Below is a list of papers offered on the BTh. Papers available in any given year may vary but the list below may be taken as indicative of the type of content to be offered.
This paper will cover principles of Hebrew grammar and syntax, translation from Hebrew into English and textual criticism as exemplified in a set text prescribed by the Faculty Board.
Objectives
On successful completion of this Paper students will be able to:
- Identify Hebrew words and use standard lexicons, commentaries and theological wordbooks
- Understand the basic grammatical rules of Biblical Hebrew
- Understand the principles of Hebrew syntax
- Translate straightforward Biblical Hebrew prose
- Apply Hebrew thought forms in the exegesis of Biblical texts
- Critically compare published translations of OT texts
- Have a basic understanding of and be able to use the textual apparatus in their Hebrew Bible
The paper will contain passages for translation from one or more portions of the Gospels which the Board shall from time to time prescribe, together with questions on the grammar of Hellenistic Greek.
Objectives
On successful completion of this Paper students will be able to:
- Read and translate the Greek of the Set Text
- Understand the grammar and syntax of the Set Text
- Use knowledge acquired in reading the Set Text, in translating other New Testament texts
- Discriminate between different English translations of the Set Text
- Relate issues of grammar and syntax to idiomatic translation
- Develop some fluency in reading New Testament Greek
This paper aims to introduce some critical and theological perspectives on the Christian Bible, both Old and New Testaments. There will be a combination of surveys of significant sections of the Bible and a more detailed look at selected primary texts. The challenge of interpreting the Bible in its historical, canonical and contemporary context will be explored.
Objectives
On successful completion of this Paper students will be able to:
- Demonstrate an outline knowledge of the Christian Bible
- Show an awareness of the challenge of reading the Biblical texts in their historical and canonical context
- Evaluate a range of interpretations of selected biblical texts
- Begin to articulate how it is possible to read the Bible from a Christian point of view
The paper is designed to help students consider theological questions through exploration of the concept of God. In particular the paper aims to:
- understand some of the intellectual contours of secular critiques of faith that permeate the context of contemporary Christian ministry.
- give students confidence in approaching classical theological texts and questions
- introduce different genres of theological texts: e.g. scriptural, devotional, hagiographical, academic
- help students understand and evaluate critically current scholarship on these texts
- show the interlocking nature of different doctrinal loci in Christian theology
- introduce students to reflection upon the nature of theological method
- show students how theologians engage with objections to traditional Christian claims raised both inside and outside the church
Objectives
As a result of taking this course, students should attain knowledge of:
- the distinction between apophatic and cataphatic theology
- objections to knowledge of God raised by F. Nietzsche, S. Freud, and D. Hampson
- F. Schleiermacher’s and K. Barth’s accounts of knowledge of God
- the doctrine of creation from nothing
- the doctrine of providence, including theories of divine action in the world
- the relationship between the doctrines of creation and incarnation
- the compatibility of creation from nothing with contemporary scientific cosmology
- the compatibility of creation from nothing with contemporary evolutionary biology
- understand the implications of the dialogue between Christianity and Science for contemporary apologetics.
- theological objections to creation from nothing raised by process thought
- the so-called Epicurean trilemma
- the understanding of evil as privatio boni and theodicy in the Augustinian tradition
- theodicy in process theology
- debates over the appropriateness of theodical attempts to ‘justify the ways of God’
- understand the pastoral implications of theodicy in Christian ministry.
This module aims to introduce students to the study of the Church in historical context. Students will be familiarised with the practices, methods, and modes of Church history through the examination of specified historical period or periods. This module seeks to equip the student with a firm grasp of the historical experience of the Church as a foundation for further study in Church history, doctrine, liturgy, and pastoral practice.
The module will require students to engage with the historical experience of the Church in a specified period or periods. As appropriate to the specified time-frame, particular attention will be paid to the historical context of the formation of Christian doctrine, the nature of the Church’s self-understanding and self-expression, her relations with, and her interaction with other religious and philosophical traditions. Due attention must also be paid to the variety of Christian experience in the specified periods.
Objectives
On successful completion of this Paper students will be able to:
- Demonstrate a basic understanding of the history of the Church in its context during the specified period(s) and relate that understanding to the contemporary Christian experience
- Identify the chief issues and themes of the specified period(s) with relation to the formation of Christian identity, doctrine and mission
- Show an informed understanding of the Church’s engagement with other religious and philosophical traditions evident in the specified period(s)
- Make appropriate and informed use of primary materials
- demonstrate an awareness of contemporary and broad (rather than simply confessional) historiographical approaches to the Christian past
- compare the recent experience of different church traditions
- appreciate the extent to which Christianity has been, and remains in controversial dialogue with its cultural and political context
- evaluate recent trends in Christian mission and social thought against an historical background
The overall aims will be to introduce students to the language, syntax, exegesis and theology of the Set Texts on the basis of the Hebrew text. Students will acquire not only a more advanced knowledge of Biblical Hebrew and the basic skills of exegesis, but will also relate these to the identification and interpretation of key historical and theological issues in one or more of the set texts.
