DIV0028 - Recovery After Harm: Justice, Accountability, and Forgiveness
Course Description
Instructor: Dr. Graham Reside
Delivery: Online, Asynchronous
This course will draw on my experience teaching in prisons and working with the incarcerated, as well as on my current research on accountability. Part of being human is harming others and being harmed by them. As a consequence, every society develops rituals and practices for managing harm. It is also true that religions have developed their own strategies for dealing with this human reality. In this course we will examine social and religious responses to harm by exploring key issues that are both theological and sociological. The course will begin with a discussion of the meaning(s) of justice, then turn to issues of accountability, amends and forgiveness. Each of these concepts entail a set of practices and rituals, which we will both explore and cultivate. At the end of this course of study, participants will have a deeper understanding of the meaning of these key terms covered – Justice, Punishment, Accountability and Forgiveness – both as social objectives and theologically relevant concepts and pastoral practices. And perhaps we will also have a better set of skills for dealing with the harms we ourselves inevitably experience, as
participants in this endeavor we call “being human."
Interested in taking this course as a group or bringing this course to your institution? Email Nathan Cost for group rates and options: nathan.a.cost@vanderbilt.edu
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