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Instructor: Jane Thayer, Ph.D.
Session: July 29-August 2, 2002
Office phone: 471-6703
Class schedule: 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. MTWR
Office: S228 Seminary Hall
Class Location: Seminary Hall, Room S340
E-mail: thayerja@andrews.edu
Credits: 2 semester hours
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DESCRIPTION OF THE COURSE
As the foundational course for the Family Life Education graduate certificate program, this course examines the Christian theological and ethical bases on which family ministries are designed and implemented in both the church and the community.

Required Readings
Reading Guides
Pre-campus and Post-campus Assignment
Graded Assignments
Explanation of Assignments
Reading Guides

STUDENT OUTCOMES AND MEANS OF ASSESSMENT

REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS AND OTHER MATERIALS

Guernsey, Dennis B. 1984. The Family Covenant: Love and Forgiveness in the Christian Home. Elgin, IL: David C. Cook. (110 pages)

House, H. Wayne, (ed.). 1990. Divorce and Remarriage: Four Christian Views. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity. (267 pages)

To order from the Andrews University Bookstore, phone 1-800-385-2001

The following materials-except the Balswick chapter-are available in a Reading Packet that can be purchased from the Andrews University Bookstore. The price includes copyright royalty for the Fee and Stuart chapters. (The Reading Packet will probably be ready shortly after April 1).

Balswick, Jack O., & Judith K. Balswick. 1999. The Family: A Christian Perspective on the Contemporary Home. (2^nd ed.). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. Chapter 1 (17-36). (20 pages)

Fee, Gordon, D., & Douglas Stuart. 1993. How To Read the Bible for All Its Worth: A Guide to Understanding the Bible (2^nd). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. Chapters 1 and 4. (32 pages)

Guy, Fritz. 1999. Thinking Theologically: Adventist Christianity and the Interpretation of Faith. Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press. Chapters 1 and 5. (49 pages)

Davidson, Richard M. 1988. The Theology of Sexuality in the Beginning-Genesis 1-2. Andrews University Seminary Studies 26, (1), 5-24. (20 pages)

Davidson, Richard M. 1988. The Theology of Sexuality in the Beginning-Genesis 3. Andrews University Seminary Studies 26, (2), 121-131. (11 pages)

Davidson, Richard M. 1988. Theology of Sexuality in the Song of Songs: Return to Eden. Andrews University Seminary Studies 27, (1), 1-19. (19 pages)

Flowers, Ronald, Karen Flowers, & Betty Holbrook. 1990. A Theological Rationale for Family Ministries in Caring for Families Today: A Guide for Family Ministries (Rev. ed.). Silver Spring, MD: Department of Church Ministries, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 57-60. (4 pages)

Flowers, Ronald, Karen Flowers, & Betty Holbrook. 1990. An Affirmation of the Family. Caring for Families Today: A Guide for Family Ministries (Rev. ed.). Silver Spring, MD: Department of Church Ministries, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 53-56. (4 pages)

NCFR Guidelines: Ethics for Family Life Educators

SDA Statement on Divorce and Remarriage (10 pages)

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PRE-CAMPUS ASSIGNMENTS

Read all of the reading assignments given above.

Write a position paper on divorce and remarriage. After reading the book, Divorce and Remarriage, write a 3-5 page paper stating your personal position on these difficult issues. Support your position with biblical and theological material.

POST-CAMPUS ASSIGNMENTS

Develop a learning event: Family as covenant

Write an advocacy letter. (This assignment might be changed.)

ASSIGNMENTS THAT WILL BE GRADED

To be completed on campus

(Percent is the weight of the assignment)

Exam (Fee & Stuart; Guy; Balswick, Davidson, Brunt & Winslow, and Winslow, NCFR) 20%

Position paper on Divorce & Remarriage 10%

Oral presentation (Divorce & Remarriage) 10%

To be completed post-campus

An advocacy letter (This might be changed.) 15%

Learning event: Family as covenant 45%

TOTAL 100%

EXPLANATION OF ASSIGNMENTS

Exam

The reading guides will help prepare you for the exam. The exam will cover only the authors listed in the "Assignments that will be graded" section. It is imperative that you read all of the reading assignments before the intensive begins. There will not be enough time to read everything during the intensive. The exam will be primarily objective.

Oral presentation on divorce & remarriage

You will be assigned to a group and to a position on the issue of divorce & remarriage. Your group will be given a set amount of time to "make a case" for your position. The time should be divided in such a way that each group member has approximately the same amount of time to speak. After your group's presentation, the rest of the class will ask you questions, trying to find theological flaws in your position. (When you are not in the group presenting, you will be asking questions.)