Objectives
The study of the texts from Deuteronomy, Judges, and Jonah is designed (apart from their intrinsic interest) to lead students on to a fuller appreciation of the syntax of prose texts (including the significance of word order and the less common uses of the tenses of the verb). Throughout the course lectures and private study are expected to be supplemented by fortnightly supervision work on translation from English into Hebrew, which will be tested in the examination. The lectures will focus mainly on linguistic aspects of the texts, but their theological and literary aspects will explored in two or three essays which students will write in the course of the year. By the end of the year students are expected (a) to have developed their understanding of Hebrew to an intermediate level, involving familiarity with the varied syntactical structures of prose texts; (b) to have acquired a knowledge of some major aspects of the content of at least two of the set texts.
The paper will contain passages for translation and comment from one or more portions of New Testament text which the Board shall from time to time prescribe.
Objectives
The overall objective will be to introduce students to the language, syntax, exegesis and theology of the Set Texts on the basis of the Greek text. Students will acquire not only a more advanced knowledge of New Testament Greek and the basic skills of exegesis, but will also relate these to the identification and interpretation of key historical and theological issues in a gospel and an epistle.
The paper will introduce students to the exilic age and the critical examination of texts associated with this period.
Objectives
On successful completion of this Paper students will be able to:
- Show a detailed knowledge of the Old Testament material studied.
- Engage with scholarly enquiry into the material’s original context and meaning
- Understand the theological perspectives of the material and its author(s)
- Relate the material to Christian ministry and life
This paper will provide for close study of text from one or more books of the New Testament, as prescribed by the Faculty Board and studied through attendance at Tripos Lectures for B4 (The Letters of Paul). It will be concerned with the background, content, theology, and interpretation of the material; and with questions arising from the use of the material in Christian faith and practice.
Objectives
On successful completion of this Paper students will be able to:
- Show detailed knowledge of the New Testament material studied
- Engage with scholarly enquiry into the material’s original context and meaning
- Understand the theological perspectives of the material and its author(s)
- Relate the material to their own situations in ministry and living
This paper will provide for close study of text from one or more books of the New Testament, or of one, as prescribed by the Faculty Board. It will be concerned with the background, content, theology, and interpretation of the material; and with questions arising from the use of the material in Christian faith and practice.
Objectives
On successful completion of this Paper students will be able to:
- Show detailed knowledge of the content of the prescribed New Testament material.
- Critically discuss the material’s origins, development and meaning.
- Understand the theological perspectives of the material and its author(s)
- Comment on points of difficulty within the prescribed material.
- Show awareness of the hermeneutical possibilities of the prescribed material.
- Relate the prescribed material to Christian faith and practice.
To explore, in dialogue with key contemporary interpreters, a number of pivotal theological themes as they are discernible in Scripture, and as they relate to the doctrines and practices of the Church.
Objectives
On successful completion of this Paper students will be able to:
- Assess the importance of biblical narrative, in particular the Bible’s witness to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, to recent Christology and trinitarian theology.
- Critically explore the significance to the contemporary church of key moments in the narratives of the gospels and Acts.
- Demonstrate the ways in which readings of Scripture are related to the church’s subsequent formulation of later, post-biblical doctrine.
- Discern, clarify and explicate some of the theological themes that give the Scriptural canon its shape and coherence.
- To introduce theological concepts shaping and shaped by Christian worship. To relate the study of worship to the study of doctrine and history, helping students to understand how worship has evolved in a variety of historical contexts and enabling them to relate this to developments in contemporary worship, drawing on a variety of traditions, especially those represented within the Cambridge Theological Federation.
- To introduce features of contemporary culture and pastoral concerns which affect the ways in which Christian worship is understood and performed. To introduce the phenomenology of word and story, symbol and ritual and explore the potential of this understanding for planning and interpreting worship. The focus includes eucharistic and initiation rites and services of the word.
Objectives
On successful completion of this Paper students will be able to:
- Give an account of biblical and doctrinal foundations of Trinitarian worship
- Appreciate the historical development of eucharistic and baptismal worship and apply historical insight critically to revisions and developments in contemporary worship.
- Apply insights relating to the phenomenology of word, symbol and ritual in worship to interpretation and planning of worship.
- Begin to relate pastoral concerns to the effective interpretation and use of pastoral offices.
Individually negotiated through the Faculty Board. See also Supplementary Regulations.
Objectives
As approved by the Faculty Board.
This paper will introduce students to the advanced study of Church history including the sophisticated handling of primary sources and engages with the historiography of the subject. On completion of the course students will be able to demonstrate a critical understanding of the interplay between the ideas of Christian Doctrine, the institutional development of the church and the social, political, economic and cultural context of the church. The Faculty Board will prescribe up to 4 topics which may be studied in each year, students will study one topic.
