Northern Seminary Doctor of Ministry Program Becoming Doctors of the Church January 9-13, 2017 Mark Mulder, Ph.D. mmulder@calvin.edu 616.560.8116 NOTE: The course will start at 9:00 am and end by 4:30 pm on Monday through Thursday, and 9:00 am to 12:00 noon on Friday. Seminar Description This seminar considers how ethnography might be employed as a pastoral discipline. Students will be introduced to the process of applying systematic ethnographic methods in a congregational setting. Ethnography typically involves the observation and study of people in their natural settings. Here we focus on churches and their contexts (neighborhoods, districts, towns, cities). Ethnography s potency resides in its ability to undermine assumptions and give voice to those who have been previously muted. It allows for reinterpretation and restructuring in a way that nurtures the creation of better maps and better stories. Along the way, though, ethnography may yield more complicated and less linear explanations of congregational culture(s). The course will also introduce students to the scholarship of engagement through a central, culminating project that will engage the students in the study of a local congregation. These original ethnographic studies of congregations will give particular attention to two aspects: (1) the nature of a church as a social institution and (2) the vision of society that is implicit in the practices of the congregation.throughout the course we will be building a theoretical and analytical toolbox for considering the church as a social institution embedded within a wider societal context. The toolbox will, hopefully, allow students to attend to the actual life of the church and, in turn, process those patterns and habits through a theological lens that allows for strengthened congregations. Course objectives Upon completion of the course students should be able to 1) Explain and utilize the basic research methods of ethnography (including participant observation and interviewing), particularly as appropriated and employed in the field of congregational studies. 2) Implement ethnography for understanding the church as a social institution (thinking critically yet charitably about the church as a social institution). 1
3) Analyze data systematically (coding) and, in turn, be able to effectively communicate a compelling narrative based on that evidence (organizing the data into a coherent story). 4) Appreciate and explain the implicit sociological visions that are carried in ecclesial practices. 5) Reflexively use ethnography to interrogate one s own predispositions and, in turn, give voice to those that form the congregation and its context. Required Reading Edwards, Korie L. The Elusive Dream: The Power of Race in Interracial Churches. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. 0195314247. $33.95. 240 pages. Emerson, Robert M.; Fretz, Rachel I.; and Shaw, Linda L. Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2011. 0226206831. $22.00. 320 pages. Liebow, Elliot. Tally s Corner: A Study of Negro Streetcorner Men. New York: Little, Brown, & Co., 1967. 0742528960. $23.00. 224 pages. Marti, Gerardo. A Mosaic of Believers: Diversity and Innovation in a Multiethnic Church. Bloomington, Indiana: The University of Indiana Press, 2005. 0253203430. $28.00. 264 pages. McRoberts, Omar. Streets of Glory: Church and Community in an Urban Black Neighborhood. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003. 0226562174. $28.00. 186 pages. Nelson, Timothy J. Sacrifice of Praise: Emotion and Collective Participation in an African American Worship Service. Sociology of Religion, 1996 57: 4, pp. 379-396. Numrich, Paul D. and Wedam, Elfiede. Religion and Community in the New Urban America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. 0199386854. $35.00. 368 pages. Scharen, Christian, ed. Explorations in Ecclesiology and Ethnography. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2012. 0802868649. $40.00. 188 pages. Seminar Requirements 1) Pre-seminar (written assignments due January 9) a. Complete required reading 2
