Core Requirements

The Core Curriculum of Creighton's College of Arts and Sciences requires students to take 3 courses in Theology and one course in Ethics. The Ethics course may be taken from either the Theology Department or the Philosophy Department.

These courses reflect the Catholic and Jesuit character of Creighton University. This special character of Creighton University includes the following: an examination and reflection of ultimate questions from the viewpoint of both Christian revelation and rational inquiry; ethical inquiry; an emphasis on understanding in a multi-cultural world; and an emphasis on holistic and integrating approaches to questions and problems.

Religious Inquiry

In order to engage in the theological enterprise, students must situate their own religious experiences within the context of their religious traditions and the broader context of the human phenomenon of religion.

Specific learning objectives:

1. To gain an understanding of the universal scope of religion and its centrality to culture by:

a. addressing ultimate questions such as: "What is the human condition?" and "How is the sacred experienced and communicated within this condition?" "How does the experience of transcendence affect this condition?" "What is the source of evil?"
b. exploring how various faith communities - Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, etc. - have answered these questions;
c. examining how cultures have been shaped by these questions.

1. To learn the essentials of the Christian religion.
2. To gain a better and more precise understanding of one's own faith by examining and reflecting on that faith in light of the above.
3. To address the issue of domestic diversity within the context of religion.

Requirement:

THL 100 Religious Inquiry: Christianity in Context
The study of religion as a universal human phenomenon and of Christianity within that context. Within that framework, students will be challenged to situate their own appropriation of faith.

Scripture

The foundational Scriptures of the Christian faith are the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) and the New Testament. The Scriptures, examples of early Theology, provide much of the data of later theology and an example of early theology itself. Thus, the ability to read and comprehend the Scriptures is a prerequisite for theological understanding.

Specific learning objectives:

1. To learn how to read the Bible within its historical, literary, and cultural context by:

a. examining the history of the biblical period;
b. practicing critical reading methods such as source criticism, form criticism,redaction criticism, literary criticism, social science criticism
c. comparing the biblical literature to relevant literature of the ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean world.

1. To learn the content of the biblical documents: the stories, laws, prophecies, parables, letters, and visions.
2. To gain an understanding of the biblical religion and its relationship to Christian theology.

Requirement:

One of the following 3-credit, 200-level courses in the area of Scripture (prerequisite for these courses is completion of Religious Inquiry):

THL 200 Introduction to the Bible
Historical and thematic overview of the Old Testament as pointing toward the New Testament. Discussion of the historical context and evolution of the New Testament with a focus on the major Pauline letters, the theological characteristics of the Synoptic gospels, Acts, and the Johannine writings.

THL 201 Introduction to the Old Testament
Survey of the literature, history, and religion of the Old Testament.

THL 202 Creation and Apocalypse
The comparative examination of biblical creation myths and their appropriation in historical, cultic, and prophetic settings.

THL 203 Biblical Ancestors and Heroes
Examination of the story of ancient Israel through the lens of its major figures. Emphasis on their roles as literary and social figures.

THL 207 Reading the New Testament
A survey of selected writings from the early Christian communities, understood in their cultural and literary contexts.

THL 208 Emerging Christian Communities and Their Stories
By using a selection of New Testament texts, students will examine early Christian rhetorical and story telling styles, issues that shaped their emerging identity, and their understanding of the Jesus story.

THL 209 The Life of Jesus
Describing and understanding Jesus and the Jesus movement group (the "historical Jesus") from ca. 30 A.D. by means of traditions set down in writings a generation or more later.

THL 210 Applying the Memory of Jesus: The Community of John
Study of the unique witness to the meaning of Jesus in the Johannine writings.

THL 212 Paul and His Legacy
The correspondence of Paul and others following and adapting his tradition is examined for both their style and their message concerning what God has done in Jesus that affects their communities' lives and identities.

Christian Theology

This course will engage the student in a systematic examination of the teaching and doctrine of the Christian church. Courses in this area will focus on a central Christian topic within the context of Scripture and the universal human phenomenon of religion.

Specific learning objectives:

1. To learn how foundational Christian doctrine is contained in, and emerges from, Scripture.
2. To learn the historical development of Christian doctrine through the study of the history and tradition of the Christian church.
3. To become familiar with the contemporary theological discussion of doctrine and its significance for Christian living in the modern age.

Requirements:

One of the following 3-credit, 300-level courses in the area of Christian Theology (prerequisite for these courses is completion of Scripture):

THL 325 Catholicism: Creed and Question
This course explores the basic beliefs and teachings of the Roman Catholic Church within the context of current theological debate.

THL 326 Defending the Christian Faith
How the Christian Church has defended its core doctrines and beliefs against critics both ancient and modern.

THL 330 Jesus Christ and the Salvation of the World
This course will explore through historical analysis and contemporary theory a fundamental Christian doctrine: Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World. The course will lead students in the study of some of the fundamental questions related to this doctrine.

THL 335 Jesus Christ: Yesterday and Today
An historical and critical analysis of the meaning of the man Jesus of Nazareth as that meaning was developed in the New Testament and in later Christian traditions. Special emphasis on contemporary theological attempts to answer the perennial question: "Who is this man?"

THL 336 Jesus and Our Quest for Christian Identity
What difference does it make to the development of the human person to believe in God and to believe in Jesus Christ as God incarnate? Based on what we can know of the historical Jesus and on how the Christian church has viewed Jesus through the centuries, this course seeks to provide a portrait of Jesus to attract and challenge today's inquirer.

THL 337 Grace and Sin: Personal and Societal Dimensions
Theology of grace in Scripture and theological reflections throughout the centuries with particular reference to the way that grace heals and transforms our personal and societal relationships.

THL 338 Eucharist: Sacrament of Unity or Disunity?
Study of the Eucharist from an ecumenical perspective. The course is intended for Catholic and Protestant, mainline and Evangelical Christians seeking a critical, historical, and theological understanding of their eucharistic heritage.

THL 339 Theology of the Church and Sacraments
An historical and critical analysis of the sacramental dimension of Christianity as it applies to the church. A treatment of the church as the sacrament of the risen Jesus and of the classical Christian sacraments as solemn, symbolic actions of both that church and that Jesus.

THL 344 Theology of Christian Marriage
Christian marriage in its sacramental reality and intrinsic mystery. Particular needs and problems confronting marriage today.

Foundations for Ethical Understanding

The goal of this course is to provide students with a philosophical or theological framework within which to make moral decisions.

Specific learning objectives:

1. To clarify, organize and critically evaluate moral theories and norms.
2. To apply moral theory to specific problems, e.g. are for the environment, obligations of children to parents and parents to children, the morality of war, and the moral obligations of the developed countries toward the developing countries.
3. To develop ethical conviction and to promote moral wisdom.

Requirement:

THL 250 Theological Foundations for Ethical Understanding
Study of traditional and contemporary frameworks for determining moral values and making moral decisions in a Christian context. The application of traditional moral understanding to contemporary moral problems.