Audit
Applicants wishing to audit a class must complete the audit application and be officially registered as audit students. Audit students do not take exams or submit work and they do not receive grades or academic credit. Limited classes are available for auditing and only as space allows.
The audit fee for courses at McAfee is $150 per course. There is also a facility/technology fee per semester charged as follows: 1-8 credit hours = $17 per credit hour; 9 or more credit hours = $150
Fall 2025 Auditing Options
Women, Scripture, and Moral Imagination: A Study in Theological Ethics
This course explores the lives and ethical witness of biblical women, examining their stories as sources of moral imagination and theological reflection. Through the lens of theological ethics, students will engage with narratives of women at the margins to uncover insights on justice, liberation, and faithful living. The course invites participants to consider how these narratives challenge and inspire our understanding of moral agency and community by integrating scripture, ethical theory, and contemporary applications. Together, we will reflect on the enduring relevance of these stories for navigating complexity and fostering hope and justice in today’s world.
- Available online, Mondays, 5:30-6:30pm
Biblical Interpretation in the Age of Black Lives Matter
There’s an old saying in some African American communities that is often applied to the broad-stroke disparity of nation’s economy: when white folks catch a cold, black folks get pneumonia. This cliché loosely means that in economic downturns, what may be hardships for white Americans is deadly for Black Americans. Biblical Interpretation in the Age of Black Lives Matter is a course that examines how critical biblical scholarship serves as a way of assessing “public health” while reading Hebrew Bible and New Testament texts. In this class, you’ll perform exegesis and interpret biblical texts to help you imagine a theology of multi-racial revolutionary resilience. You will also read and engage sermons on Blackness towards imagining, constructing, and delivering your own sermons that engage the interpretative tools learned so that you can preach in the age of protest and empowerment.
- Taught by Dr. Angela Parker, on campus or online, on Thursdays, 9:30-12:15pm
Theology of Exile
This course explores the theological and ethical responses to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile in the Old Testament, particularly in the books of Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Second Isaiah. The class will exp0lore the presence and absence of God, the implications of a retribution theology of the exile, the portrayal of women in exilic literature, ethics after exile, oracles against foreign nations, the tradition of lament, and the vision for the establishment of a new community and religious identity after exile.
- Taught by Dr. David Garber, on campus, on Mondays, 1:15-4:00pm
Whatever Happened to Abram’s Children? Judaism, Christianity, & Islam Today
This course examines the origins of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, explores the historic tensions that have existed between the three traditions, and gives attention to the sacred texts of each tradition and includes site visits to places of worship. Particular attention is given to the modern era in order to help students understand the global and missiological contexts in which the religions interact today.
- Taught by Dr. Rob Nash, blended format (a mixture of both on campus and online sessions), on Tuesdays, 9:30-12:15pm
Preaching
This course introduces the principles and disciplines of effective preaching. It offers the tools for the fresh, ongoing interpretation of scripture into the lives of listeners. Students will study cultural and congregational factors in the preaching event, methods for interpreting texts, the process of sermon development, and the practical issues of oral communication.
- Taught by Dr. Otis Moss, III, on campus, on Tuesdays, 1:15-4:30pm
Listening as an Act of Justice
This course invites students to experience the spiritual practice of deep – or sacred – listening as they learn to be fully present with the stories of individuals, communities, institutions, and societies who encounter tumult, impasse, or trauma. They will learn how re-storying emerges through a heightened understanding of “the dark night of the soul,” biblical practices of lament, and embodied trauma. To guide students into this spiritual practice, they will also explore their own personal and spiritual formation story.
- Taught by Dr. Heidi Miller, online or on campus, on Tuesdays, 1:15-4:30pm
Suffering & Evil
This course introduces students to the many paradigms of understanding that inform our ideas, beliefs, and practices associated with the Christian faith that have their origins in the history of western philosophy. The course will introduce the major figures and ideas in the history of philosophy, with special emphasis on questions of the relationship of philosophy to theology. Included are the contributions of the following figures: Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Locke, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, etc.
- Taught by Dr. Graham Walker, online, on Mondays, 6:45-8:45pm
Ethics
This course explores the moral dimensions of the Christian faith, including moral convictions, character, and practices. The course is grounded in an ethical methodology shaped by historic Christian theological commitments, and explores aspects of personal discipleship, the church’s internal moral life, and the Christian moral witness in society.
- Taught by Dr. David Gushee, online, on Thursdays, 6:45-8:45pm
Spiritual Care Through Crisis Ministry
This course will integrate theology and pastoral care in both personal and congregational dimensions of the minister’s life in order to improve both theory and practice for ministry effectiveness in the community of faith and the world. The student’s compassion and service will be nurtured and focused by dialogue with the findings of psychology of religion and the disciplines of spiritual development.
- Available online, on Tuesdays, 6:45-8:00pm
Non-Degree, for Credit
Applicants who wish to enroll in one or more Masters level courses at McAfee School of Theology and receive Master’s level academic credit, without pursuing a degree or certificate program, should apply as a non-degree for credit student. Non-degree, for credit students complete the same required course work and hours as degree or certificate seeking students for a required course.
Applicants must have met the individual course prerequisite requirement(s). If the applicant wishes to apply to a Theology degree or certificate program in the future, courses taken as a non-degree student will be evaluated according to the requirements of the curriculum current at the time of application.