b. For each reading, compose 4-5 discussion questions. These should be typed and organized in a single document. Have one copy for the instructor and one for your reference during the class. c. Write a 4-5 (double-spaced) paper in which you begin the process of considering your congregation ethnographically. The paper should be a discussion of some of the following: the congregation s location (both socially and geographically), its theological tradition, its worship style, the architecture of the edifice, the polity in utilizes, the subcultures that exist within, significant aspects of its history, its identity. d. Attend a worship service in a congregation with which you are unfamiliar. Think of this as a self-guided field trip where you begin to think ethnographically. Take field notes (observations about what you are seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and tasting [communion elements? fair trade coffee? lemonade? cookies?]). Pay attention to the physical setting (neighborhood, edifice, sanctuary, fellowship space), the people (who are they? how are they dressed), worship style, dominant stories, relational patterns, central identity, authority. Using your field notes, write a 4-5 page reflective paper about this initial foray into ethnography. Through our class you will become better equipped to conduct ethnography, this process is an exercise in getting you into an unfamiliar situation so that you can begin the same kind of observation within your own church. 2) During the seminar (written assignments due January 13) a. Write a 2 page (double spaced) paper in which you discuss the following (not graded, for seminary purposes): i. Who you are: what is your biography? What issues/assumptions do you bring with you? ii. What issues do you see as most compelling within your field of study and your congregation? iii. Describe your context: what is the social, theological, and geographic location of your congregation? b. Write a 2 page (double spaced) reflection paper in which you consider the following: Some might identify a tension in the relationship between ethnography and Christianity. That is, ethnography tends to be coming from a position of not-knowing, entering the field with an inductive approach to finding the answers. Christianity, on the other hand, tends to operate with a sense of sent-ness that there is a truth/answer/wisdom that we have to offer. How do we best reconcile these two seemingly contradictory positions? 3) Post-seminar (due April 1) a. Write a 20-25 page (double-spaced) ethnography of your congregation. The data for the paper will include your field notes as participant observer and transcripts from your interviews with leaders 3
and attenders. The process of researching and writing this paper will become clearer throughout the week. b. Some details on paper organization: the main paper (15-18pages) should include an introduction to the site, statement regarding the issue being considered, literature review, discussion of evidence, and conclusion. The paper should also include two appendices (which can be more informally written and regarded as reflections where you discuss how this process has changed you, what dangers you might see in the process, and any other compelling insights you might have): 1) a methodological appendix in which you reflect on the ethnographic process and 2) a theological appendix in which you reflect on the theological implications of the study for your congregation (both appendices should be 4-5 pages). 4) All written assignments should be completed using Turabian, 8 th edition, format (per seminary expectations). 5) Any students who cannot complete the assignments by the final due date listed on the syllabus should be in contact with the professor to discuss a new due date. There is one 30-day grace period for turning in assigned work (which will include a one letter grade reduction). If more than 30 days is needed, the student must complete a Course Extension Form listing the final due. The form will also be signed by the professor and submitted to the registrar. Seminar Schedule 1) Monday (Key outcome: Reflexivity and biography as crucial to good ethnography) a. Introductions b. Ethnography as a research discipline c. The inductive process d. DisLocation e. Goffman, One the Run: Wanted Men in a Philadelphia Ghetto f. Elliot Liebow, Tally s Corner g. Scharen, Introduction (Explorations in Ecclesiology and Ethnography) h. Hegstad, Ecclesiology and Empirical Research on the Church 2) Tuesday (Key outcome: identifying the boundaries of your field research) a. Congregations as cultures/locating a congregation b. Participant observation c. Field notes d. Ethics e. Nieman and Haight, On the Dynamic Relationship between Ecclesiology and Congregational Studies 4
