About this course
Deeply embedded in the Christian understanding of reality is a sense that something is seriously wrong with the good world that God created. Sin is the key label that the Christian tradition has used to identify the core and cause of what is wrong. There is no aspect of human life that escapes sin’s corruptive and disruptive power. From individual character and choices to social practices and structures, sin tragically defaces the world that God intended for goodness, flourishing, and delight.
While a Christian understanding cannot describe the world as fundamentally or finally sinful (due to the world’s created goodness and promised redemption), the notion of sin remains an important element of characterizing the present world accurately. Accordingly, Christians in all academic disciplines need to reckon with the reality of sin.
During this course, you will analyze the theme of sin as it is presented in selected texts from Scripture and the Christian tradition. You will examine contemporary theological explorations of the nature and effects of sin in God’s good world. You will evaluate applications of the doctrine of sin in the work of scholars in a handful of academic disciplines beyond theology. And you will experiment with ideas about how the concept of sin might inform your own work in higher education.