Course Description

The threat of nuclear weapons, described by the Indian writer Arundhati Roy as“humankind’s challenge to God, worded quite simply: We have the power to destroy everything you have created,” is greater now than it has ever been. Yet with few exceptions, the church is silent.

This course will examine the reality of the nuclear threat today and the imperative of the church, informed by a theology of gratitude and compassion, to speak as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Learning Objectives

At the end of the course, participants will:

• understand clearly the threat posed by nuclear weapons today
• be able to articulate a theologically sound response to the existential threat of nuclear weapons
• be aware of the costs — moral, economic and environmental— nuclear weapons exact from us as a society and as individual moral beings
• be able to access resources and identify organizations working to address nuclear issues
• inside and outside the church identify appropriate, effective actions Christians can take to address the threat of nuclear weapons

Required Readings

• Zak, Dan.  Almighty: Courage, Resistance and Existential Peril in the Nuclear Age.  New York, Blue Rider Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2016.