(This post will be updated with more content in the coming weeks)
This dynamic course aims to equip the church to engage the contemporary world in justice, peacemaking and reconciliation. This introductory course will particularly focus on a Christlike and prophetic response to the interrelated issues of climate breakdown, violence and conflict and racial injustice. It was originally put together for Leeds School of Theology.
Tutors.
Katie Boyes is Senior Pastor at Lighthouse, a Christian community for those who have been battered and bruised by the storms of life. A contemplative activist and passionate communicator, she sits on the Advisory Board at JustLove and has led seminars and performed spoken word poetry at national conferences such as Soul Survivor, Proximity and ISAAC. She really loves Jesus and is hungry to see his Kingdom come.
Rev’d Jon Swales MBE lives in Leeds and is married with 4 children. He heads up Lighthouse and teaches with Leeds School of Theology, and as an activist, has participated in and led a number of peaceful protests, actions, and vigils for the climate and ecological emergency. Jon is passionate for the church, within the context of climate breakdown, to wake up to its calling to be the justice-shaped people of God.
Session One: Cruciform and Justice Shaped Discipleship
Session Two: Jesus, Jubilee & the Peaceable Kingdom
Session Three: Jesus & Non-Violence
Session Four: Jesus & Creative and Prophetic Peacemaking
Session Five: Christian Hope & Forgiveness
Session Six- Speaking Truth to Power: Introduction to the Prophets
Session Seven-The Eagle & the Lamb: Reading Revelation as a Call to Allegiance
Session Eight- Tending the Garden: A Biblical Theology of Creation
Session Nine: Enacting the Kingdom in a World of Climate Breakdown
Bibliography
A brief bibliography is included here. It is not necessary to read these books but they include a section of resources that have helped shape the thinking of the course tutors.
Session One: ‘Cruciform and Justice Shaped Discipleship’
The Good News About Injustice: A Witness of Courage in a Hurting World: Gary Haugen (InterVarsity Press, 2009)
Jesus and The Disinherited, Howard Thurman (Beacon Press, 1996)
The Prophets, Abraham Heschel (Hendrickson Publishers, 2007)
Yahweh is Exalted in Justice: Solidarity and Conflict in Isaiah, Thomas L. Leclerc (Fortress Press,2001)
Globalisation, Spirituality and Justice: Navigating a Path to Peace, Daniel Groody (Orbis, 2015)
Letters from a Birmingham Jail- Martin Luther King
Session Two: Jesus and the Peaceable Kingdom (Part One)-
Jesus & The Victory of God: N.T. Wright, (SPCK, 1996)
Jesus & the Non-Violent Revolution, Andre Trocme (Plough Publishing, 2003)- Free PDF
Jesus the Prophet: His Vision of Kingdom on Earth, R. David, Kaylor (Westminster, 1994)
Jesus, Justice and the Reign of God: A Ministry of Liberation, William Herzog (westminster, 2000)
Jubilee: God’s Answer to Poverty ed. Hannah J. Swithinbank and
Emmanuel Murangira, Caitlin Collins Swithinbanl, Hannah ( Regnum Books International, 2020)
Climate Crisis: The Challenge of the Church, David Rhodes (Kevin Mayhew, 2020)
Climate Change is Racist, Jeremy Williams (Icon Books, 2021)
Lament for COP26, Rev’d Jon Swales
Jesus the Activist, Sermon by Rev’d Jon Swales
Campaign Against the Arms Trade Website.
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament Website
Session Three: Jesus and the Peaceable Kingdom (Part Two)-
Warlike Christians in an Age of Violence, Nick Megoran (Cascade Books, 2017)
Jesus Christ, Peacemaker: A New Theology of Peace, Terrence J. Rynne (Orbis, 2017)
A Farewell to Mars, Brian Zahnd, (David Cook, 2014)
Fight: A Christian Case for Non-Violence, Preston Sprinkle (David Cook, 2013)
Jesus and Non-Violence, Walter Wink (Augsburg Fortress, 1998)
Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination, Walter Wink (Fortress Press, 1992)
If Jesus is Lord: Loving Enemies in a World of Violence, Ronald Sider (Baker Acdemic 2019)
The Early Church on Killing, Ed. Ronald Sider (Baker Academic, 2012)
Caesar and the Lamb: Early Christian Attitudes on War and Military Service, George Kalantiz (Cascade, 2012)
Session Four: Christian Hope and Forgiveness, Keys to Healing in a Hurting World
The Book of Forgiving: The Fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and Our World, Desmond and Mpho Tutu (Collins, 2014)
Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace, Miroslav Volf (Zondervan, 2005)
When the Powers Fall: Reconciliation in the Healing of Nations, Walter Wink (Fortress Press, 1988)
A Gospel of Hope, Walter Brueggemann (Hodder & Stoughton, 2019)
Surprised by Hope, N. T Wright (SPCK Publishing, 2011)
Hope in Times of Fear: The Resurrection and the Meaning of Easter, Tim Keller (Hodder & Stoughton, 2021)
Session Five: Speaking Truth to Power, Introduction to the Prophets
You are My People: An Introduction to Prophetic Literature, Louis Stulhman & Hyun Chul Paul Kim (Abingdon Press, 2010)
The Prophetic Imagination, Walter Brueggemanm (Fortress Press, 40th Anniversary, 2018)
This Civilisation is Finished: Conversations on the End of Empire & Beyond, Rupert Read & Samuel Alexander (Simplicity, 2019)
Hurting With God: Learning to Lament with the Psalms, Glen Pemberton (Abilene Christian University Press, 2012)
Revolution of the Heart: Dorothy Day Story, Video (A Film by Martin Dobleimer)
‘I have a Dream’- Martin Luther King Speech
‘Agreed Facts on the Impact of Climate Change’ Christian Climate Action
Session Six: The Eagle and the Lamb- Revelation’s Call to Allegiance
Upside-Down Apocalypse, Grounding Revelation in the Gospel of Peace, Jeremy Duncan (Herald Press, 2022)
Apocalypse and Allegiance, Worship, Politics and Devotion in the Book oF Revelation, J. Nelson Kraybill (Brazos, 2010)
Revelation and the End of All things, Craig Koester (Eerdmans, 2001)
Resisting Empire , C. Wess Daniels (Barclay, 2019)
Unholy Allegiances, Heeding Revelation’s Warning, David DeSilva (Henrickson, 2013)
Session Eight: Tending the Garden- A Biblical Theology of Creation Care
Session Nine: Enacting the Kingdom in a World of Climate Breakdown
Faith in the Public Square- Civil Disobedience and Prophetic Witness