This section is designed particularly for my students. You will find information on my courses, class material and power point presentations. In addition, students are invited to leave feedback of any or all of my classes. The following links direct you to the syllabi of my individual courses. For courses I teach on a more irregular basis, please refer to the syllabus depot of the School of Divinity. You will need the free Adobe Reader to view the files. 

Here is a short video about my idea of teaching systematic theology.

Successful teaching embraces each student in the context of the whole class. My praxis of teaching is not based on a philosophical idea but rather on the exercise of love. A good instructor loves the students and understands their cultural, ethnic, social, and personal backgrounds. There is no neutral communication of material. The instructor should be able to adapt to the challenges and opportunities of each class. In this sense, good instruction is much like a shared journey of learning. It is the shared way of both the teacher and the students into a common direction and toward a common goal. The teacher has the responsibility to assure that all students proceed towards this common goal by providing a clear sense of direction, expectations and perspectives, challenges and opportunities. Thus teaching is in its truest sense a common journey of exploration and discovery. Both the teacher and the students are a part of that shared activity.

As a shared journey, the teaching of theology must follow the established path marks of the Christian tradition and at the same time embrace a dynamic element that allows for the students' as well as the teacher's personal development on that journey. This development is not merely intellectual; teaching as a journey involves the whole person of both the teacher and the students. It is also not merely an individual development; teaching as a journey involves the whole individual as part of the development of the whole group. All participants are active on this journey; albeit in different capacities and responsibilities. Teaching and learning are not exclusively intellectual products but also embrace practices, rituals, and habits that need nurturing.

Put in the words of a teaching philosophy, I believe that it is the responsibility of the teacher to provide the students with azimuths, the means to locate an objective goal and to measure the direction of their common journey to that goal using their own horizon as the immediate reference plane. The significance of providing azimuths is that they allow any observer to locate the 'coordinates' of a particular object both with reference to an established, common direction and within the intersection of the object with one's own individual horizon. It is therefore the primary responsibility of the teacher to provide the students with an understanding of their own standpoint within a particular horizon, the capacity to survey that horizon, and the tools to understand how to move forward together toward the object of their common inquiry.

All azimuths require an object of reference. The teacher must be clear in his or her expression of that object in the syllabus, the class objectives, the individual lessons, particular assignments, and evaluations. A teacher must be able to visualize abstract objects so they can be perceived in a concrete and meaningful form in the particular situation and circumstances of each individual student. Although established forms of visualizing abstract concepts may prove helpful, the teacher must be able to provide perspectives that will allow all students to depart and proceed together on their journey toward the common goal. Teaching is therefore a multidimensional activity. It reaches beyond a particular object, discipline or class and should always be seen in its full potential of shaping and possibly transforming the student's entire horizon of meaning.

A teacher must be aware of the potential influences of the object of study as well as of his or her own person on the students' life as a whole. Each student must therefore be taken seriously as a whole person who engages with his or her particular energies into a shared and dynamic activity of learning. The chief characteristic of a teacher is consequently a consistent and professional attitude of availability; the freedom to be present when needed. This characteristic has both an introverted and extroverted dimension. As an introversion, availability is an essential, relating and transforming characteristic that embraces a radical openness to the self and to others. In order to be able to relate to others, the teacher must first be open to his or her own limits, fears and anxieties as well as giftedness and capacities. This form of critical thinking requires self-awareness, patience, discipline, humility, clarity, consistency and faith at all times. Teaching can thus become a true expression of the teacher rather than of another person whom the teacher attempts to emulate. The response of the students can then teach the teacher about the changing aspects of student learning.

As an extroversion, availability to others requires the ability to relate the same form of critical thinking to the students. This aspect calls for a clear, transparent, honest, and caring presence of the teacher in all aspects of his personality and at all times. Availability should find expression in the teacher's lesson planning, exhibiting a strategy which relates the course objectives equally to all students. It should be visible in helpful, logical and clearly structured course syllabi and a systematic, understandable explanation of the course objectives in order to establish a firm foundation for the common progress of all students. It should be shaped by a continuous evaluation of the students' development in reading and writing as well as in verbal expression. Evaluative tools should display adequacy in reviewing the course material as well as a potential in advancing and challenging the students' understanding. The teacher should exhibit the nature of teaching as a public and social act, representing his or her institution in a professional manner and showing enthusiasm for the subject matter as well as a willingness to relate to the students in private matters and to contact and connect with them beyond the mere subject matter of the course. When the teacher stops being only a teacher and relates to the students as a human person, the students will also stop being mere students and begin to move forward on their common journey as human beings that accept the challenges of their continuous development and seek to contribute with their whole person to the common progress of all.