COURSE DESCRIPTION (Hebrews and James – NT005)

Course Start Date: 16 January 2020
Course End Date: 12 April 2020 (extended till 30 Apr 2020)
Course Duration : 12 weeks

This online course on Hebrews and James helps you understand the background, purpose, and themes of these books to lead a practical Christian life.

The book of Hebrews is one of the most challenging books in the New Testament. Many of its topics and themes are difficult to understand, but it helps when we recognize that the original audience was facing persecution and that they were tempted to turn away from Christ. That’s why the author of Hebrews placed his emphasis on standing strong in the faith, and it’s why this book is one of the most valuable and encouraging to Christians in every age. This course is based on the lecture series, The Book of Hebrews, produced by Third Millennium Ministries and anchored by Dr. Stephen Um with contributions from a variety of professors.

The Epistle of James is an intensely practical book for readers in every age. James’ original audience had professed faith in Christ, but many were not living lives that reflected their beliefs. To address this disparity, James dealt with real-world issues that still speak to us today. This series looks at the background, structure and content of the epistle of James and explores the wisdom and practical instruction in James that remain relevant for modern readers.

PROFESSORS

In this course a wide variety of professors from different backgrounds and different denominations participate in the making of the videos.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Through this course, we hope the following objectives will be accomplished:
1. You will learn key information about the background, structure and content of the book of Hebrews and the epistle of James.
2.You will be encouraged in your Christian life by studying The Book of Hebrews, especially as you face false teachings as well as understand and gain wisdom for practical living as described in the Epistle of James.
3. You will make use of all the resources of the course to learn key things about the background, purpose, structure, and content of The Book of Hebrews and the Epistle of James. Who wrote it, and why? What are the main themes, and how should we apply them today?
4.We hope you make some changes in your life as a response to the teachings of The Book of Hebrews and the Epistle of James, especially doing your part to help encourage Christians who are confronting false teachings and being tempted to turn away from Christ as well as gain and apply wisdom in relationship to practical living.

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

1. Watch all the Video lectures of each lesson (or listen to the audio, or read the text version). These lectures are the main content of the course.
2. Complete the Study guide for each section of the videos. These study guides help you discover what is important in the videos, and they prepare you for the quizzes. If you answer all the questions in the study guide, you should do well on the quizzes.
3. Take the Quiz on each section of the videos. Each lesson may have multiple quizzes. All quizzes should be attempted (You will have up to three  attempts at each quiz. The score of the final attempt will be taken into consideration regardless of whether you may have scored higher in earlier attempts).
4. Complete all the required Reading material and attempt the Reading Quiz. The Reading Quizzes test your knowledge on the reading material.
5. Participate actively in the Discussion Forum by posting a direct response to the question in at least 200 words. You should then respond to two other peer posts in at least 100 words each. Further discussion beyond these three posts is welcome.
6. Respond to the Reflection Question in 500 words or more and submit that before the stipulated deadline [typically this is before the last day of each lesson]. The Reflection Summary should include a response to the question posed and seek to reflect on key lessons learnt from the lesson as well as real-life applications to work, life, family and ministry. The student could cite other resources and references to supporting material provided those sources are duly acknowledged within the essay.

THEMATIC OUTLINE 

1. The Background and Purpose of Hebrews
2. Content and Structure
3. Introduction to James
4. Two Paths of Wisdom

TEXT BOOKS USED

Richard D. Phillips, Hebrews
A.R. Faussett, Commentary on James
John Calvin, Commentary on the Catholic Epistles – James

COURSE ASSIGNMENTS

When you have done the following, it will show that the course activities are accomplished:
1. Watch all the videos of the course, complete the study guides and take the quizzes.
2. Read the prescribed pages from the reading material and attempt any reading quizzes.
3. Actively participate in the discussion forums. You would be required to contribute to the forum by posting at least three (3) posts (1 initial post answering the questions in at least 200 words and 2 peer-postings (responding to others’ posts) of at least 100 words each). You may also express your own research in the forums, thus demonstrating your growing interest in the topics studied in this course.
4. To obtain course completion certificate, you must score 50% or more in all the quizzes [including reading quizzes], three posts in the discussion forums for each lesson, and submit all reflection summaries on time.

COURSE FACILITATORS

Dr. Joshua Iyadurai, PhD
Dr Joshua is a Theological Educator and a Specialist in Religious Conversion and Spiritual/Religious Experience. He is an expert in Research Methodology, especially Qualitative research. He is a sought after Teacher, Writer, Editor and Researcher. He oversees many research projects and guides students with their research proposals. He enjoys expository preaching and can communicate well in both spoken and written forms. He has a Bachelor of Divinity from UBS, Pune and a PhD from University of Madras. He has done his post doctoral work from Global Research Institute, Fuller Theological Seminary, USA. For the purpose of this course, he can be contacted via email on joshuai@theon.in

Mr. Julian Charles

Julian is involved in Pastoral Ministry and Theological training. He is passionate about training people for effective ministry in their own local contexts. He serves as an online faculty for SAIACS, Bangalore and the e-learning coordinator for THEOn. Julian has a Master of Technology (I.T) degree from RMIT University, Melbourne, a Graduate Diploma of Divinity from Melbourne School of Divinity and a Master of Divinity (Missiology) from SAIACS. For the purpose of this course, Julian can be contacted directly via email julianp@theon.in