Vision and Goals

I believe God sees this course as a fellowship. We are a team brought together for a season of growth through mutual training, challenge, equipping, and discipline. All these serve the ends that every participant gain an opportunity to join the ongoing conversation that is formal Christian theology and attain new and lasting appreciation for disciplined thinking in the Christian tradition, and that every participating follower of Jesus gain new and lasting skill in the Church's practices of theological reflection as they serve the goals of the Kingdom of God. More specifically, the course intends its participants:

• To gain an understanding of the historical teachings and practices of Christian traditions regarding the person and work of the Holy Spirit, with special focus on the charismatic and Pentecostal evangelical traditions.
• To learn how Christian theology, and particularly pneumatology, has historically interrelated with scientific inquiry.
• To begin to appreciate how each field might inform, reinforce, correct, or problematize the other.
• To strengthen our academic discipline, particularly regarding good writing, listening, and critical reading.
• To become actively and personally engaged with the discipline of faithful Christian theological enquiry.

I describe the general goals of all my courses in my rules of the game.