Pre-requisites

None.

Co-requisites

None.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, the student will be able to:

Unit Description

This unit will help the student to develop skills and perspectives that facilitate effective involvement in mission and ministry in a broad range of contexts, both in Australia and in the majority world. Attention is given to cultural differences, the nature of anthropology, different approaches to anthropology and its relationship to the Bible.

The concept of culture is explored. The main culture types and models of culture are outlined and compared. Issues relating to form, function and meaning, and role and status are investigated. The concept of worldview is considered and related to the communication of the Christian message. The skills that are required to describe, research and analyse the important aspect of a culture and do ethnographical research are identified.

The cultural subsystems of economics, kinship, ideology, social structure and political organisation are introduced, outlined and analysed. Culture as a system is also explored. Study in this area relates specifically to the practice of developing an ethnographical understanding of a particular culture. Issues of culture change, the agents of change, and transformational change are considered and application is made to specific cultural situations.

Issues of cross-cultural communication and contextualisation of the Christian faith are given particular attention. At the conclusion of the unit, the student is expected to be able to use the tools of anthropology to analyse new cultural settings and to apply the principles of anthropology to contemporary mission work in a cross-cultural context.

Teaching Strategies

Teaching strategies include lectures, tutorials, weekend schools and presentation of instructional material in the form of printed documentation, OHP, DVD, video and audio tape and on-line interaction. Students also learn by class discussion, personal study, preparation of assignments and assessment comments on their work.


Unit offerings

Online: (Every Year, Semester 1)

Please note

The Unit Offerings listed above are a guide only and the timetable for any year is the final authority. The College may vary offerings based on demand, regulatory requirements, continual improvement processes or other conditions.

This unit may be available in different modes of delivery i.e. online and face-to-face as listed above. The unit content will not differ between these modes of delivery. There will possibly be a difference in the schedule and/or the prescribed assessment tasks, however both will cover and assess the same content.