THMM508 - Theology as Leadership for Mission

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

Nil

Incompatible

THCP521 Theology as Leadership for Mission and THMM509 Theology for Mission and Ministry

Teaching organisation

This unit involves 150 hours of focused learning. The total includes formally structured learning activities such as Adobe Connect Classroom online session, residential lectures, and online learning. The remaining hours involve reading, research, and other preparatory tasks for assessment such as consultations with the lecturer-in-charge. 

Unit rationale, description and aim

This unit focuses on the missionary dimension of leadership, particularly in Catholic theology and practice. In this unit the cohort will explore mission theology and Catholic Social Teaching, including the Pastoral Circle, and their implications for missionary leadership from socio-ethical and practical theological perspectives. More specifically, the unit will explore, among others, mission as understood and practised in Catholicism, as well as the sources, key concepts, themes and principles of Catholic social teaching and their implications for the exercise of leadership in the Church and in the world today, particularly by women. The unit serves as a practical application of the contemporary modes of theological method and hermeneutical reflection engaged throughout the course, and the unit itself, by helping the students construct a credo of leadership from a missiological perspective.   

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - Articulate an understanding of the role and evolving character of mission in the life of women and the Catholic Church. (GA4);

LO2 - Apply the Pastoral Circle, using key sources, concepts and themes of Catholic Social Teaching, to a challenge to the exercise of missionary leadership in contemporary times. (GA3, GA4);

LO3 - Creatively construct and present a credo of leadership from a missiological perspective that integrates relevant learning and content in the course, in general, and the unit, in particular. (GA3, GA4, GA5).

Graduate attributes

GA3 - apply ethical perspectives in informed decision making

GA4 - think critically and reflectively 

GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession 

Content

Topics will include:

·       Missionary nature and role of the Church as People of God

·       Women in/and mission

·       Defining and understanding Catholic Social Teaching

·       Methods, sources and documents of modern Catholic Social Teaching

·       Catholic Social Teaching and the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference

·       The “signs of the times”, the Pastoral Circle and the role of (social) discernment in leadership as mission

·       Leadership and the prophetic imagination

·       Key concepts, themes, and principles of Catholic Social Teaching vis-à-vis ethical and transformational leadership

·       Key CST documents relevant to missionary theology and practice in contemporary times, e.g. Evangelii Gaudium

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

This unit involves 150 hours of focused learning. The total includes formally structured learning activities such as Adobe Connect Classroom online session, residential lectures, and online learning. The remaining hours involve reading, research, and other preparatory tasks for assessment such as consultations with the lecturer-in-charge.

The unit is normally offered in attendance mode with online learning support. Students primarily learn through an exposure activity and residential sessions that support the achievement of the learning outcomes. Critical and reflective thinking as well as collaborative and peer learning are also emphasised. These strategies help ensure learning that is interactive and, at the same time, critically meaningful and relevant for the students.

Assessment strategy and rationale

In order to pass this unit, students are required to attempt all assessment tasks and achieve an overall grade of Pass (50% or higher).

The assessment tasks for this unit are designed for you to demonstrate your achievement of each learning outcome.

 Task 1 requires students to write an essay on a contemporary challenge to the exercise of missionary leadership in the Church and in the world that applies the Pastoral Circle. The task requires research and critical thinking and writing skills that will help demonstrate achievement of Learning Outcome 2.

 Task 2 requires students to critically construct and creatively present their own credo of missionary leadership that integrates relevant learning content in the course, in general, and the unit, in particular. The task will help establish evidence of achievement of Learning Outcome 1 and 3.  

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Adeney, Miriam. Women in Christian Mission: Ways of Knowing and Doing Theology (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2015).

Australian Catholic Social Justice Council. Building Bridges: Social Justice Statements from Australia’s Catholic Bishops 1988-2013 (Alexandria, NSW: Australian Catholic Social Justice Council, 2014).

Davies, Mervyn and Graham Dodds. Leadership in the Church for a people of hope (London: T and T Clark, 2011).

Lowney, Chris. Everyone Leads: How to Revitalize the Catholic Church (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017).

Massaro, Thomas. Living Justice: Catholic Social Teaching in Action (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2015).

McCarthy, David Matzko. The Heart of Catholic Social Teaching: Its Origins and           Contemporary Significance (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Pess, 2009). 

Phelps, Owen. The Catholic Vision for Leading Like Jesus: Introducing S3 Leadership – Servant, Steward, Shepherd (Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 2009).

Pope Francis. Evangelii Gaudium: Apostolic Exhortation on the Proclamation of the Gospel in Today’s World. Available at http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html

Sanders, Annemarie IHM, ed. Transformational Leadership: Conversations with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (New York: Orbis, 2015).

Schlag, Martin. Handbook of Catholic Social Teaching: A Guide for Christians in the World Today (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2017).

Wijsen, Frans, Peter Henriot and Rodrigo Mejia, eds. The Pastoral Circle Revisited: A Critical Quest for Truth and Transformation (New York: Orbis Books, 2005).