Spring & Summer Courses

Quick Links:

This spring and summer, ICS courses continue to be available online. 

Below is a list of all the courses on offer and links to full course descriptions and syllabi (as they become available throughout the coming months) in order of start date. The courses listed vary in delivery format (start date, number of sessions per week, synchronous vs. asynchronous format, etc.), so please check the full course descriptions for details.  If you are interested in taking an ICS course for credit and applying it to a program at another institution, you may contact our Registrar with questions on how best to do so.


REGISTRATION DEADLINES

April 19 is the registration deadline for Called to Teach, Lead From Where You Are, and What's Christian About Christian Education?

May 3 is the registration deadline for State, Society, and Religion in Hegel’s Philosophy.

June 17 is the registration deadline for God of Solidarity: Liberation Theology as Social Movement.

ART in Orvieto has been postponed to next summer. 


FEE DISCOUNTS

MA-EL Course Fee Reduction: Two or more educators from the same school who register for the same course (for credit) at the same time would each receive a $100 rebate from their course tuition. We believe that when teachers from the same school take a course together, they become stronger conversation partners and can better support each other in the implementation of their project. 

First-Time & Alum Discount: If you are a continuing learner or want to get a taste for what ICS courses are like, first-time ICS auditors and ICS alums can take these courses for only $425 (registration included). You can find more information on this and all other fee options on our fees page.

Course List

Visit the course page

Called to Teach: Formation and Learning *

(ICSD 260001 S24)
with Edith van der Boom

Blended Online Synchronous / Asynchronous Format
6 live Zoom sessions beginning April 25

Called to Teach is designed to inspire and support K-12 educators in their personal and professional journey of teaching and learning. Through this course, participants will explore their vocation as educators, reflecting on their teaching practice in the context of faith and spiritual disciplines. This inner journey invites educators to seek refreshment and renewal in their work while considering the formation and learning of their students.


The course aims to address these key questions:


* Approved for Area 4 of the CSTC.
Eligible for MA-EL Course Fee Reduction.

Lead From Where You Are course description page

Lead From Where You Are: Making a Difference in the Face of Tough Problems, Big Questions, and Organizational Politics *

(ICS 132504 / 260003 S24)
with Gideon Strauss

Blended Online Synchronous / Asynchronous Format
6 live Zoom sessions beginning April 25

Leadership is not about personality, authority, position, influence, or power as such. Leadership is an art, a craft, a practice, to which everyone is called sometime or other, in widely different situations. Leadership can be practiced with varying degrees of authority, from any position, at varying scales of influence, and with varying access to different sources of power. Leadership is the work of motivating a group of people to act in certain ways as they shape what they share. 

In this course we will explore how to contribute leadership when we have a particular, recognized position of authority in a group, and also regardless of our position in a group. We will learn how to contribute leadership when our group has clear, commonly agreed-upon procedures and goals, and when there are not (or not yet) clear, commonly agreed-upon procedures and goals (so that we must practice imaginative discernment). We will learn how to contribute leadership both to make beneficial change happen and to ensure needed maintenance.

* Approved for Area 2 or 4 of the CSTC.
Eligible for MA-EL Course Fee Reduction.

Visit the course page

What's Christian About Christian Education?: Reformational Philosophy *

(ICS 1107AC/2107AC S24)
with Neal DeRoo

Blended Online Synchronous / Asynchronous Format
6 live Zoom sessions beginning April 25

This course will offer you an opportunity to reflect about what it means to teach or educate “Christianly.” It will situate a Reformational understanding of Christian education within two distinct types of “context”: first, the “spirits of the age” that are at work influencing our shared modern, Canadian society; and second, the local context of the school you work at. The ‘spiritual’ context will help us see Christian education as an alternative, not simply to “secular” education, but to other patterns of spiritual formation, like consumerist education or workaholic education. The ‘local’ context will then allow us to discuss how Christian education can be ‘put to work’ in your day-to-day activities as a teacher or administrator. The goal is to give you time, space, and resources to develop a clearer understanding of how faith impacts education in general, and how your faith shapes what you do as an educator more specifically.... [More information coming soon]

* Approved for Area 2 of the CSTC.
Eligible for MA-EL Course Fee Reduction.

Visit the course page for State, Society, and Religion in Hegel's Philosophy

State, Society, and Religion in Hegel’s Philosophy

(ICS 153303 / 253303 S24)
with Andrew Tebbutt

Intensive Online Synchronous Format
May 7 - June 13
Tuesdays & Thursdays, 1-3pm ET

This course explores the interrelation of political, social, and religious life in the philosophy of G. W. F. Hegel. Readings will be drawn from Hegel’s lectures on art and religion, as well as his works Elements of the Philosophy of Right and Phenomenology of Spirit. We will explore the political and social conditions of human experience through the lens of what Hegel calls “objective spirit,” focusing in particular on how our freedom as self-conscious beings is enabled and supported by the domains of ethical life, law, and civil society. We will also explore Hegel’s account of the human engagement in “absolute spirit,” here attending to the distinctive practices of art and religion, and to how these practices are interwoven with social and political life. We will also consider Hegel’s role in the historical construction of the modern West’s category of religion, and on what is involved in thinking about religion and religious difference (and Hegel’s philosophy itself) beyond Eurocentrism.... [More information coming soon]

God of Solidarity course page

God of Solidarity: Liberation Theology as Social Movement

(ICSD 132904 / 232904 S24)
with Dean Dettloff 

Intensive Online Synchronous Format
June 17 - July 24
Mondays & Wednesdays, 7-9pm ET

In the latter half of the 20th century, a wave of liberation movements swept across the globe as colonized and exploited people undertook seismic struggles for self-determination. These movements had a profound influence not only on global politics, but also on intellectual trends and the political left, for whom “the masses” took on new significance and previous orthodoxies seemed out of step with the times. Theology was no exception, and from the 1970s on Christian theology would not only reinterpret itself through the lens of liberation around the world, but would also become a primary organizing force in the struggle for liberation.

While liberation theology is often studied for its doctrinal content, it is irreducibly social, historical, and political, emerging from and accountable to people’s movements. As a result, liberation theology was also severely disciplined by ecclesial and political power brokers. In this class, we will consider liberation theology in historical perspective, specifically in its Latin American expressions, examining its relationship to a revolution in global Christianity and revolutions in various political contexts. We will also consider the papacy of Pope Francis, looking at the rehabilitation of several liberation theologians since 2013, with an eye toward the future and legacy of liberation theology in the 21st century.... [More information here]

- POSTPONED TO SUMMER 2025 -

ART in Orvieto 

with Rebekah Smick, David Holt

3-week Seminar and Studio Residency

ART in Orvieto is an advanced summer studies program in art, religion, and theology located in Orvieto, Italy, a magnificent hill town 90 minutes north of Rome. The program offers an ecumenical exploration of Christian understandings of the arts. It provides a three weeks residency designed for artists, teachers, graduate students in relevant fields, and other adult learners interested in engaging the intersection of art, religion, and theology.

For further details, please see the dedicated ART in Orvieto webpage.

* Approved for Area 4 of the CSTC.  
** Attention external students: if you are interested in taking any of these courses for credit, you must petition your college of registration to count the course credit toward your degree program.

Want to join a course?

Please email our Academic Registrar at academic-registrar@icscanada.edu with your questions or to register today!