A New Opportunity

[Tim Bonney]

Beginning this fall I'll be doing something new that I've always been interesting in doing but never had the chance. Beginning in August I'll be working as a part-time adjunct instructor at Morningside College teaching a four hour course in Christian Ethics. I'm looking forward to dipping my toe in academia this year.

[Lou]

Congrats on receiving this teaching assignment! Teaching and encouraging students toward a distinctively Christian ethos fills a great need--and I think the material will be especially informative coming from someone like yourself who has experienced life in the trenches of Christian ministry, where so many ethical challenges are encountered. There is an ethics professor in the church I pastor, and have found his friendship and counsel to be an invaluable resource as I've waded through some pastoral issues across the years.

Would you mind, Timothy, sharing the title(s) of the textbook(s) you plan to use as you teach the course--and maybe even a short-form of the class syllabus? I'm always interested in such things. (I'm odd like that. )

[KeithE]

Congratulations. I'll have to watch my on-line ethics more carefully.

[Ed Pettibone]

[Tim Bonney]

Thanks all. I'm sure I will learn a lot Ed! I'm furiously reading textbooks now. I will be happy to post the list of books we are using. I don't have my class papers put together yet. This was a pretty sudden.

[Tim Bonney]

For those who are interested, these are the texts for this semester for my Christian Ethics class.

"Moral Dilemmas: An introduction to Christian Ethics"
J. Philip Wogaman
Westminster John Knox Press, 2009

War: A Primer for Christians
Joseph L. Allen
Texas A&M University Press-SMU Press Aug. 10, 2014

Readings in Christian Ethics, Volume 2
Issues and Applications
David K. Clark, Robert V. Rakestraw
Baker Academic 1995

Living in Sin? A Bishop Rethinks Human Sexuality
John Shelby Spong
HarperOne (Harper Collins) 1990

[Dave Roberts]

Sounds like you have chosen texts that will produce some real discussion. Hope it goes well for you.

[Lou]

Looks like an interesting and challenging list. (Although as a Texas Tech fan I tend to be automatically suspicious of anything that comes out of College Station...)

[Tim Bonney]

All but the Wogaman text have been used by the class in the past. I'm sticking fairly close to past practice the first semester. Abut 1/3 of the class is lecture and about 2/3 is class discussion and panel discussions and presentations. The goal is to teach the students to think ethically for themselves, not to tell the the "right" answers.

[DSimmons]

Spong???? Good heavens above. No doubt you'll get some interesting discussion from that. Good luck.

BTW, I taught a semester of Bible Survey for a branch campus of Sterling College back in the mid-90's. I really enjoyed it, but moved away and couldn't continue the gig. I think one of the most interesting parts for me was the student feedback at the end. Some loved the class (and me, I guess) and others hated it. Most of the latter acknowledged that were the class not required by the college they never would have signed up for it.

[Tim Bonney]

[DSimmons]

Spong is definitely "the gamut."

[Tim Bonney]

[Tim Bonney]

By the way, that text has been part of the course before I took it. I only added one new book to the book list and it wasn't Spong.

[Sandy]

I'm sure Spong will generate a lot of discussion. I've read Why Christianity Must Change or Die, A New Christianity for a New World, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, and Into the Whirlwind: The Future of the Church. I think he might be a topic for a good discussion here at some point. It would be interesting to see what kind of perspective others here have of his views. Might be some surprises. An Episcopalian friend of mine once told me that he thought you had to know Christ to be Christian, therefore Spong can't be considered a Christian writer. I would disagree with that evaluation.

I'd be more interested, though, in the Allen book.

[Tim Bonney]