In the ancient world, spiritual growth was fostered through personal relationship. Discipleship, from the Greek word mathetes, describes a relationship between a teacher and student, mentor/mentee, master/servant. It is a concept that is developed primarily in the Gospels and letters attributed to St. Paul in the New Testament. Although a precise word for "disciple" does not occur in the Hebrew Scripture, there are nevertheless mentoring relationships that approximate the type of discipleship found in the NT.
While focusing on the Bible as a primary source, this course examines the issue of discipleship from an interdisciplinary perspective. It begins by looking at reading and\or interpreting Scripture as one of the primary processes of "discipling," and then examines assumptions about human development in the biblical texts from both ancient and modern perspectives. It then relates these concepts to models of spiritual growth. Students will read and research on their own, providing summaries of their learning throughout the semester.