Collection of SDA statements on family issues

If you do not have access to the internet, you are to make a collection of SDA statements on family issues while you are on campus. You may get these statements either on the internet at the web site: www.adventist.org or in the Readings Binder on reserve in the library. (You will have to Xerox your own set of statements. Leave the originals for your classmates.) You will be able to use these for reference in your ministry.

Advocacy letter

Write a letter to your pastor OR If you are the pastor, write to your supervisor (the appropriate conference or union official) The letter will be a theological rationale for family ministries in your church.

• If you have a pastor who supports Family Ministries, express appreciation and thanks for his support. Be specific. (Then continue with Items 3 and 4 below.)
• If you have a pastor who does not support Family Ministries, tell him/her that you are writing this letter to state how you believe Family Ministries can help the church fulfill its mission. (Don't use a "threatening" or "bossy" approach. Just use an approach that is natural to you and that shows your enthusiasm and commitment to Family Ministries.)
• Explain how Family Ministries is currently helping the church to reach its mission (if you have an active Family Ministries program) and/or explain your vision for what Family Ministries could do for the mission of the church. Use materials in the Caring for Families Today guide book. In your letter include a discussion of the following two questions:

How can Family Ministries contribute to the discipleship of your church members?

How can Family Ministries be a pre-evangelistic tool by meeting needs in the community?

• You should conclude with a request asking the pastor for his/her permission and support (financial and otherwise) to hold some kind of Family Ministries event or series, etc.
• This letter should not exceed 2 typewritten, single-spaced pages. You will have to make every word count. And, please, do make the letter interesting and appealing. You are writing a promotional, motivational letter.
• Whether or not you actually send the letter to your pastor is up to you. (I hope you will, if it is appropriate.) In any case, send the letter to the teacher of record for this class.

Learning event or series

• Build a one-time program or a seminar or a series of programs or seminars based on the concept of marriage and family as covenant. Or you may design this learning event as a series of discussion topics for a small group that would meet for several weeks. Guerney's book will be a primary resource.
• Teach people what it means to make a covenant as opposed to a contract. (Broadly speaking)
• Show people how love and forgiveness can bring healing and joy to the marriage and/or to the family.
• Prepare this learning event or series so that it can be promoted and offered to the community as well as to church members. Let this event or series be used as a pre-evangelistic tool.
• Present the event or series and ask the pastor or a family life educator to critique it for you. Send me a copy of the critique.
• (You do not have to present it to the community; it may be given to church members. However, I would like to encourage you to offer it to the community. You will need to have your pastor's support. And he/she should see your material and check your methodologies before you present it.)
• Hand in to me a detailed description of your teaching guide and any handouts you will distribute.

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DEADLINES FOR ASSIGNMENTS

Since this course is being given as a one-week intensive, it has been designated a DG course, which means that some assignments will be completed after the on-campus classes. The course has been designed so that most reading assignments should have been completed as pre-campus work; so that on-campus work can focus on in-class discussion, activities and group work, and library resources; and so that some post-campus work will be required.

Post-course assignments are due as soon after the intensive as you can complete them. The sooner you finish the assignment, the easier it will be and the more motivated you will be to finish. In any case, your assignments should be mailed to the instructor by November 15, 2001, for the grade to be recorded in the fall semester grading period. (The instructor will tell you if assignments should be mailed electronically or by postal mail.) You can submit your assignment until April 15, 2002, but after November 15, 2001, a $25 late fee will be charged. ($10 late fee for students from outside the United States). If your grade has not already been recorded, at the grades due date the first week of May you will be given a grade based on whatever scores you have at the time.

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READING GUIDES

• The authors say that it is naive to think that one can just read the Bible and do what it says without interpreting the Bible. For what two reasons is it naive? The nature of the reader and the nature of Scripture. 14



• What does the reader bring to the text? Our experiences, culture, prior understanding of words and ideas. 14



• In what way has the church historically understood the Scripture to be like Jesus? Both divine and human. 17



• Interpretation of the Bible is demanded by the "tension" that exists between what two characteristics? As God's Word it has eternal relevance; but because it uses human words in history, it also has historical particularity. 17

• What is the first task of the interpreter? To be a good exegete. To find out what it meant to them. 21



• How can a person who does not know the biblical languages, the historical backgrounds of the Bible books, etc., be a good exegete? Ask the right questions. Questions that relate to context and to content. 22



• What is the second task of the interpreter? To do hermeneutics. What does the text mean here and now? 25



• What is the best control for determining what a text means for us today? Find out what it meant to the original author. 25

Chapter 4: The Epistles: The Hermeneutical Questions

• The big hermeneutical issue among Christians committed to Scripture as God's Word has to do with the problems of ______________________________. Cultural relativity, 61



• The authors state that most of the matters in the Epistles fit very nicely into a common-sense hermeneutics. The hermeneutical difficulties that we have are all related to one thing. What is it? Our lack of consistency, 62



• What is the basic rule for interpreting the epistles? A text cannot mean what it never could have meant to its author or his or her readers. 64



• What is the second rule for interpreting the epistles? Whenever we share comparable particulars (i.e., similar specific life situations) with the first-century setting, God's Word to us is the same as his Word to them. 65

On pages 66 to the top of 70, there are many examples and details of texts used to explain the problem of extended application and the problem of particulars that are not comparable. For the purposes of this course, we do not need to deal with them. Begin again with the section on the problem of cultural relativity-page 70.

