Course Description
Building on the foundations from the Methodology Seminar, the general focus of this second seminar will be on developing the students’ skills in interpreting and critically-analyzing arguments within theological texts, in the pursuit of truth. Such endeavor will guide students in the art of logical demonstration (i.e., dialectic), wherein students will better develop their skills in locating, understanding, and articulating both sound and fallacious argumentation within the texts being studied. Such ways include (but are not limited to): (1) locating written and spoken terms and concepts that require definitional clarity; (2) locating contradictions and logical fallacies; (3) finding connections between different ideas that are of particular importance, and which serve as evidence and warrants in support of a claim; (4) discerning how the various sub-claims fit within the unifying coherence of the main claim; and (5) recognizing when an author is giving a mere opinion (which may be coincidentally true), or is speaking from a solid base of well-reasoned knowledge.
(Particular course description TBA)