f. Warner, New Wine in Old Wineskins g. Nelson, Sacrifice of Praise: Emotion and Collective Participation in African American Worship Service 3) Wednesday (Key outcome: identifying good questions and becoming comfortable with an inductive approach) a. Dimensions of church identity and culture: activities, artifacts, accounts b. Semi-structured interviewing c. Mulder and Smith, Understanding Religion Takes Practice: Anti- Urban Bias, Geographical Habits, and Theological Influences d. Edwards, The Elusive Dream e. Marti, A Mosaic of Believers f. Designing an ethnography 4) Thursday (Key outcome: figuring out how to make sense of data) a. Congregational ecology b. Coding and analysis c. Literature review d. Nelson, Sacrifice of Praise: Emotion and Collective Participation in African American Worship Service e. Fiddes and Ward, Affirming Faith at a Service of Baptism in St. Aldates Church, Oxford f. McRoberts, Streets of Glory 5) Friday (Key outcome: reflections on individual ethnographic projects) a. Crafting and grounding the narrative b. Brittain, Ethnography as Ecclesial Attentiveness and Critical Reflexivity: Fieldwork and the Dispute over Homosexuality in the Episcopal Church c. Murray and Guest, On Discerning the Living Truth of the Church: Theological and Sociological Reflections on Receptive Ecumenism and the Local Church d. Wrap up Seminar Evaluation 1) Pre-seminar assignments: 25% 2) Participation and seminar-week assignments: 25% 3) Final post-seminar paper: 50% Grading Scale A = 100-95 A- = 94-90 B+ = 89-87 B = 86-83 B- = 82-80 C+ = 79-77 C = 76-73 C- = 72-70 D+ = 69-67 D = 66-63 D- = 62-60 F = 59 and below 5
Bibliography 1) Ethnography Anderson, Elijah. The Cosmopolitan Canopy: Race and Civility in Everyday Life. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2011. -------------------. Streetwise: Race, Class, and Change in an Urban Community. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1990. --------------------. A Place on the Corner. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976. Diamond, Timothy. Making Gray Gold: Narratives of Nursing Home Care. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992. Dunier, Mitchell. Slim s Table: Race, Respectability, and Masculinity. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992. Emerson, Robert M.; Fretz, Rachel I.; and Shaw, Linda L. Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2011. Herbert Gans. The Levittowners: Ways of Life and Politics in a New Suburban Community. Pantheon, 1967. ----------------. The Urban Villagers: Group and Class in the Life of Italian Americans. The Free Press, 1962. Liebow, Elliot. Tally s Corner: A Study of Negro Streetcorner Men. New York: Little, Brown, & Co., 1967. Lofland, John and Lofland, Lyn H. Analyzing Social Settings: A Guide to Qualitative Observation and Analysis. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1995. Venkatesh, Sudhir Alladi. Gangleader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets. New York: Penguin, 2008. -----------------------------. Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006. Whyte, William Foote. Street Corner Society: The Social Structure of an Italian Slum. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1943. 6
2) Ethnography and the church Ammerman, Nancy. Congregation and Community. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001. Becker, Penny Edgell. Congregations in Conflict: Cultural Models of Local Religious Life. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. -------------------------, and Eiesland, Nancy, eds. Contemporary American Religion: An Ethnographic Reader. Walnut Creek, CA: Alta Mira, 1997. Edwards, Korie L. The Elusive Dream: The Power of Race in Interracial Churches. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. Eiesland, Nancy. A Particular Place: Urban Restructuring and Religious Ecology in a Southern Suburb. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000. Emerson, Michael. People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the U.S. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006. Markofski, Wes. New Monasticism and the Transformation of American Evangelicalism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. Marti, Gerardo. A Mosaic of Believers: Diversity and Innovation in a Multiethnic Church. Bloomington, Indiana: The University of Indiana Press, 2005. ------------------. Hollywood Faith: Holiness, Prosperity, and Ambition in a Hollywood Church. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2008. McRoberts, Omar. Streets of Glory: Church and Community in an Urban Black Neighborhood. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003. Nelson, Timothy. Every Time I Feel the Spirit: Religious Experience and Ritual in an African Church. New York: New York University Press, 2005. Numrich, Paul D. and Wedam, Elfiede. Religion and Community in the New Urban America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. Orsi, Robert. Thank You, St. Jude: Women s Devotion to the Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996. Scharen, Christian, ed. Explorations in Ecclesiology and Ethnography. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. 7
Wadsworth, Nancy D. Ambivalent Miracles: Evangelicals and the Politics of Racial Healing. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2014. Warner, Stephen. New Wine in Old Wineskins: Evangelicals and Liberals in a Small- Town Church. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1988. 8