Summers at Grace Theological College
During Summer, our faculty & students serve in their Social Justice ministries. We do not offer courses. See you in 09/2025.
Reverend Dr. Dean Jarvis has finalized the curriculum for the Doctorate of Sacred Feminine Studies program at Grace Theological College. This religious dual-doctorate (D. Min., Ph.D.) program has a pan-faith focus and is research based.
The program of studies is founded upon the paradigm that Creation's universal energies continually shift while maintaining balance. Excesses and deficiencies occur whenever human agency enters the equation. The resulting imbalances caused by humankind have repeatedly led to crisis and destruction. Paradoxically, human agency must always enter the equation either directly or indirectly through interactions with Creation.
The curriculum examines the history of humankind and its interactions with the Sacred Feminine through the lens of anthropology, the natural sciences, psychology , faith, gender-studies, and global-social mechanisms through multi-faith perspectives.
Upon graduation, scholars are expected to have produced a body of distinguished work via their research for the doctoral dissertation for the Ph.D., and will have planned, created, and implemented a ministry via a doctoral project in support of their discerned area of need to serve Creation in any of its forms; biological and/or social, and/or psychological, and/or spiritual for the
D. Min. The areas of study, subject of focus, and scholarship are limited only by the scholar's creativity, motivation, and application of the work to be accomplished.
Graduates of this program are expected to thoroughly examine and offer workable solutions to the sequelae of the imbalances created by human agency. It is expected that this will be accomplished via the application of the extensive history and communicationsn to humankind and/or nature by the Divine Feminine in her many manifestations across almost every culture, tradition, and religion.
Applicants must have a Bachelor's degree. Scholars have a minimum of four (4) years, and a maximum of six (6) years to complete both doctorates. Scholars from many areas of academic and professional studies should find a comfortable niche in this program.
Contact: Grace Theological College at 1- 877 -731 - 9957 and leave a message for Mrs. Valentina in the admissions office.
https://www.coolcongregations.org/
--- It is such an important task for us to guard the planet, especially when the world is in such a critical climate situation. I am reminded of some of the laws that appear in The Bible to keep the ecosystem - and the social system of an agricultural society - balanced.
The most important, or rather “extensive”, law, is שְׁמִטָּה (to release), which prohibits all agricultural work on a specific piece of land every seven years, as we can read in Exodus 23:10-11:
“For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what is left. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.”
The religious reasoning for that law is to commemorate the seventh day of the week of creation, but also to remind that the land belongs to God, so people cannot use it in any way they wish.
The practical reason is to let the land “resting”, which helps it to be more fertile and kills the pests that cannot survive without new crops.
The social reasoning is to minimize the gap between rich and poor people, so the poor can enjoy the fruit of the land even if they don’t own land of their own, which leads to another set of laws: לֶקֶט (Gleaning), שִׁכְחָה (Forgotten sheaves), פֵּאָה (Unharvested corners), פֶּרֶט (Fallen grapes), עֹלְלוֹת (Clusters of grapes that are poorly formed), and מַעֲשֵׂר עָנִי )Poor man’s tithe).
The main laws are described in Leviticus 19:9-10:
“When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest.
Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigners. I am the Lord your God”,
and are expanded in Deuteronomy 24:19-22.
As we know, the importance of sharing food with neighbors and the less fortunate ones is so important, that even during the last arrangements to flee Egypt, the people were told (Exodus 12:4):
“If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat."
If you’d like to read some more, this is a very good starting point.
Let this week remind us again that as long as space colonies are not a common practice (yet), we have only one planet to live on, so it’s better if we protect it – together.
Professor T. Oded
Dean: Humanities Department
Hebrew Language Professor
Grace Theological College
sacred activism, social justice, welcoming and affirming