A certain number of elective courses from the list (below) are conducted in each academic year.
List of elective courses
ECTS credits: 2
Weekly class hours: 1
Course Content
1. Introduction to the course, the objectives, the learning outcomes, and the requirements
2. The biblical talk of animals as creatures created to live alongside humans
3. The biblical talk of animals as creatures that became food for humans and sacrificial objects
4. The symbolism of animals in the Bible – human, demonic, and divine symbolism
5. Animals and the plan to save the world
6. Ecclesial doctrines on animals and the issues of eco-theology I
7. Ecclesial doctrines on animals and the issues of eco-theology II
ECTS credits: 2
Weekly class hours: 1
Course Content
1. Basic terminology, forms of Christian asceticism, asceticism in other religions
2. Asceticism in the Holy Scriptures, Gnosticism and Montanism, Church Fathers
3. The beginnings of monasticism in the East, eremitism and cenobitism, various extreme forms
4. Asceticism at the beginnings of Western monasticism
5. The Middle Ages: Romuald of Ravenna, asceticism in secular rulers
6. Female asceticism and the “living saints”
7. Reformation critique of asceticism and monasticism
ECTS credits: 2
Weekly class hours: 1
Course Content
1. Introduction to the course: Biblical literary genres I (narrative, prophetic, prescriptive, sapiential)
2. Biblical literary genres II (hymn, parabolic, epistolary)
3. Intertextuality and quoting
4. Analysis of literary texts that contain biblical motives I: medieval literature
5. Analysis of literary texts that contain biblical motives II: realism and modernism
6. Analysis of literary texts that contain biblical motives III: postcolonialism and contemporary
literature
7. Review and final discussion
ECTS credits: 2
Weekly class hours: 1
Course Content
1. Introduction to the subject matter, the outcomes, and the requirements of the course.
2. The history of biblical archaeology
3. The development of archaeological disciplines and the archaeological societies active in the Near East
4. Overview of major excavations and their key researchers
5. Results of the excavations in Jericho, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer
6. Results of the excavations in Ashdod, Ashkelon and Gaza, and Khirbet Qeyafa
7. Results of the excavations of selected sites in Jerusalem
ECTS credits: 2
Weekly class hours: 1
Course Content
1. Introduction to communication and non-violence
2. The basic skills of communication
3. The 'I' speech, and the zone of non-violence
4. Analysis of communication strategies in public discourse
5. Introduction to conflict and the transformation of conflict in personal communication
6. Transformation of conflict in public discourse
7. Ethical public communication
8. Overview and course evaluation
ECTS credits: 2
Weekly class hours: 1
Course Content
1. Introduction to the course, the resources, the requirements, and the grading structure
2. The circumstances of the creation and the activities of contemporary Christian spiritual movements internationally
3. The circumstances of the creation and the activities of contemporary Christian spiritual movements in Croatia
4. Protestant Pentecostalism
5. Catholic charismatic movement
6. Hagiotherapy and Neocatechumenate
7. Reception of contemporary spiritual movements within (more) traditional Christian Churches in Croatia
8. Final discussion
ECTS credits: 2
Weekly class hours: 1
Course Content
1. Introduction to the course, the objectives, the learning outcomes, and the grading structure
2. Jesus' Jewish identity
3. Analysis of gospel pericopes that contain elements of Hebrew tradition
4. Messianism and the promise
5. Jesus in Jewish thought
6. Jesus the Jew as the foundation for interreligious dialogue
7. Review and final discussion
ECTS credits: 2
Weekly class hours: 1
Course Content
1. Introduction to the course: Narratological structure of the gospels
2. The crucial narrative junctions and characterization
3. Overview of the history of the portrayals of Jesus' life on film
4. Analysis of select film sections I: Pier Paolo Pasolini, The Gospel According to St. Matthew
5. Analysis of select film sections II: Norman F. Jewinson, Jesus Christ Superstar and Denys
Arcand, Jesus of Montreal
6. Analysis of select film sections III: Martin Scorsese, The Last Temptation of Christ
7. Review and final discussion
ECTS credits: 2
Weekly class hours: 1
Course Content
1. Introduction to the course, the resources, the requirements, and the grading structure
2. Historical circumstances of the genesis of the reformation, and the development of Luther's personality as a reformer