• The authors have attempted to give us guidance on how to distinguish between items that are culturally relative and those that transcend their original setting and have normativeness (standards) for all Christians of all times. What are these 7 rules?
• Distinguish between the central core of the message of the Bible and what is peripheral to it. 71
• Distinguish between what the New Testament itself sees as inherently moral and wht is not. 72
• Note where the NT itself has a uniform and consistent witness and where it reflects differences. 72
• Distinguish within the NT itself between principle and specific application. 73
• To determine the cultural options open to any NT writer. 73
• Keep alert to possible cultural differences between the first and 20^th centuries that are sometimes not immediately obvious. 74
• Exercise Christian charity 74

• The authors say that much of the theology in the Epistles is task oriented, that is, they were written for a particular situation. The theology is not presented in a systematic way. And this fact causes some problems: We want the Epistles to answer our questions, but the texts are only answering their questions. So how can we get our questions answered? p. 77

On the basis of a whole biblical theology, that includes our understanding of creation, the Fall, redemption, and the final consummation. That is, we must attempt to bring a biblical worldview to the problem. No proof texts when there are no immediately relevant texts!

In these two chapters, you will not find any discussion of the theology of the family. But, you will learn some basic vocabulary and criteria for thinking theologically. As you read these two chapters, consider how this discussion of theology relates to a theology of family.

• What are Guy's definitions of theology and faith?



• What does he call a "first order religious experience" and a "second order religious experience"? Explain the difference.



• Define "Adventist" as Guy uses it.



• Study carefully his explanation of what "thinking theologically" means. (p. 10) For the next several pages, he "decodes" this explanation.



• On pages 15-17 Guy lists 3 basic questions that theology asks. (What, why, so what?) What do these questions become in a theology of family life? (Thought question-not in text, of course.)



• Which comes first: faith or theology?



• Guy says that "Ministry precedes and produces theology." Does your experience affirm that? Through your ministry to families, do you get a better understanding of faith, the will of God, etc., and does your understanding of faith, the will of God, etc. contribute to your ministry to families?



• What are the risks of doing theology?



• What roles do the theologian and the community of faith play in thinking theologically?



• Know the differences among the terms orthodoxy, heterodoxy and heresy. How would these terms relate to the church's understanding of divorce and remarriage?



• Note his definitions of conservative and liberal as used of people within a community of faith. Which label best describes your theological thinking?

• Know the basic criteria for thinking theologically with intellectual integrity: adequate grounds, sound reasoning, conceptual coherence, experiential fruitfulness.



• According to Guy, what are the three complementary sources that Adventists use to find adequate grounds for their theology? Are all of these three needed in developing a theology of family life?



• Does our theology affect our experience? Should it?



• In this day when so many people keep emphasizing the fact that we are living in a post-modern era when people aren't interested in theological propositions-they only are interested in experience, should Guy place so much emphasis on reason?



• Be able to recognize seven forms of theological fallacies: assertion; scholarly opinion; association; projected consequences; ad hominem criticism; clarification; and rebuttal.

• In Genesis 1:1-2; 4a, what seven fundamental insights about sexuality does Davidson derive? pp. 6-11



• What does Genesis 2:4b-25 tell us about the relative status of the sexes-is it equality or hierarchical?



• State the 5 major arguments in favor of a hierarchical view. pp. 14-18



• What is Davidson's concluding opinion about the relative status of the sexes?



• In Genesis 3, do the biblical statements that Adam and Eve's "knowledge of good and evil" and their knowledge "that they were naked" (3:5,7) refer to the awakening of their sexual consciousness? What is another interpretation of these texts?



• What is the judgment pronounced on Eve? (vs. 16)



• State the 5 major views for interpreting the judgment on Eve.



• What does Davidson conclude? pp. 126-131



• Does he extend his evaluation of the husband-wife relationship to determine the nature of relationships between all men and women?

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Below is a sample cover sheet that should be used for assignments you hand in.

for RLED635-Theological and Ethical Foundations of Family Life

at Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan