THEO3511: The Postmodern God

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• To develop students' specialist understanding of the historical shifts that contributed to postmodern thought and postmodern thinkers.
• To explore the mutual impact of postmodern thought and theology upon each other, both critical and constructive.
• To foster students' ability to critically evaluate and develop complex debates between theology and postmodern thought.
• To develop students' ability to apply these debates across a spectrum of contemporary issues.
• To develop students' confidence and ability in the use of scholarly methods and conventions, both written and aurally presented.

• The general consensus amongst sociologists and cultural theorists is that the late 20th and early 21st century ushered in a new cultural sensibility: postmodernism. In the same way that modernity both challenged theology as well as lending it new form, so too the postmodern reaction is both critical and constructive for theology. This module explores the key impact of postmodern thought on theology. What does the postmodern God look like? How might postmodern ethics challenge or contribute to religious ethics? How might theology respond to the postmodern challenge within the field of politics and the economy? And how do postmodern approaches to gender sit with Christian theology? This module explores both the theoretical background to various postmodern thinkers, and the application of their ideas and the key issues they raise in tandem with a number of prominent theologians.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• A systematic understanding and a coherent knowledge of the underlying concepts and principles associated with postmodern thought including power, gender, and deconstruction.
• An evaluative understanding of theological responses to postmodern thought and the conditions it describes.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Skills in the acquisition of information through reading and research, and in the structured presentation of information in written form
• A perceptiveness to the place awarded to theological ideas within those texts, as well as the challenges to theological and religious themes.
• A capacity to perceive and interpret relationships between key theological beliefs and postmodern thought such that their mutual influence becomes perspicuous and available for academic study.
• The ability to apply the central works across a variety of contemporary issues, and the capacity to reflect with insight on the key aspects of human experience (e.g. power, gender, ethics, faith, religion), and to reflect philosophically and theologically on the present.

Key Skills:

• Students will develop the skills for research, presentation, and writing skills.
• Skills in the analysis of multivalent texts with intellectual nuance.
• An ability to assess a range of contemporary issues in an interdisciplinary way.

• Lectures convey information and exemplify an approach to the subject-matter, enabling students to develop a clear understanding of the material and to improve their skills in interpreting and evaluating information. Lectures cover the broad reading. Time is set aside in lectures to enhance subject-specific knowledge through interaction with students and staff, promoting awareness of different viewpoints and approaches, and enhancing skills in the analysis of texts, concepts and arguments.
• Tutorials are for one-to-one engagement to provide essay feedback and address any issues arising including the craft of essay writing or the conceptual grasp of the material.
• Summative essays assess subject-specific knowledge and understanding, along with student skills in the acquisition of information through reading and research, and in the structured presentation of information in written form.
• The formative assessment will develop subject-specific knowledge and understanding, along with student skills in the acquisition of information and evaluation, and presentation of texts in a concise and critical way.

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