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Theological Studies
I. REQUIRED COURSES
Students in the Theological Studies area must complete 3325: Nineteenth Century Theology and 3327: Contemporary Theology. They must also take 3908: Seminar in Systematic Theology during each of their first two years of course work.
II. LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS
Students concentrating in the Theological Studies area must demonstrate proficiency in two languages of research, as indicated in the general guidelines for the Graduate Department of Religion. In the area of Theological Studies, these languages are normally chosen from among German, French or Spanish. Should the student's area of intended research warrant it, he or she may petition the area faculty to count Latin or Greek as one of the two languages.
III. QUALIFYING EXAMINATIONS
The Theological Studies area requires the satisfactory completion of five Ph.D. qualifying examinations. They are: History of Christian Theology; Contemporary Readings in the Nature and Tasks of Theology (a.k.a. "Methods"); Doctrines; Minor Area; and Dissertation Area Research. The last two of these involve individual negotiation between student and faculty. The first three are fixed in form, and involve standardized reading lists, which are specified below.
Reading List I: History of Christian Theology (Beginnings to 1965)
A. Ancient (read all)
- Justin Martyr First Apology
- Origen On First Principles
- Athanasius On the Incarnation of the Word
- Gregory of Nyssa Great Catechetical Treatise
- Gregory of Nazianzus Five Theological Orations
- Augustine Confessions, Enchiridion, Spirit and Letter, On the Trinity (8-15)
- Pseudo-Dionysius The Divine Names and The Mystical Theology
- Maximus Confessor Selected Writings
B. Medieval / Reformation (read Aquinas, Luther, Calvin and select one other author)
- Anselm Proslogion and Cur Deus Homo
- Bonaventure Breviloquium
- Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologiae
IaIIae [qq109-14], IIaIIae [qq1-2, 23]
IIIa [qq1, 60, 62, 64]
- Meister Eckhart Commentary on John (Prologue)
German Sermons
- Julian of Norwich Showings
- Nicholas of Cusa On Learned Ignorance
- Martin Luther Heidelberg Disputation
Confession Concerning Christ's Supper (Parts I and III)
Brief Instruction on Gospels
Prefaces to OT and NT
Two Kinds of Righteousness
Bondage of the Will (Introduction, Part VI and Conclusion)
Babylonian Captivity (Part I)
Freedom of a Christian
- John Calvin Institutes (1559)
Bk II [i, ii.12-18, iii.3-10, v.14-15, vi, ix, xvi, xvii]
Bk III [i, ii, xi, xiv.10-12, xv, xix, xxii]
Bk IV [i-ii, viii, ix.8-13, xiv, xv.14-17, xvii.1-16, 33,
xvii.13-17, xx]
- Teresa of Avila The Interior Castle
C. Early Modern (read Hume and three others)
- René Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy [not including objections]
- Blaise Pascal Pensées
- John Locke Reasonableness of Christianity
- Gottfried Leibniz Theodicy
- Jonathan Edwards Two Dissertations
- John Wesley Outler selection (Library of Prot Thought) and "A Plain Account"
- Gotthold Lessing Theological Writings
- David Hume Dialogues on Natural Religion
Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (Sections X & XI)
D. Nineteenth Century (read Kant, Schleiermacher, Hegel, Troeltsch and two others)
- Immanuel Kant Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
Critique of Practical Reason
- Friedrich Schleiermacher The Christian Faith
Part I (paras 32-41, 46-51, 57-58)
Part II/1 (paras 62-72, 75-82)
Part II/2 (paras 86-95, 100-2, 106-7, 109, 113-27,
148-9, 164-72)
- G. W. F. Hegel Phenomenology of Spirit (Preface and Introduction)
Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion (Parts I & III)
- Søren Kierkegaard Philosophical Fragments
The Sickness Unto Death
- John Henry Newman Fifteen Oxford Sermons
- Horace Bushnell God in Christ
- Albrecht Ritschl Three Essays
- Wilhelm Herrmann The Communion of the Christian with God
- Martin Kähler So-Called Historical Jesus and the Historic, Biblical Christ
- Adolf von Harnack What is Christianity
- Alfred Loisy The Gospel and the Church
- Maurice Blondel Letter on Apologetics
History and Dogma
- Ernst Troeltsch "Historical and Dogmatic Method in Theology",
