Spring 2010 Course Offerings

The Theology of Clint Eastwood: The Western as Christian Metaphor

Rev. Dr. Shawnthea Monroe

 Four Tuesdays, April 6 to April 27, 2010 | 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. | $60

Fairmount Presbyterian Church | 2757 Fairmount Boulevard | Cleveland Heights | 44106

 The classic western plot is broadly based on the Christian narrative: a lone hero sacrifices to save the community from the forces of evil. As the western genre has changed, so too has the implicit theological message. Using three films by Clint Eastwood, this course will explore the western as Christian metaphor as well as show how popular culture can be used as a tool for theological conversation and exploration. [Required watching before the course or the week before the movie is discussed: High Plains Drifter (1971), Pale Rider (1985), and Unforgiven (1992).]

Rev. Shawnthea Monroe, D. Minn. is the Senior Minister of Plymouth Church, United Church of Christ, in Shaker Heights. She has recently published Living Christianity: A Pastoral Theology for Today which she co-authored with theologian Shannon Craigo-Snell. She graduated from Yale Divinity School, and then in 2007 received her doctorate of Ministry in Preaching from the Chicago Theological Seminary. Dr. Monroe is a member of the American Academy of Religion and is on the board of trustees for the Deaconess Community Foundation. Shawnthea likes popular culture, Reformed Theology, and the sparks that fly when the two intersect. She also wrote Fantasy, Fact and Faith on Wisteria Lane. Dr. Monroe is married to Dr. Neil Mueller and has three children.

 Biblical Literacy: The Essential Bible Stories Everyone Needs to Know

Timothy Beal, Ph.D.

 Four Thursdays, April 15 to May 6, 2010 | 7:30 – 9:30 p.m. | $60

Plymouth Church | 2860 Coventry Road | Shaker Heights | 44120

What do Barack Obama, Marge Simpson, Bono, and Madonna have in common? They all draw inspiration from the Bible! In this course, the author of Biblical Literacy: The Essential Bible Stories Everyone Needs to Know invites us to join him for a fun, no-experience-necessary exploration of the Bible’s greatest cultural hits, those stories that have had the most influence outside the church on art, literature, and politics.

Timothy Beal, Ph.D. is the Florence Harkness Professor of Religion at Case Western Reserve University. He has published ten books, including Roadside Religion: In Search of the Sacred, the Strange, and the Substance of Faith, and Religion in America: A Very Short Introduction. He has published essays on the Bible, religion, and popular culture in The New York Times, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, and The Washington Post. Dr. Beal has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and on The Bob Edwards Show. The New York Times Book Review called him “a definitively open-minded professor of religion.” He is married to Rev. Clover Beal, Pastor of Forest Hill Church Presbyterian, and they have two children.

God is Still Speaking…Already Then

Walter Brueggemann, Ph.D., Th.D.

Sunday, April 18, 2010 | 2:30 p.m. | FREE | Co-sponsored by The Covenant Lecture Fund and CEIRS

Church of the Covenant | 11205 Euclid Avenue | Cleveland | 44106

Professor Brueggemann’s presentation will consider the ways in which the Bible itself exhibits the practice of ongoing interpretive freedom and imagination.  Such a practice – in the Bible and in the church – raises important questions about the anxious need for unchanging certitude in our fearful society and about the temptation to step outside the text in order to be modernly contemporary. A probe will be made of the practice of dwelling in the textual tradition and finding there the stirring of God’s truthful spirit amid the text.

Walter Brueggemann, Ph. D., Th.D., is Professor Emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia, where he served as William Marcellus McPheeters professor of Old Testament from 1986 – 2003. He previously taught Old Testament at Eden Theological Seminary, Webster Groves, Missouri, where he was also Dean. An ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, Brueggemann has authored more than 58 books, hundreds of articles, and several commentaries on books of the Hebrew Bible. There is also a publication in his honor, God in the Fray: A Tribute to Walter Brueggemann, edited by Tod Linafelt and Timothy K. Beal.

Emerging Christianity: Reframing our Beliefs for the New Millennium

Brian McLaren, M.A.

 Wednesday, May 26, 2010 | 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. | $40 for Workshop & Lecture [$15 for evening lecture alone] | Add $10 for a box lunch | Lecture 7:30 p.m. | Co-sponsored by First Baptist Church, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, and CEIRS.

First Baptist Church | 3630 Fairmount Boulevard | Cleveland Heights | 44118

Profound and sometimes disturbing questions are being raised in conversations about “emerging Christianity”. What Kind of God Do We Believe in? What is Christian Hope Today? How Does the Bible Function in today’s Context? Is a Theory of Atonement the Center of the Gospel? These questions will be explored in ways that are accessible to both theologians and lay leaders – and are intended to stimulate afternoon interactive experience. In the evening, under the same umbrella, Mr. McLaren will speak on A Tale of Two Gospels. This session will contrast what Dallas Willard has called “the gospel of sin management” with “the gospel that Jesus proclaimed.” It presents a missional understanding of the gospel that has far-reaching transformative power for our churches and for individual Christians.

Brian McLaren, M.A., is a nationally known author, speaker, activist, and networker among innovative Christian leaders. He has an M.A. in English literature from the University of Maryland, left teaching and founded a “transdenominational church” in the Baltimore-Washington area where he remained pastor until 2006. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Carey Theological Seminary in Vancouver. His many publications are foundational for the emerging church movement, including A Generous Orthodoxy, and Everything Must Change. His website is www.brianmclaren.net.  He is married to Grace and has four adult children.