Explore the exciting array of courses offered at Redeemer.
This course provides an overview of the geography of the world. The course will break down the world into regions (i.e. North America, Asia, Africa, Europe) and examine elements of physical, cultural, historical, economic, and political geography within each region. The course will examine international relationships within regions and between regions, and how these relationships affect, and are affected by, aspects of cultural, economic, and political geography. It also explores areas such as cultural comparisons of resource utilization, differences in levels of economic development, and environmental influences on cultural development.
Prerequisites:
Introduction to Human Geography
GEO‑121
An introduction to the discipline guided by the questions: why are human phenomena located where they are and how are they interacting with those locations and each other? Key topics include: globalization and inequality; humans and the environment; geography of culture, identity, and difference; political geography; urban form and city life.
GEO‑121 Introduction to Human Geography
Ethnomusicological study of select music cultures of the Orient, the Near East, Africa, and the Americas, with a focus on their various musical styles and the roles of music in these cultures. Field trips are required.
A study of the history, belief-systems, and practice of the major non-Christian religions. Special consideration will be given to problems surrounding a missionary encounter and dialogue with these religions.
Prerequisites:
Foundations of Mission and Ministry I
REL‑253
This course examines biblical and theological foundations for missions and ministry, historical developments in the theory and practice of missions, and issues pertaining to the contextualization of the gospel in the Western and global church.
REL‑253 Foundations of Mission and Ministry I or permission of the instructor
This course will provide students with a basic introduction to prominent instruments in a worship band: keyboard, drums, guitar, and vocals. This skill-based course will assure competency for playing basic chords on the keyboard and guitar, rhythms on the drums, and basic strumming patterns. Recognizing that students will be taking lessons on their primary instrument (voice included) as a part of the program already, this course serves to ensure basic competency on other instruments.
This course is a survey of the music in worship from biblical times to the present. It provides an overview of religious music from Medieval, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Contemporary eras in Western music history.
This course will consider different pedagogical approaches to worship music leadership, exploring the theological foundations for musical leadership within the church. Topics such as organizing a comprehensive music ministry including budgeting, programming, and staffing will be addressed. Students will have several opportunities to provide musical leadership and direction to worship musicians in the course. Students will also be required to attend the annual Calvin Symposium on Worship in January.
An intermediate course in the writing of creative nonfiction, using a workshop format. Students will gain experience in crafting creative nonfiction through attention to a full range of formal elements and to different genres (e.g. memoir, personal essay, segmented writing, portraits, place essays and narrative journalism). Works by other writers will be studied in the light of basic principles of form and genre. Through such writing and study, students will cultivate a Christian aesthetic of creative nonfiction.
Prerequisites:
Creative Writing I: Essential Tools and Strategies
ENG‑203
Energy, imagery, tension, patterns, insight, and revision: this course focuses on tools and strategies such as these, common to all forms of creative writing. Using a workshop format, this course develops students’ imaginative writing skills and cultivates productive writing habits. Students also explore a Christian understanding of the gift and practice of imagination as they experiment in different genres and modes–from fiction and poetry to creative nonfiction, drama, and graphic narratives.
ENG‑203 Creative Writing I: Essential Tools and Strategies;
Playwriting
ENG‑213
This course focuses on the student’s unique voice and vision primarily expressed through the written word. Providing a forum for presenting works in progress, the course enables students to hear their words read, with feedback and discussion by the instructor and fellow playwrights. Students create scenes emphasizing dialogue and character, and participate in exercises related to narrative and the formation of dialogue.
ENG‑213 Playwriting;
ENG-203 or 213
An intermediate course in the writing of fiction, using a workshop format. Students will
gain experience in crafting fiction through attention to the full range of story elements
and to different narrative genres. Works by other writers are studied in the light of basic
principles of form.
Prerequisites:
Expository Writing I
ENG‑201
A course on the art and craft of expository writing–writing that seeks to explore, explain, or argue a topic for a given audience. Students will practice various modes of nonfiction writing, from personal to persuasive essays, so as to learn the knowledge and skills needed to express themselves fluently and literately in written English, whether in print or digitally. Through a workshop format, students will learn seven traits of effective writing, study well-crafted essays on a range of intriguing topics, improve
grammatical correctness in their own writing, gain twenty-first century research skills, and become rhetorically savvy writers. This course is strongly recommended for students considering a career in teaching.
ENG‑201 Expository Writing I;
B average in ENG-201 and ENG-203 or 213
This internship will consist of 120 hours of on-site work in professional writing
or publishing. Such work can include, but is not limited to: journalism, blogs, social
media, web content, magazine and news publishing, book publishing and business
communications. See page 45 of the Academic Calendar for information on internship.
Prerequisites:
Year 3 Standing
An intermediate course in the writing of poetry, using a workshop format. Students will gain experience in crafting poems through attention to a full range of poetic elements and to different genres. Poems by other writers will be studied in the light of basic principles of form. Through such writing and study, students will cultivate a Christian aesthetic of poetry.
Prerequisites:
Creative Writing I: Essential Tools and Strategies
ENG‑203
Energy, imagery, tension, patterns, insight, and revision: this course focuses on tools and strategies such as these, common to all forms of creative writing. Using a workshop format, this course develops students’ imaginative writing skills and cultivates productive writing habits. Students also explore a Christian understanding of the gift and practice of imagination as they experiment in different genres and modes–from fiction and poetry to creative nonfiction, drama, and graphic narratives.
ENG‑203 Creative Writing I: Essential Tools and Strategies;
Playwriting
ENG‑213
This course focuses on the student’s unique voice and vision primarily expressed through the written word. Providing a forum for presenting works in progress, the course enables students to hear their words read, with feedback and discussion by the instructor and fellow playwrights. Students create scenes emphasizing dialogue and character, and participate in exercises related to narrative and the formation of dialogue.
ENG‑213 Playwriting;
ENG-203 or 213
(Formerly REL-355). The purpose of this course is to develop an awareness of the leadership dynamics involved in youth ministry that flow from the intersection between four realities: the youth pastor, adolescents, the ministering context, and the cultural context. The ministering context will be used as the “anchoring reality” around which the others will be explored.
Prerequisites:
Foundations of Mission and Ministry I
REL‑253
This course examines biblical and theological foundations for missions and ministry, historical developments in the theory and practice of missions, and issues pertaining to the contextualization of the gospel in the Western and global church.
REL‑253 Foundations of Mission and Ministry I
This course seeks to describe and analyze frameworks for understanding young adult spiritual formation in the light of North American social and cultural context. The objective is to equip youth workers for a deeper understanding of the
developmental needs of their students and the cultural influences that may be forming, de-forming, and re-forming them.
Prerequisites:
Foundations of Mission and Ministry I
REL‑253
This course examines biblical and theological foundations for missions and ministry, historical developments in the theory and practice of missions, and issues pertaining to the contextualization of the gospel in the Western and global church.
REL‑253 Foundations of Mission and Ministry I