"What Does 'Essence of Christianity' Mean?",
"Half a Century of Theology: A Review",
"The Significance of the Historical Existence of Jesus for Faith",
"The Dogmatics of the History-of-Religions School",
"The Essence of the Modern Spirit",
"On the Possibility of a Liberal Christianity"
E. Twentieth Century (read Barth, Rahner and two others)
- Karl Barth "Fate and Idea in Theology", "The Humanity of God",
"Concluding Postscript on Schleiermacher",
Church Dogmatics I/1, plus sections 57 and 58 from IV/1
- Rudolf Bultmann NT and Mythology and Other Basic Writings
- Paul Tillich Systematic Theology [Vols. 1 and 2]
- H. Richard Niebuhr Meaning of Revelation
Radical Monotheism and Western Culture
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer Creation and Fall and Christ the Center and Ethics
- Karl Rahner Foundations of Christian Faith
Gerald McCool (ed.), A Rahner Reader
- Henri de Lubac Mystery of the Supernatural
- Vladimir Lossky, Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church
- Hans Urs von Balthasar Seeing the Form (Glory of the Lord, vol. I)
II: Contemporary Readings in the Nature and Tasks of Theology
- Leonardo Boff, Theology and Praxis
- John Cobb, Jr and David Ray Griffin, Process Theology
- Francis X. Clooney, Hindu God, Christian God
- Ingolf Dalferth, Theology and Philosophy
- Sheila Greeve Davaney, Pragmatic Historicism
- Gustavo Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation 2nd ed.
- Edward Farley, Ecclesial Reflection
- Hans Frei, Types of Christian Theology
- Dwight Hopkins, Introduction To Black Theology Of Liberation
- Elizabeth Johnson, She Who Is [Parts One and Two]
- Gareth Jones, Critical Theology
- Serene Jones, Feminist Theology: Cartographies of Grace
- David Kamitsuka, Theology and Contemporary Culture
- Gordon Kaufman, In Face of Mystery [Part One]
- David Kelsey, Uses of Scripture in Recent Theology
- Paul Knitter, Introducing Theologies of Religion
- Paul Lakeland, Postmodernity
- Nicholas Lash, Theology on Dover Beach and Theology on the Way to Emmaus
- George Lindbeck, The Nature of Doctrine
- Bernard Lonergan, Method in Theology
- Andrew Louth, Discerning the Mystery
- Sallie McFague, Metaphorical Theology
- John Milbank, Theology and Social Theory
- Stephanie Y. Mitchem, Introducing Womanist Theology
- Jürgen Moltmann, Experiences in Theological Thinking
- Schubert Ogden, On Theology
- Wolfhart Pannenberg, Theology and the Philosophy of Science
- Kathryn Tanner, Theories of Culture
- Mark Kline Taylor, Remembering Esperanza
- David Tracy, The Analogical Imagination
- Maurice Wiles, The Remaking of Christian Doctrine
- Rowan Williams, On Christian Theology [Prologue & Chaps 1-4] plus
additional essay: "Doctrinal Criticism: Some Questions"
III: Doctrines (Select Three Doctrines for your Examination)
A. Christology
Aulén, Gustaf. Christus Victor: An Historical Study of the Three Main Types of the Idea of Atonement.
New York: Macmillan, 1951.
Boff, Leonardo. Jesus Christ Liberator: A Critical Christology for Our Time. Maryknoll,
N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1978.
Brunner, Emil. The Mediator. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1947.
Cobb, John B. Christ in a Pluralistic Age. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1975.
Cone, James H. A Black Theology of Liberation. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1986.
Grant, Jacquelyn. White Women's Christ and Black Women's Jesus: Feminist Christology
and Womanist Response. Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1989.
Griffin, David Ray. Process Christology. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1973.
Haight, Roger. Jesus Symbol of God. Orbis, 2000.
Jenson, Robert W. Systematic Theology, Vol 1 New York: Oxford University Press 1997.
Johnson, Elizabeth. Consider Jesus. New York: Crossroad, 1990.
Jüngel, Eberhard. God as the Mystery of the World. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1977.
Kasper, Walter. Jesus the Christ. New York: Paulist Press, 1976.
Moltmann, Jürgen. The Way of Jesus Christ: Christology in Messianic Dimensions.
Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993.
Ogden, Schubert Miles. The Point of Christology. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1982.