3. The role of the catechism as a genre in the early phase of the development of Protestantism, and the circumstances of the creation of Luther's Large Catechism
4. Reading and interpretation of select sections of the Large Catechism I
5. Reading and interpretation of select sections of the Large Catechism II
6. Reading and interpretation of select sections of the Large Catechism III
7. Critical evaluation of Luther's theological views, as well as his views on morals, society, politics, and the evaluation of their relevancy to contemporary humanity
ECTS credits: 2
Weekly class hours: 1
Course Content
1. Introduction to the content, objectives, and requirements of the course; short introduction to Semitic languages and the chronological sequence of written history
2. Sumerian and Akkadian texts, myths and gods
3. Myths about the origin of the world
4. Canaanite and Hittite texts, myths and gods
5. The new year and the recreation of cosmogony in myths; the motif of the global flood
6. Egyptian texts, myths and gods
7. Afterlife myths, the question of the resurrection, and eschatology in texts of the ancient nations
8. Final discussion
ECTS credits: 2
Weekly class hours: 1
Course Content
1. Defining the concepts of people, nation, patriotism, and nationalism
2. The biblical foundations for the understanding of the relationship between religious and national affiliation
3. National affiliation – the orders of creation and the natural order
4. Karl Barth and national affiliation
5. John Paul II and national affiliation
6. Religious nationalism
7. Final review and discussion
ECTS credits: 2
Weekly class hours: 1
Course Content
1. General introduction to neurotheology
2. A phenomenological-philosophical-analytic view
3. Socio-anthropological view
4. Evolutionist view
5. Psycho-psychopathological-cognitive view
6. Biological-genetic view
7. Neurological-neurocognitive-neurotheological view
8. Theological view
ECTS credits: 2
Weekly class hours: 1
Course Content
1. Introduction to the course and the grading structure
2. The original Chinese religious tradition and its principal expressions
3. Indian Vedic orthodoxy
4. Buddhism
5. Zoroastrianism / Mazdaism
6. Near-eastern religious tradition
7. Egyptian religions
8. Religion of ancient Greece
ECTS credits: 2
Weekly class hours: 1
Course Content
1. Introduction to the life and work of Dorothea Sölle
2. The circles of influence on the theology of non-violence in her works
3. The development of the theology of responsibility and reciprocity
4. Sölle's theology of peace
5. The concept of non-violence: Theological premises and theological arguments
6. Non-violence in the context of the three liberations: from egoism (Ichlosigkeit), from ownership (Besitzlosigkeit), and the liberation from violence (Gewaltlosigkeit)
7. Connecting Sölles theology of non-violence with examples of political conflict in our society – which non-violent solutions does Sölle inspire?
ECTS credits: 2
Weekly class hours: 1
Course Content
1. Introduction to the course and the grading structure
2. Atheism in the ancient Greco-Roman world
3. Medieval atheist currents in the Christian and Islamic environments
4. Atheism at the time of the European Renaissance
5. Spinozism
6. Deism, the enlightenment, and mechanistic materialism
7. Darwinist evolutionism
8. Psychoanalysis and the Frankfurt School
ECTS credits: 2
Weekly class hours: 1
Course Content
1. Introduction to the course, the objectives, the learning outcomes and the requirements
2. Introduction to the reading of select New Testament parables
3. Theological and Jewish tradition of reading the parables
4. Biblical and hermeneutical exegesis of parables
5. Literary methods for reading the parables
6. Overview of various interpretations and various levels of interpretation of Jesus' parables
7. Review and final discussion
ECTS credits: 2
Weekly class hours: 1
Course Content
1. Introduction to the course, the resources, the requirements, and the grading structure
2. The circumstances of the creation and the activities of the Pentecostal movement internationally
3. The circumstances of the creation and the activities of the Pentecostal movement in Croatia
4. Major active Pentecostal Churches/congregations in Croatia, and their views on Christian faith and particular religious experiences I
5. Major active Pentecostal Churches/congregations in Croatia, and their views on Christian faith and particular religious experiences II
6. Views of particular Pentecostal Churches/communities on ecumenism, religious dialogue, and current social issues
7. The reception of Pentecostal Churches/communities within (more) traditional Protestant Churches in Croatia, within the majority Roman Catholic Church, within the Catholic Charismatic movement in Croatia, and within Croatian society as a whole.
