Learning Objectives
- Conceptual Integration: Students will demonstrate (via weekly online forum discussions, in-class discussions, and the completion of four projects) their ability to connect core theological themes (e.g., “chosen-ness,” the image of the Divine, and decolonial emotion) to their own lived experiences and activist contexts, demonstrating this synthesis through reflective writing and forum discussion.
- Narrative Competency: Students will demonstrate (via weekly online forum discussions, in-class discussions, and the completion of four projects) their ability to identify and deconstruct harmful religious narratives used against LGBTQ+ communities, while articulating empowered, faith-based counter-narratives inspired by historical exemplars of faith-driven social change.
- Foundational Application: Students will demonstrate (via weekly online forum discussions, in-class discussions, and the completion of four projects) their ability to synthesize course models and insights to create a personal manifesto or creative work that articulates a spiritually-grounded approach to activism, emphasizing sustainability, community-building across difference, and a focus on the most marginalized.
Course Components
Christian Social Activism - An Introduction for LGBTQ+ Activists
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Session 1: Foundations of the Spiritual Self — Connection and Belovedness
10 MinutesAssignmentLesson Locked -
Session 2: The Self as an Agent of Change — The Legacy of Sojourner Truth
10 MinutesAssignmentLesson Locked -
Session 3: Transformative Leadership — Temperament and the “Religion of Jesus”
10 MinutesAssignmentLesson Locked -
Session 4: The Power of the “Uses of Anger” — A Catalyst for Change
10 MinutesAssignmentLesson Locked
CLGS Christian Social Activism - An Introduction for LGBTQ+ Activists
Taught by Dr. Bernie Schlager
This course is designed to bridge the gap between Christian spirituality and contemporary queer advocacy by re-framing Christian teachings and history as sources of empowerment and social transformation.
Meet Your Instructor,
Dr. Bernie Schlager
Dr. Bernard Schlager, Associate Professor of Historical & Cultural Studies at Pacific School of Religion, and Executive Director for The Center for LGBTQ and Gender Studies in Religion (CLGS), received his PhD from Yale University in the history of medieval and Latin American Christianity. He has taught at the University of New Hampshire, Trinity College, Middlebury College, and Yale.
Dr. Schlager’s research interests include queer studies, the history of Christianity, LGBTQ pastoral care, and medieval social and religious history. He has published numerous articles on ancient church history, medieval hagiography, the history of sexuality, and the history of education. He is co-author with David Kundtz of Ministry Among God’s Queer Folk: LGBTQ Pastoral Care (Second Edition: Cascade Books, 2019); and editor of Mapping New Terrain in Queer Religious Scholarship: Essays in Honor of John Eastburn Boswell (Forthcoming 2025: Routledge).