Pannenberg, Wolfhart. Jesus, God and Man. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1977.
Sobrino, Jon. Christology at the Crossroads: A Latin American Approach
Sölle, Dorothee. Christ the Representative: An Essay in Theology after the "Death of
God". London: S.C.M. Press, 1967.
Tanner, Kathryn. Jesus, Humanity and the Trinity: A Brief Systematic Theology.Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001.
von Balthazar, Hans Urs. Theo-Drama, vol. III
Wildman, Wesley. Fidelity with Plausibility: Modest Christologies in the Twentieth
Century. Albany: SUNY Press, 1998.
Yoder, John Howard. The Politics of Jesus. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972.
B. Ecclesiology
Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry. Faith and Order Paper No. 111.Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1982.
Doyle, Dennis. Communion Ecclesiology: Visions and Versions. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis,
2000.
Dulles, Avery. Models of the Church. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1974.
Evans, G. R. The Church and the Churches: Toward an Ecumenical Ecclesiology. New
York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Haight, Roger. Christian Community in History Vo. 2. (New York: Continuum, 2005), pp. 291-495.
Gunton, Colin and Daniel Hardy, eds. On Being the Church: Essays on Christian
Community. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1989.
Healy, Nicholas M. Church, World and the Christian Life: Practical-Prophetic
Ecclesiology. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Hütter, Reinhard. Suffering Divine Things: Theology as Church Practice. Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 2000.
Moltmann, Jürgen. The Church in the Power of the Spirit: A Contribution to Messianic
Ecclesiology. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993.
Russell, Letty M. Church in the Round. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1993.
Schillebeeckx, Edward. Church: The Human Story of God. New York: Crossroad, 1990.
Segundo, Juan Luis. The Community Called Church. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1973.
Suchocki, Marjorie Hewitt. God Christ Church: A Practical Guide to Process Theology,
(1999).
Volf, Miroslav. After Our Likeness: The Church in the Image of the Trinity. Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998.
Watson, N. K. Introducing Feminist Ecclesiology. New York: Continuum, 2002.
Zizioulas, John D. Being as Communion: Studies in Personhood and the Church.
Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1985.
C. Eschatology
Balthasar, Hans Urs von. Theology of History New York,: Sheed and Ward, 1963.
Barth, Karl. The Epistle to the Romans. 1921 rev. ed. London: Oxford U. Press, 1968.
Bultmann, Rudolf. History and Eschatology: The Presence of Eternity New York: Harper
& Brothers, 1957.
Fiddes, Paul S. The Promised End. Oxford: Blackwell, 2000.
Keller, Catherine. Apocalypse Now and Then: A Feminist Guide to the End of the World
Boston: Beacon Press, 1996.
Moltmann, Jürgen. The Coming God. Tr. Margaret Kohl. Minneapolis: Fortress Press,
1996.
_____. Theology of Hope: On the Ground and the Implications of a Christian
Eschatology. London: SCM Press, 1967.
Pannenberg, Wolfhart. Systematic Theology, vol. 3 Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998.
_____. Basic Questions in Theology I. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1970.
Peters, Ted. God the World's Future, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992.
Polkinghorne, John and Michael Welker, eds., The End of the World and the Ends of
God. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2000.
Sauter, Gerhard. What Dare We Hope? Reconsidering Eschatology. Harrisburg, PA:
Trinity Press International, 1999.
Schweitzer, Albert. The Quest of the Historical Jesus. New York: Macmillan, 1961.
Schwarz, Hans. Eschatology. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000.
Weiss, Johannes. Jesus' Proclamation of the Kingdom of God. Philadelphia: Fortress
Press, 1971.
Williams, Rowan. Resurrection. Harrisburg, Pa.: Morehouse, 1994.
D. Doctrine of God (Trinity and Creation)
Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, vol. III/1 (§41, subsections 2 & 3)
Boff, Leonardo. Trinity and Society. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1988.
Bulgakov, Sergius. The Bride of the Lamb, Part I
Cobb, John B. Christian Natural Theology.
Cone, James. God of the Oppressed (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1975, 1997).
Farley, Edward. Divine Empathy. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996.
Gunton, Colin. The One, the Three, and the Many: God, Creation, and the Culture of
Modernity. Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1993.
Johnson, Elizabeth A. She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological
Discourse. New York: Crossroads, 1992.