8. Final discussion
ECTS credits: 2
Weekly class hours: 1
Course Content
1. Introduction to the objectives and requirements of the course
2. Defining the public and private aspects of faith
3. The difference between the social and political community
4. The model of withdrawing the Church from the public sphere
5. The model of Church engagement in the public sphere
6. Believers and the political arena – scope of action and its limits
7. Liberal democracy and the Christian faith – models of coexistence
ECTS credits: 2
Weekly class hours: 1
Course content
1. Introduction to the course and its objectives
2. Defining the concepts of "secular", "secularization", and "secularism"
3. Formation of secular states – historical overview
4. Secular state and secular society
5. The influence of theology on the formation of secular societies and secular states
6. The Second Vatican Council – scope and limit of the autonomy of secular states
7. Specific discussions on the character of secular society
ECTS credits: 2
Weekly class hours: 1
Course Content
1. Introduction to the course: biblical interpretation as an integrative process of the spiritual, the social, and the natural
2. The foundations of American and European bioethics
3. Frits Jahr and the "Fifth Commandment"
4. Holiness of life in biblical texts (Deut 1-3; 6)
5. Bioethics in Roman Catholic theology
6. Integrative bioethics and the requests for legal frameworks / Jesus and the revision of the Decalogue (Matt 5,21-26)
7. Biblical theology as a method of bioethics
ECTS credits: 2
Weekly class hours: 1
Course Content
1. Introduction to the course and its objectives
2. The philosophical roots of the discourse on the death of God (Hegel, Nietsche)
3. The cross and the possibilities of discourse on the death of God in theology
4. Contemporary discussions on the death of God (Vahanian, Altizer)
5. J. Moltmann and the discourse on the death of God
6. Social and political implications of theological discourse on the death of God
7. Brief overview of the course and final discussion
ECTS credits: 2
Weekly class hours: 1
Course Content
1. Introduction to the concept of nonviolence
2. The causes of violence, the relationship between aggressiveness and violence, "the zone of nonviolence"
3. Structural and cultural violence according to J. Galtung
4. Definitions of peace, conflict, violence, and justice according to J. Galtung
5. The relationship between the personal and political in a feminist and nonviolent key
6. Anarchism and civil disobedience: Henry David Thoreau and Dorothy Day
7. Examples of nonviolent action motivated by Christian spirituality: Dan Berrigan and Dorothee Soelle
ECTS credits: 2
Weekly class hours: 1
Course Content
1. Introduction to the course, explanation of theoretical concepts: approaches to women's history, gender studies, feminism
2. Women in pagan antiquity, early Christian forms of escape from patriarchal bounds: asceticism, martyrdom, travel
3. The role of women in the early Church organization; the beginnings of normative writing about women and for women
4. Middle Ages: ascetic queens, founders of monasteries; the “female nature” and its “biological” foundation
5. Female mysticism, living saints, visionaries, and literary authors; women in the Mendicant orders
6. The cult of the family in the Reformation, criticism of the Marian cult and its promotion in the Catholic renewal
7. Women and education, gender differences in contemporary religious practice, women in the religions of the world
← Study Programmes
