Eastern Mennonite University

Distance Learning through EMU

Format | Courses | Technical requirements | Student comments | Online application | Samuel Grant

EMS offers a number of courses for students at a distance from the campus, using online computer technology to link students with the instructor and each other. Since the first ten students took the first class offered in the spring of 1997, over 200 students have registered for distance learning classes.

The primary purpose for this program is to broaden access to ministerial training by offering courses for persons at a distance from seminaries and conference-operated centers. Course offerings will meet typical requirements of a theological education degree and range across the fields of Bible, history, theology and practice of ministry. These particular course offerings allow students to test their interest in ministry studies and encourage them to enroll in the on-campus program. Cooperative agreements will be sought with other educational institutions in the Anabaptist tradition.

Courses are offered on a two-year cycle -- two or three each semester and one in the summer.

Fall 2008 Courses

Spring 2009 Courses

Summer 2009 Courses

Fall 2008 Courses

Ethics and Nonviolence: Sermon on the Mount

This new course in Christian Ethics takes a deep look at Jesus' teaching and the ethics of the New Testament through the lens of the Sermon on the Mount. Jewish backgrounds of that teaching, resonance in the rest of the Gospels and other parts of the New Testament, and the heritage of its understanding down through the centuries of the Christian church are focal themes of the course. Current applications in understandings of peacemaking at different levels conclude this study. Students will do inductive study of the Gospel texts, some review of Old Testament backgrounds, research on thinkers in Christian history who advanced our understanding of the message, and some evaluation and responses to current practices of peacemaking. The course emphasizes group interaction and direct approaches to the English text of the Scriptures.

New Testament: Text in Context

The New Testament: Text in Context course is a basic introduction to the New Testament. The first part of the course will focus on the world of the New Testament period noting the historical, political, social and cultural setting into which Christ came and the New Testament scriptures were written. The second part of the course is a study of the New Testament itself. Students will read and do inductive study of the various NT books.

Spring 2009 Courses

Anabaptism Today: Yoder and Hauerwas
John Howard Yoder articulated a compelling vision, attracting many around the globe to “the politics of Jesus.” Yoder demonstrated that the Anabaptist movement was fundamentally a new way of viewing Christian faith and life—including the centrality of Jesus, a re-imagining of church and world and a commitment to love both enemies and neighbors. This course focuses on the contemporary challenges of Anabaptism as mediated through Yoder and his most influential convert— Stanley Hauerwas.

Mennonite Faith and Polity
This course examines two aspects of Mennonite reality. First, what has it said and what is it saying about what it believes concerning the Christian faith; and second, how it structures itself in the light of those beliefs to carry out its ministry in the world

The Church in Mission
The ministries of Jesus, Paul, and the early church in the context of the Roman Empire will provide the foundation for considering wholistic, effective and authentic mission of the church in our globalized and unstable world. During this course, mission themes from Anabaptist theology and ecclesiology, as well as insights from cultural studies and history, will be considered and discussed by the participants who are learning from the local church and their own experiences in mission from a variety of locations around the world. Where appropriate, students will be given research assignments related to their context and complimentary to their ministries. This informed, vigorous, cross-cultural conversation is designed to give participants insight, skills, and motivation for participating in God’s mission through the church in the world with confidence and humility.

Summer 2009 Courses

Prayer in the Christian Tradition
This course gives attention to personal and corporate prayer in the believing community from Old Testament times to the present. Lectures, readings, experience of prayer and discussions take into consideration how history, culture, theology, worship tradition and life experience influence the believer's response to God.

The Christian Movement in the Mediterranean
More info to come

 

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