Jüngel, Eberhard. God as the Mystery of the World.Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983.
Kaufman, Gordon. Theological Imagination: Constructing the Concept of God (1981).
Keller, Catherine. Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming. New York: Routledge, 2003.
LaCugna, Catherine Mowry. God for Us: The Trinity and Christian Life. San Francisco:
Harper Collins, 1991.
Marion, God Without Being. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.
McFague, Sallie. Models of God: Theology for an Ecological, Nuclear Age. Philadelphia:
Fortress, 1987.
Moltmann, Jürgen. The Trinity and the Kingdom: The Doctrine of God. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1981.
_____. God in Creation: A New Theology of Creation and the Spirit of God. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985.
Lash, Nicholas. Easter in Ordinary. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1990.
Pannenberg, Wolfhart. Systematic Theology. Vol. 1.
Rahner, Karl. The Trinity. New York: Herder & Herder, 1997.
Tanner, Kathryn. God and Creation in Christian Theology: Tyranny or Empowerment?
(1988).
Tillich, Paul. Systematic Theology Vol. 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951.
Delores Williams, Sisters In The Wilderness: The Challenge Of Womanist God-Talk
(Maryknoll NY: Orbis Books, 1993).
Zizioulas, John D. Being as Communion (1985).
E. Anthropology/Soteriology
Barth, Karl. Church Dogmatics III/2.
Cone, James. God of the Oppressed New York: The Seabury Press, 1975.
Coakley, Sarah. Powers and Submissions. Oxford: Blackwell, 2002.
Comblin, Joseph. Retrieving the Human: A Christian Anthropology (1990).
Farley, Edward. Good and Evil: Interpreting a Human Condition (1990).
Heim, S. Mark. The Depth of Riches: A Trinitarian Theology of Religious Ends (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001).
Hopkins, Dwight N. Down, up, and Over: Slave Religion and Black Theology.
Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000.
Jones, Serene. Feminist Theory and Christian Theology: Cartographies of Grace
Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002.
Keller, Catherine. From a Broken Web: Separation, Sexism, and Self (1986)
McFadyen, Alistair I. The Call to Personhood: A Christian Theory of the Individual in
Social Relationships (1990).
Milbank, John. Being Reconciled: Ontology and Pardon (New York: Routledge, 2003).
Niebuhr, Reinhold. The Nature and Destiny of Man, 2 vols. (1951)
Pannenberg, Wolfhart. Anthropology in Theological Perspective. Philadelphia:
Westminster Press, 1985.
Pauw, Amy Plantinga and Serene Jones, eds. Feminist and Womanist Essays in Reformed
Dogmatics. Louisville:Westminster John Knox Press, 2006.
Ray, Darby. Deceiving the Devil: Atonement, Abuse and Ransom.Cleveland: Pilgrim
Press, 1998.
Ricoeur, Paul. Oneself as Another (1992)
Tillich, Paul. Systematic Theology Vol. II Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951.
F. Pneumatology
Buckley, James J. and David S. Yeago, eds. Knowing the Triune God: The Work of the Spirit
in the Practices of the Church. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001.
Bulgakov, Sergius. The Comforter. Eerdmans, 2004.
Congar, Yves. I Believe in the Holy Spirit.
Del Colle, Ralph. Christ and the Spirit 1994.
Hodgson, Peter. Winds of the Spirit: A Constructive Christian Theology. Minneapolis:
Fortress, 1994).
McIntyre, John. The Shape of Pneumatology: Studies in the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit.
Moltmann, Jürgen. The Spirit of Life. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992.
Pannenberg, Wolfhart. Systematic Theology. Vol. 3. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998.
Rahner, Karl. Spirit in the World.New York: Herder and Herder, 1968.
Tillich, Paul. Systematic Theology Vol. 3.
Victorin-Vangerud. The Raging Hearth: Spirit in the Household of God. Chalice Press,
2000.
Wallace, Mark. Fragments of the Spirit: Nature, Violence, and the Renewal of Creation.
Trinity Press International, 2002.
Welker, Michael. God the Spirit. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1999.
NOTE: This description of requirements supplements The Bulletin of Vanderbilt University Graduate School and "The Guidelines of the Graduate Department of Religion." Students are expected to meet all of the common requirements of the graduate program as described in those publications.
Students in Theological Studies are eligible for fellowships in Theology and Practice.
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