THMM509 - Theology for Mission and Ministry

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

Nil

Incompatible

THCP521 - Theology as Leadership for Mission / THMM508 Theology as Leadership for Mission

Teaching organisation

This unit involves 150 hours of focused learning. The total includes formally structured learning activities such as online sessions, residential lectures, and online learning, particularly through the Forum and learning materials in the LEO (Learning Environment Online) page for the unit. The remaining hours involve research, reading, writing, and other preparatory tasks for assessment such as consultations with the lecturer-in-charge. These learning and teaching strategies were chosen because they are the strategies that are most relevant and appropriate to the delivery of the unit.

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 how mission is fundamental to the identity, nature and purpose of the Christian church, from theological and ecclesiological perspectives. It will also study the tools and principles of Catholic Social Teaching and their implications for leadership from socio-ethical and theological and pastoral perspectives. 

In this way, the unit will ground students in the sources, key themes and principles of the pastoral mission of the Church and their implications for the exercise of leadership in the Church and in the world today. 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 mission, ministry and social justice in the Bible and Tradition. (GA1, GA5) 

LO2 - apply an integrated vision of ministry, ecclesiology and Catholic Social Teaching, to specific contemporary challenges facing the exercise of leadership in contemporary times. (GA3, GA5) 

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

Graduate attributes

GA1 - demonstrate respect for the dignity of each individual and for human diversity

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:

• Social justice and its basis in the Bible and Tradition 
• Missionary nature and role of the Church as People of God
• Church’s Stance Toward the World (Church documents) 
• 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” and the role of (social) discernment in leadership as mission
• Social Research Methods in the Discernment of Community Needs, including data gathered by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference’s Pastoral Research Office and the National Church Life Survey.
• Social sin, charity and justice in Catholic Social Teaching vis-à-vis ethical and transformational leadership
• Leadership and the prophetic imagination
• Key themes and principles of Catholic Social Teaching vis-à-vis vulnerability, relationality, community and servant-leadership 
• Pope Francis and the principle of mercy 
• 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 online sessions, residential lectures, and online learning, particularly through the Forum and learning materials in the LEO (Learning Environment Online) page for the unit. The remaining hours involve research, reading, writing, and other preparatory tasks for assessment such as consultations with the lecturer-in-charge. These learning and teaching strategies were chosen because they are the strategies that are most relevant and appropriate to the delivery of the unit.

THMM509 emphasises that students are recognised as adult learners who engage best when what they are learning is relevant to them and gives them the opportunity to be responsible for their own learning. In many ways, the student is the one who drives the learning forward, and their active participation in this unit is essential. Learning is designed to be an engaging and supportive experience, which helps students to develop critical thinking and reflection skills. In particular, transformative learning theory informs the unit’s approach to learning about ecclesial cultures as an attitude or orientation to ministry, while guiding the development of appropriate pastoral ministry tools for pastoral planning.  

Assessment strategy and rationale

A range of assessment procedures will be used to meet the unit learning outcomes and develop graduate attributes consistent with University assessment requirements and taking into account the role of the unit as the last unit for an area of specialisation. Such procedures may include, but are not limited to, essay and critically-reflective presentation. These assessment strategies were chosen because they are the strategies that are most relevant and appropriate to the assessment of students’ learning in the unit.

Assessment 1 asks the student to articulate the foundations of their approach to ministry and leadership, as the first stage of adult learning in a specific field.

Assessment 2 enables the student to integrate current contextual challenges to ministry and leadership with theological foundations and principles of Catholic Social Teaching.

Assessment 3 allows the student to demonstrate and build upon their learning in the unit by creating a resource presenting an integrated and theologically grounded vision of leadership for ministry.  

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

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).