfies the globalization/cross-cultural requirement.
No prerequisites

CS747 Global Justice Trip to Guatemala
Christine M. Smith
Since the mid 1950s, Guatemala has been a militarized country, and during the 1970s and 1980s it had one of the worst records for human rights violations in the Western hemisphere. Also, it is a country in which the indigenous Mayan population has remained culturally vibrant and strong in the midst of grinding poverty and racist genocide. During this trip, we will focus on Mayan culture and spirituality, human rights issues and violations, and issues of global economics that continue to be so oppressive to the people of Guatemala. We will be traveling to several villages in the northern highlands of Guatemala, speaking with World Bank representatives and human rights advocates in Guatemala City, and visiting grass roots cooperatives that help sustain the social and economic life of the Mayan Indian people of Guatemala. This course satisfies the global justice requirement.
No prerequisites

CS751 Global Justice Trip to Chiapas, Mexico
Christine M. Smith
Until the Spanish conquest over 500 years ago, the country we know as Mexico today was the land of indigenous people. The Spanish conquest began a long history of slavery, oppression, and genocide that still continues throughout Mexico. This trip will focus on the southernmost state of the country, which is Chiapas. While there, we will experience the pervasive strength of Mayan indigenous culture and spirituality. In the state of Chiapas there have been many movements for change and liberation, three of which we will encounter during out trip: 1) The ongoing struggle for autonomy and liberation of the Zapatista National Liberation Army. 2) The active non-violence strategies of Las Abejas. 3) The liberation theology influence of Bishop Samuel Ruiz who served the Diocese of San Cristobal for over 30 years. During our time in Chiapas, we will visit co-operatives, ecological projects, and religious communities, worship in Acteal with Las Abejas, and spend time with some of the Zapatista leaders. This course satisfies the global justice requirement.
No prerequisites

CS752 Global Justice Trip to El Salvador
Christine M. Smith
Participants in this course will study the complex economic and military history of El Salvador leading up to the civil war of 1980-1992 and will visit with people who knew and worked with Monsignor Oscar Romero: liberation theologians and activists who were martyred during those years of great violence. We will visit with representatives of political parties, with people involved in economic and co-operative projects that help sustain poor communities, and at the home of Monsignor Romero and the Central American University where six martyred Jesuit priests taught, worked, and died. One of the distinct theological issues that permeates the life and theology of El Salvador is martyrdom. We will explore this concept in depth, as well as the enormous theological contributions made to Latin American Liberation Theology by Salvadoran Professors Jon Sobrino, Ignacio Ellacuria, and many others.
No prerequisites

CS753 Celebrating Days of the Dead in Mexico: Theology, Art, & Ritual
Mexico City, Cuernavaca, Nahuatl village of Amatlán
Christine M. Smith  
This trip will explore the relationship of selected aspects of Mexican art, ritual, culture, and spirituality to the ongoing struggle for justice and hope for all poor and oppressed in Mexico. Participants  will have the opportunity to experience Mexico’s traditional celebration of Days of the Dead (Dias de Los Muertos), a major Mexican festival in which individuals and whole communities “commune with their departed loved ones” for a series of days and with a number of traditional rituals. We will be visiting Mexican artists, both historical and living, who are well known for their Days of the Dead art. We will be talking with Benedictine sisters and other religious leaders about the role and significance of Our Lady of Guadalupe and visiting the famous Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the National Art Gallery in Mexico City. We will be exposed to Mexican feminist theology, indigenous spirituality and cosmo-vision, and visit the archeological zone of Xochicalco (the Place of the Flowers), an ancient city where astronomers and priests gathered to study the heavens and worship their gods. Through all of these experiences, we will make connections between how the indigenous spiritualities that shaped the Days of the Dead and Christian liberationist ideas help people face death and dying, celebrate natural death and life, and organize active resistance to oppression and injustice.
No prerequisites