CALL Courses: Fall 2024
All Fall 2024 courses run September 9 – October 28. Courses are online and fully asynchronous, each week a separate interactive lesson featuring discussion with your classmates and instructor.
The new public course cost is $150. Registration is now open.
- Orientation to the Old Testament with Dr. Donn Morgan
- The Pauline Epistles with Fr. Laurent Okitakatshi, PhD
- The Diaconal Hermeneutic with Dr. Rod Dugliss
- Facing Choices: Ethics in the Anglican Tradition with the Rev. Austin Leininger, PhD
- Introduction to the Book of Common Prayer with the Rev. Melissa Hartley, PhD Registration for this class is closed
- Navigating Conflict: Speaking the Truth in Love with the Rev. Alex Leach Registration for this class is closed
- Systematic Theology with Dr. Stephan Quarles
- Early and Medieval Christian Spirituality with the Rev. Daniel London, PhD Registration for this class is closed
Orientation to the Old Testament
This course provides an orientation to the Old Testament Scriptures for those with limited exposure to and knowledge of its content. Orientation to the whole Old Testament in the space of seven weeks is made possible by seeing it from many different perspectives. Sometimes we look at the whole, as scripture and canon–especially at the beginning and the end of the course. At other times we look carefully at distinctive literary, historical, and theological characteristics. Our goal is to be able to navigate through the whole Old Testament, studying particular texts more easily, understanding its organization and its basic messages. This course is intended to orient, interest, and motivate further study of the Old Testament, making it a constant and valuable part of ministry.
Instructor: Donn Morgan is Professor of Old Testament Emeritus at Church Divinity School of the Pacific. Always a student and teacher of the Bible, he also held administrative positions at CDSP (academic dean, president). He has been deeply involved in theological education in The Episcopal Church and the Graduate Theological Union, as well as teaching in Asia and England. His books include Fighting with the Bible, Manifesto for Learning, Talking with the Bible and The Oxford Handbook of the Writings of the Hebrew Bible (editor).
The Pauline Epistles
This course will explore Paul’s letters in their respective historical, social and cultural contexts. In addition, we will study the theology that governed these letters as pastoral interventions into various situations. We will highlight certain themes and assess their relevance for ministry, evangelism, and discipleship today.
Instructor: My name is Laurent Okitakatshi, the instructor for the course on The Pauline Epistles. I am a Roman Catholic Priest and I hold a doctorate in Biblical Studies from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. The New Testament is my primary area of concentration with a particular interest in the letters of St. Paul. My doctoral dissertation is entitled: “Not a slave, But a Beloved Brother in the Flesh and in the Lord: the Construction of a Koinonia-Space in the Letter to Philemon.”
Ordained for the diocese of Tshumbe, I am originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo (Central Africa). English is my second academic language and my fourth spoken language after Otetela, Lingala, and French. I’ve been an instructor for the CALL Program since 2020 and I teach courses on Introduction to the New Testament, The New Testament Parables, and The Pauline Epistles. I am also the professor of New Testament Studies at St. John Paul II Theological Seminary in Lodja (Democratic Republic of Congo).
The Diaconal Hermeneutic
As we live into the fourth wave of the current renewal of the Sacred Order of Deacons in The Episcopal Church, we are gaining greater clarity about the distinctive nature of the “full and equal order,” and we are increasingly able and willing to invite the gift of prophetic servant leadership. At the heart of the deacon’s vocation and charism is a way of seeing the world and the church that informs prayer and action. Drawing on the concept and discipline of hermeneutics this online course will explore the components of a diaconal hermeneutic and how it shapes ministry and the deacon’s ordination charge, “to interpret to the church the needs, concerns, and hopes of the world.”
The course is suitable for the ongoing learning of deacons in ministry, persons aspiring to the diaconate or who are in formation. It will also be informative for members of congregational vocations committees and members of Commission on Ministry.
Instructor: Rod Dugliss is a former Dean of the School for Deacons in the Diocese of California. He has served as a missionary in Japan, has taught at the undergraduate and graduate level at several institutions, and endured a sojourn in the corporate world. Rod has a Ph.D. in Political Science from Duke University.
Facing Choices: Ethics in the Anglican Tradition
Ethics in the Anglican tradition draws on a rich history of discourse as we strive to engage with our faith, living it out in an imperfect world and Church. Whether we are struggling to justify sacramental liturgy and church hierarchy in the face of Puritan attack, or determining church policy on inclusion of women and LGBTQIA+ people, Anglicans have drawn on a wide array of ethical approaches ranging from teleological virtue ethics to relational theory (both pre-feminist and contemporary).
Ethical dilemmas continue to challenge lay and ordained leaders across the wide diversity of our church—frequently in our own parishes, where each of us engages our faith to face the challenges that surround us. In this course we’ll explore how thinkers as diverse as Plato (ancient Greece) and Marcella Althaus Reid (contemporary social justice and postcolonial liberation theorist) have helped people of faith make hard choices and live faithfully with the results. We’ll spend some time conversing with history (ancient Greece, Bible, Reformation), then dive into some of our “best” Anglican dilemmas both old and new as we explore the application of our rich tradition to real life issues in the church at home and around the world.
