Lecturer: Dr Tihomir Lazić

The module explores the propositions, opportunities and tensions in the current ecclesiological discourse within the Seventh-day Adventist church. This module aims to equip the students with intellectual tools for engaging competently and constructively in the ongoing theological conversation surrounding the issues of church’s ministry, mission, structure, ordinances, ordination and reform. Upon finishing this module, students will have a clearer idea of what it means to be a church in the present-day world. This will provide a theological framework for their future ministry within the Church setting.

Lecturer: Dr Tom de Bruin

The period between the Old and the New Testaments is not a time of silence but, to the contrary, a period of intense literary activity, an echo of the political, sociological and religious turmoil which impacted Palestine. The purpose of this module is to analyse some of the most significant works produced in this period and to see how they reinterpreted the Old Testament and informed the New Testament authors in some important areas, such as holy places, the role of sacrifices, purity rules, angelology and demonology.

Lecturers: Dr Gifford Rhamie and Dr Ivan Milanov

The students taking this module will analyse and critique a range of theoretical and theological concepts involving race, identity and nation and apply these to both contemporary and historical (con)texts. They will also critically engage with contemporary discourses of power and race in relation to the Bible. By completing this module, the students will be able to appropriately address the issues of racism and nationalism that are on rise in contemporary Europe.

Lecturer: Dr Bjørn Ottesen

The module develops an understanding of the historical development of missions and evangelism through to the 21 st century and then contextualises and applies missional theories to the postmodern world and а local community.

Lecturer: Dr Ján Barna

The aim of this module is to provide a fresh investigation of the Seventh-day Adventist soteriological paradigm by investigating the basic threefold framework for the past, present and future redemptive work of Christ. It will also constructively engage with the Pauline’s New Testament theme of redemption, judgment and justification as portrayed in the epistles of Romans and Galatians.

By successfully completing the module, the students will be able to critically investigate the historical, biblical and methodological rationale for the unique features of Seventh-day Adventist soteriology. Such ability could be a very useful asset in addressing problematic issues for some Seventh-day Adventists such as last generation theology and perfectionism.

Lecturers: Dr Tihomir Lazić and Dr Ivan Milanov

This exciting module has been designed to engage students in biblical and theological consideration of a single topic (e.g. evil, existence of God, authority of Scripture, religion and science), and to enable apologetic approaches to it. The topic for the spring semester of 2020 will be the existence of God.

Once the module is successfully completed, the students will have ability to demonstrate applicable research skills to competently and creatively engage in apologetical discourse in contemporary culture. Such skills could be particularly useful in the process of reaching out to atheists, agnostics and any other person doubting the existence of God.

Lecturer: Dr Aulikki Nahkola

The module offers an opportunity to the students to analyse representative approaches to biblical interpretation, ancient and modern, in terms of their underlying hermeneutical theories. The skills acquired after the successful completion of this module are particularly important to students interested in Biblical Studies of the Old or New Testament.

Lecturer: Dr Ján Barna

The aims of this module are:
(1) to analyse in details the nature of theological thinking on its epistemological, methodological and theological levels
(2) to provide a constructive synthesis of theological thinking based on above analysis
and (3) to develop an understanding of the Revelation epistemology as the epistemic foundation for both Christian and Adventist theology.

Upon successful completion of the module, the students will be able to:
(1) critically engage with the meta-theological questions of theological thinking including epistemology and its sources of knowledge, role of first principles, and operation of human thinking,
(2) examine the various theological systems on all their levels by identifying their epistemic roots, methodological principles and theological thematic structure,
and (3) critically discuss the implications of Revelation epistemology and its corresponding Protestant principle of Sola Scriptura on past and present theological-hermeneutical proposals including Adventist ones.

Lecturer: Dr Gifford Rhamie

This module examines research methods appropriate for pastoral field study.  It also provides an opportunity to acquire comprehensive understanding of the research strategies and data collection methods appropriate for pastoral studies, and addresses the principles and procedures that define and regulate research investigations. The primary focus of the module is on the nature of the research process, and on the qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods traditions that underlie social rese.

Lecturers: Dr Aulikki Nahkola and Dr Tom de Bruin

The aim of the module is to critically evaluate contemporary and historical understandings of disability, analysing how these can influence the reading of biblical texts by contemporary readers, in particular people with disabilities.

Upon the successful completion of this module, the student should be able to:
(1) evaluate ancient and contemporary theoretical frameworks and perspectives regarding (dis)ability and their impact on the interpretation of biblical texts,
and (2) demonstrate critical skills in interpreting biblical passages relating to (dis)ability.

Indicateive topics: (1) critical theory from Disability Studies (e.g. Freud, Foucault, Derrida, Shildrick and Puar), (2) theologies of (dis)ability, (3) Exegesis of texts pertaining to notions of disability in the Bible (e.g. Exodus 4, Leviticus 21, Isaiah 35, Mathew 8, John 9, Romans 5, 2 Corinthians 12), and (4) Critical analysis of how contemporary communities of people with disabilities engage with the Bible, and of how contemporary confessional communities engage with members with disabilities.

The module is particularly aimed for students with very good original language skills: either Biblical Hebrew or New Testament Greek.

Lecturers: Dr Aulikki Nahkola and Dr Tom de Bruin

This class aims to develop an in-depth exegetical understanding of the key texts on marriage in both the Old and New Testament, with specific emphasis on their different cultural contexts. Additionally, the course develops an understanding of marriage as an institution in biblical as well as modern times, and in the contemporary Adventist Church in particular.

This course focuses on specific and distinctive Adventist teachings forming its theological paradigm, with specific attention to the methodological theological rationale for rethinking the classical Christian formulations of the redemptive eschatological goals of the Biblical story. This includes detailed attention to the historic tensions and interactions of the Wesleyan Holiness and Reformed Protestant paradigms regarding personal piety, destiny and salvation.