CONT4502 – Faith, Health and Care
Schedule, syllabus and examination date
Course content
The course is offered in a cooperation with The Practical Theological Seminary. The background of the course is the caregiving tradition of the church, in which both pastoral and diaconal work has been of importance. Today, the churches are faced with massive challenges in the area of health and quality of life, challenges that include the understanding of health and sickness, theological understanding of suffering, and the design of proper caring and empowerment action. The study of such issues is seen as a contribution to the programme’s contextual profile.
Learning outcome
The students will obtain understanding of the interpretation of pain, illness and suffering in first and third world contexts. They will be able to discuss the attitude to such questions in the Scandinavian diaconal tradition, and in the churches of the third world. Furthermore, they will have analytical tools to analyse healing practises in charismatic and traditional settings, and study models for the practical analysis of relevant situations, and of interventions.
Admission
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If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures.
Prerequisites
Formal prerequisite knowledge
Bachelor degree in theology, Christian studies, religion, - with Christian theology as area of emphasis (40 credit units), or equivalent.
Recommended previous knowledge
The course presupposes introductory knowledge in systematic theology and pastoral theology.
Teaching
The course will extend through the whole term with some teaching intensive periods, and periods set off for student preparation. There will be given 7 seminar sessions of two hours, in addition to supervision on the term papers
Examination
At the end of the term the student will submit a term paper, approx. 4000 words, for grading. During the course a draft of the term paper will be presented and discussed in the class.
The examinations and evaluations are graded using letter grades with a descending scale from A to E for passes and F for fail.
Other
The course can be integrated in other programmes in theology and Christianity on the master level.