Instructor: The Rev. Dr. Austin Leininger has been an Episcopal priest since 2006, and currently serves as rector at Christ the King in Arvada, CO. Austin completed their PhD in Ethics and Social Theory at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. They have been teaching in Anglican studies and Ethics for the past ten years and Austin teaches concurrently at CDSP and Iliff School of Theology’s Anglican Studies program in Denver, CO. Austin is husband to Jane, and papa to their three children.
Introduction to the Book of Common Prayer
Registration for this class is closed
This course will offer an introduction to the Book of Common Prayer, looking at its historical roots in the Church of England and following its development in the American prayer books. The primary focus will be on the 1979 Book of Common Prayer and its use today. Since much of the theology of the Episcopal Church is contained within its worship, this course will examine how the 1979 prayer book is different from previous editions and why these changes are so significant. Emphasis will be given to the rites of initiation and the eucharist.
Instructor: The Rev. Dr. Melissa Hartley is Priest Associate at the Episcopal Church of the Nativity in Huntsville, Alabama, where she oversees liturgy and pastoral care. She also teaches at The University of the South, in Sewanee, Tennessee, in the Master of Divinity and ACTS (Alternative Clergy Training in Sewanee) programs at the School of Theology. Melissa is an Episcopal priest originally from Atlanta and has served parishes in Georgia, New York, New Jersey, and Tennessee. Most recently, she was the Senior Associate University Chaplain at Sewanee. She holds the following degrees: B.A., University of the South; M.Div., S.T.M., General Theological Seminary; Ph.D. (Liturgical Studies), Drew University.
Navigating Conflict: Speaking the Truth in Love
Registration for this class is closed
Reconciliation is the mission of the Church; and reconciliation is not the absence of conflict but rather the navigation of it. When approached with skill and grounded in Christ’s love, conflict is a healthy process through which we fully encounter our neighbor, we learn about ourselves, and ultimately leads to unity amidst difference. In this course, you will learn concrete skills and tools that help keep conflict healthy and safe. You will also explore the spiritual practices which form the bedrock of this work. Over the seven weeks, you will be asked to read, listen, reflect, and practice skills.
Instructor: Alex Leach is currently the Director of Formation at Trinity Cathedral in Sacramento, CA. But before becoming a priest, Alex worked extensively in the field of conflict navigation. He ran a private coaching business for seven and a half years that focused on conflict communication skills. He also worked for five to six years for an agency in Sacramento called Relationship Skills Center. This Center offered free classes on conflict navigation skills to low-income individuals and families. Alex is excited about exploring the lessons that behavioral psychology and research on healthy communication skills can offer in conversation with our faith and church contexts.
Systematic Theology
Systematic theology seeks to tell a single story about God and God’s activity in the world from Creation to the Eschaton. There are points within that story that we will focus on, particularly as it comes to gaining clarity about God’s activity. The person of Jesus Christ as the central and seminal activity of the Christian story will be focused on and seen as the lens by which Christians come to learn to speak this story about God. We will, then, focus on the Holy Spirit and the Church’s role in the world and this story.
Systematic theology is, therefore, the telling of this story in a coherent and methodologically ordered manner. This course will explore the specific and critical relationships between doctrines—God, Christology, Creation—and the life of the world and the Church together.
Therefore, systematic theology is not a totalizing discourse that seeks to control or articulate precisely what or who God is. God is beyond the language that systematicians use, yet the work of systematic theology is to explore, wrestle, name to excess, and articulate clearly “the faith with a little understanding.”
Instructor: Dr. Stephan Quarles holds a PhD in Systematic and Philosophical theology from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Ca. He specializes in the intersections of 20th century philosophy with systematic theology, particularly the cross and apophatic theology. He lives in Central Illinois with his wife and child. He works as a Chaplain at OSF St. Francis in Peoria, Il.
Early and Medieval Christian Spirituality
Registration for this class is closed
In his book on St. Francis of Assisi, G. K. Chesterton said that those “for whom religion begins with the Reformation, can never give a complete account of anything, for they have to start with institutions whose origin they cannot explain, or generally even imagine.” In this course, students will learn the origins of Christian monastic, mendicant, and mystical spiritualities by immersing themselves in the pre-Reformation literature and spiritual practices of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, the Benedictines, the Cistercians, the Celtic Christians, the Franciscans, and the Medieval English Mystics. By doing so, students will recover spiritual nourishment and riches from early and medieval Christian traditions that feed some of today’s deepest religious hungers.
Instructor: The Rev. Daniel London, PhD, serves as the rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA. He earned his doctorate in Christian Spirituality at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. He is a certified Forest Therapy Guide and the author of several books. He has also published articles and presented papers at academic conferences around the world. He lives in the Transfiguration House in Eureka CA with his wife Dr. Ashley London Bacchi and their two Yorkies, Seabury and Gubbio.
