SMC Core Curriculum Course Proposal Form Fall 2014

Electronically submit this course form and attachments to the Chair of the CCC by October 1. Please submit a separate proposal for each desired learning goal.

  1. Name of Proposer: Anne M. Carpenter
  2. Email address:
  3. Department/Program of Proposer: Theology & Religious Studies
  1. Name of Department/Program housing the course: Theology & Religious Studies
  2. Name(s) of Program Director/Department Chair (if not the proposer): D. Zach Flanagin
  1. Course Acronym, Number and Title: TRS 135: Christian Liturgy and Sacrament
  2. Proposal is for All Sections of the course: Yes

Proposal is for instructor’s section(s) (Pathways to Knowledge only): _____

  1. Course Prerequisites (if any): TRS 097
  2. Unit Value of Course: 1
  1. Mark with an X the Learning Goal for which the course is being proposed. (Please submit a separate proposal for each desired goal.)

Pathways to Knowledge (at most one)

Artistic Understanding – Artistic Analysis only: ____

Artistic Understanding – Creative Practice only: ____

Artistic Understanding – Both Artistic Analysis and Creative Practice: ____

Mathematical Understanding: ____

Scientific Understanding: ____

Social, Historical, Cultural Understanding: ____

Christian Foundations: ____

Theological Explorations: __X__

Engaging the World (as appropriate, generally zero to two)

American Diversity: ____

Common Good: ____

Community Engagement: ____

Global Perspectives: ____

SYLLABUS EXPLANATION (see separate attachment for syllabus itself)

Course Description

Without a direct and living encounter with God in prayer, the Christian religion becomes little more than a collection of intellectual propositions and dead ideals. But what does it mean to encounter God in prayer? Christians have struggled greatly with this question over the course of their history. Students will have an opportunity to enter into this long conversation by exploring the practice of Christian worship from its ancient roots in Judaism to the present age and by examining the theological explanations given for the nature of that worship over time. Controversies in early and Medieval/Reformation Christianity will help frame a discussion over the role of the liturgy in our current context.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to…

  1. Summarize the early influences on and major development of ancient Christian liturgy, especially its Jewish origins and its development during persecution.
  2. Review the critical aspects of a Catholic theology of liturgy and sacrament as they contrast with other Christian traditions.
  3. Compare and assess the shift away from ancient liturgy during the Protestant Reformation with Catholic liturgy, and similarly compare and assess reforms to liturgy in the contemporary Catholic Church.
  4. Articulate the importance of symbol and anamnesis (memory) in Christian worship, both in ancient Christianity and in modern scholarly studies of Christian notions of ritual.

*NB: The course outcomes #1-4 seek to fulfill department outcomes #1-3, as listed in the syllabus. This relates to department relevance more than it does to CCC matters.

THEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS AND COURSE OUTCOMES

Theological Exploration Outcome #1:

In TRS 135, I teach outcome #1 (i.e., understanding of Christian tradition) through the following specific course outcomes:

  1. Summarize the early influences on and major development of ancient Christian liturgy, especially its Jewish origins and its development during early Christianity.
  2. Review the critical aspects of a Catholic theology of liturgy and sacrament as they are distinguished from other Christian traditions.
  3. Compare and assess the shift away from ancient liturgy during the Protestant Reformation with Catholic liturgy, and similarly compare and assess reforms to liturgy in the contemporary Catholic Church.

Explanation of Outcomes:

In this context, the “subfield” of theology in question is often called “systematic” or “philosophical” theology, which both examines theologies of the past and considers present concerns in order to articulate theology in a logical/philosophical manner. The particular subject of this subfield is the Christian liturgy and sacrament; that is, matters of worship and ritual. Outcome #1 seeks to educate students on the rich historical past of the Christian liturgy, which is deeply Jewish in origin and complex in its ritual expression from the start. Here students will have any assumptions about early Christian worship broken down, since Christianity was and remains essentially Jewish in its attitudes toward worship, and since ancient Christian ritual emerged with markers of its own very early – that is, liturgy is a “public work” that is done by the community “for all,” for the sake of Christians and non-Christians alike. This leads into Outcome #2, where students will learn what Catholic theology in particular has had to say about liturgy and sacrament, presuming as it does the history from Outcome #1 and developing Latin terminology in the Middle Ages that comes to stress the “real presence” and indeed objective presence of Christ in the Church’s sacraments. Here Catholic theology becomes precise and terminologically complex. The Catholic theology of sacrament is then contrasted with the followers of the Reformation in Outcome #3, when Protestants heavily simplify their worship practices in order to emphasize personal faith, emotional experience, and individual belief, while Catholic and early liturgy had emphasized God’s presence and the community. We will also see how Catholics appropriate and change some of these developments from the Reformation in their most recent liturgical reforms during the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).

Evaluation of Outcomes

One of the exams will be devoted to all three outcomes (history, Catholic theology, Reformation/reform), and one of the papers. The exam is a mix of question types that seek objective responses to check for vocabulary, knowledge of historical development, and essential characteristics. The paper is a student’s independent research into a specific Christian worship practice, in order to understand how Christian worship does not come out of “thin air” and undergoes a great deal of change before it reaches us as it is in the present day. The paper is considered the “first part” or half of a whole.

Theological Exploration Outcome #2:

In TRS 135, I teach outcome #2 (i.e., “Demonstrate an ability to explore religious questions from a believer's point of reference and from the critical perspective of the academy") through the following specific course outcomes:

  1. Summarize the early influences on and major development of ancient Christian liturgy, especially its Jewish origins and its development during early Christianity.
  1. Articulate the importance of symbol and anamnesis (memory) in Christian worship, both in ancient Christianity and in modern scholarly studies of Christian notions of ritual.

Explanation of Outcomes

Philosophically, notions of symbol and memory have been key in the Christian development of its own self-understanding, as well as in scholarly critiques of Christian worship. So, too, has history served a similar role for both believers and scholars. With respect to Outcome #1, history serves as a “litmus test” in which believers explore the authenticity or inauthenticity of their current practices, leading to a rejection of history or (as in the Catholic Church) reform. Liturgical scholars always begin their studies with a historical assessment of a ritual or practice, and so this study imitates the methods of the academy. Outcome #4 is more philosophical in nature, and seeks to draw together the major themes of Christian worship into coherence, as a theologian might do, or to question the possibility of coherence at all, which a theologian might also do. That is, philosophically speaking, there are arguments made within the academy that support the practice of the ancient liturgies, or question it.

Evaluation of Outcomes

As with the first set of outcomes, an exam is devoted specifically to these outcomes, and so is a paper. The exam, like the first (midterm), will objectively test knowledge of terms, concepts, and questions (in the form of a final). The paper will build on the first “half” of the historical essay by studying a contemporary theologian who tries to understand, question, or reform the liturgy. The student will review this theologian’s ideas and then apply their ideas to the practice they researched in the first paper. So, students will have imitated in a small way what a professional scholar would do in almost any paper. We together study an example of this in the William Cavanaugh, in Being Consumed, where he reviews ancient ideas and then applies them to modern economics and contemporary worship.

Evaluation (In Brief)

Various uses of…

●Exams that include short essays as well as vocabulary questions.

●Quizzes

●A historical paper.

●A final interpretive/reflection paper.

See the example syllabus for more details.

Materials

▪Romano Guardini, The Spirit of the Liturgy

▪Robert Sokolowski, Eucharistic Presence

▪Alexander Schmemann, Introduction to the Liturgy

▪William Cavanaugh, Being Consumed

CCC Course Proposal Form