Objectives
On successful completion of this Paper students will have:
- A broad knowledge of a variety of local appropriations of Christianity and their change.
- An understanding of Christianity’s meanings and social and political significance in different eras and settings.
- An ability to draw constructively on the insights of a range of disciplines such as history, theology, social anthropology, sociology and political science.
The module aims to develop in students mature and well-informed habits in moral thinking, appreciation and judgment appropriate to a Christian teaching and pastoral ministry, and to Christian living.
Objectives
On successful completion of this Paper students will be able to:
- Understand the variety of ethical views and approaches within the Christian Church
- Develop a range and depth of knowledge in a particular area of ethics
- Critically evaluate the various sources on which Christians draw in their moral thinking
- Articulate a sensitive, coherent and engaged position on ethical issues
This paper offers a contextualised introduction to public theology, a twentieth century theological movement. With a focus on British public theology, it examines various meanings of public theology, looks at the sources of public theology, and its background in and relation to other British theological movements, such as Christian Socialism and Urban Theology. It will explore public theology through several historical examples of public theology in action and their relationship to the major themes of public theology, equality, justice, peace, the common good and the welfare of the city. A focus of the course will be how public theology is the most recent attempt to overcome the privatization of Christian faith. This is turn has engendered objections to the public nature of Christianity and religious speech in public policy debates.
Objectives
On successful completion of this paper students will be able to:
- Understand the historical background to the rise of public theology in the twentieth century and public theology’s relationship to other theological movements
- Understand different ways in which theology can be public and political
- Apply different models of public theology to issues in contemporary society based on historical examples of public theology in action
Individually negotiated through the Faculty Board.
Objectives
As approved by the Faculty Board
A candidate for the Second Examination may, with the permission of the Faculty Board, submit a dissertation on a topic approved by the Faculty Board. This may be on any topic relating to the subject of any full or half-paper in Groups B, C, or D.
A candidate who wishes to offer a dissertation shall submit an application, including the title of the proposed dissertation and a statement of the scheme of papers to be offered in the examination.
The Reflective Pastoral Practice is the most distinctive feature of the BTh degree. It is designed to test your development as a practical theologian within the context of a vocational award which seeks to relate academic learning to pastoral practice (in the setting of a ministry placement), contexts, and growth in self-awareness. Pastoral papers are compulsory in both the first (BTh 51) and second (BTh 52) examination years. BTh 51 is a half paper. BTh 52 is one full paper.
Objectives
On successful completion of this Paper students will be able to:
- Demonstrate development as a Christian who reflects theologically on their own engagement with the church and the world
- Engage with the discipline of pastoral theology, its literature and sources
- Integrate previous experience with their vocational development in dialogue with other parts of the BTh degree and life within the Cambridge Theological Federation
- Show how their own background, assumptions and perceptions influence their theology
The Reflective Pastoral Practice is the most distinctive feature of the BTh degree. It is designed to test your development as a practical theologian in the context of a vocational award which seeks to relate academic learning to ministerial practice (in the setting of two different placements), contexts, and growth in self-awareness. BTh52 is designed to build upon and develop the pastoral theology undertaken in Paper BTh51 in the 1st Exam Year. Paper BTh52 is one full paper. It is also compulsory to pass BTh52 in order to be awarded the BTh Degree.
It is envisaged that throughout your whole degree course you will be involved in placements of various kinds and in reflective practice groups that enable you to think theologically and practically about issues facing contemporary society and the church. You should plan these placements and opportunities for reflection together with your Director of Pastoral Studies. These should include at least one social context placement, usually chosen from a menu offered by the CTF, and at least one placement in a church, either in this country or abroad. The portfolio is an opportunity to demonstrate your development as a Christian who reflects theologically on your own engagement with the church and the world.
Objectives
On successful completion of this Paper students will be able to:
- Evidence of engagement with practical contexts: Work should clearly arise from your placements and life experience and demonstrate wrestling with issues that are relevant to others in these contexts as well as to yourself.
- Awareness of your own views and roles: The portfolio should demonstrate an understanding that the knowledge you have gained through study and experience is situated and from a particular perspective. The examiners will be keen to see how your views have developed and changed through study and practical engagement with places and other people.
- Engagement with relevant literature and appropriate use of texts, referencing, bibliography etc.: Pastoral and practical theology is a discipline with a literature. You will be expected to have read some key pastoral and practical theology texts and to have an understanding of appropriate methodology in the work you present. Your work should show evidence of reading and be referenced in the same way as other academic writing.
- Theological engagement suitable to degree level study: The examiners are looking for evidence that you are able to draw rigorously and in some depth on appropriate areas of theological study to think about the key issues raised in your portfolio. You will be expected to demonstrate the same sophistication in the use of biblical and theological texts as you do in your other papers of the BTh Degree.