SMC Core Curriculum Course Proposal Form
1. Name of Proposer: Michael Barram
2. Email address: mbarram@stmarys-ca.edu
3. Department/Program of Proposer: Theology & Religious Studies (TRS)
4. Name of Department/Program housing the course: TRS
5. Name(s) of Program Director/Department Chair: Michael Barram
6. Course Acronym, Number and Title: TRS 117: “Wealth and Poverty in the Bible”
7. Semester(s) in which course will be offered: Fall or Spring (varies by year)
8. How often is this course taught? At least once per year
9. Course Prerequisites (if any): TRS 97: “The Bible and Its Interpretation”
10. Unit Value of Course: 1.0
11. Proper Audience for the course (delete those that don’t apply):
Sophomores Juniors Seniors (A spring-semester freshman, having
completed TRS 97 in the fall, could feasibly take the course.)
12. The Learning Goals for which the course is being submitted

American Diversity
AMERICAN DIVERSITY – TEACHING
A brief narrative (300 words) that explains how the course will guide students
toward achieving the Learning Goal. The CCC believes it would be simplest both for
the proposer and for the Working Groups if the narrative addressed the Learning
Outcomes one by one.
TRS 117: “Wealth and Poverty in the Bible”
1. Analyze aspects of social diversity (e.g., ethnicity, race, socio-economic status,
gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, ability, and political identity) and
how they affect society in the United States of America; and
This course focuses on a wide range of biblical texts that pertain to questions and
values related to money, wealth, poverty, and economic justice—and the implied
worldviews and values and that such texts reflect and seek to engender. These texts
demonstrate the diversity of perspectives on such themes that has developed over
hundreds and hundreds of years of Jewish and early Christian history. As the class
explores these topics, it is important to me that students consider these texts not
merely as ancient archaeological data to be mined (at arm’s length,
methodologically, as it were), but as theological and philosophical musings and
exhortations regarding economic diversity, power differentials, and justice.
Obviously, we have our own contemporary questions regarding these issues. I seek,
in this particular biblical studies class, to keep these two worlds in constant
interpretive dialogue. Therefore, in this class, we seek to unpack not merely the
content and contexts of the biblical texts, but also the anthropological assumptions
and religio-ethical and socio-economic values that undergird and inspire them. So
students learn about modern issues regarding poverty, wealth, power, and
economic diversity/justice as a means to help us explore even more fruitfully
biblical texts.
Students read, write about, and discuss major portions of David Shipler’s book,
The Working Poor, which introduces students to extensive data and qualitative
analysis concerning those whose lives are quite foreign to many of our students. In
addition, students read Mark Labberton’s The Dangerous Act of Loving Your
Neighbor and Joerg Rieger’s complex No Rising Tide. Students also read other
shorter texts, including a chapter from David Kling’s book (The Bible in History) on
the reception history of the Exodus story in the United States, and the 1986 US
Catholic Bishops’ Pastoral Letter, “Economic Justice for All,” that provide major
explorations of economic and social diversity in the United States. Furthermore, we
explore some modern, popular economic assumptions (e.g., with regard to
anthropology and society), we pay attention to the ways in which contemporary
economic and political discourse reflects diversity with regard to economic values
and policies—and we reflect on the effects our economic diversity has on our
understandings of human anthropology, society, the rich and poor, and so forth.
Students are asked to reflect imaginatively on both similarities and differences
between biblical and contemporary perspectives on economic diversity. And they
even explore how things today might be affected if the kinds of values similar to
those expressed in biblical traditions regarding economic justice were more
common in contemporary discourse. Lectures, videos, readings, and discussions
keep us reflecting on two horizons, the biblical and the contemporary United States.
Students are asked to show that they understand how social diversity (primarily,
economic diversity, in this case) can affect society, especially in conversation with
Shipler’s The Working Poor and Rieger’s No Rising Tide.
2. Explain how social categories and structures of power may affect the human
person.
Students in this course will explore both aspects of this outcome (i.e., “how social
categories . . . may affect”; and “how . . . structures of power may affect”). Some of this
material is presented in lecture and through class discussion. Students encounter both
issues related to “social categories” and “structures of power” through reading and
discussion of The Working Poor. With regard to biblical studies and exegesis, significant
attention is paid in the course to interpretive issues related to social location factors. Two
additional books we read and discuss emphasize, respectively, on the two facets of this
outcome. Mark Labberton’s book, The Dangerous Act of Loving Your Neighbor, wrestles
with what the author sees as some of the deeply personal roots of injustice (i.e., how we
as humans see [or fail to see] our world, how we name our world [often incorrectly], and
what actions might need to be taken once we begin to see and name our world and others
more appropriately). The book is a carefully reasoned a theological reflection on biblical
justice, focused specifically on the effects of misguided social categories and
assessments. Joerg Rieger’s No Rising Tide is a challenging analysis of economic
diversity (e.g., inequality) that explores the ways in which both contemporary religion
and economics are rooted in problematic metaphors and structures of power (and he
assesses the effects of these phenomena on human beings and society). (Labberton’s
book also treats issues of power, but not to the extent that does Rieger’s.) These are
books I have used twice in the course recently, and I am delighted to find that they
correspond so well to the second outcome. Both of these books (and their implications)
play an important role in how students in the class learn to think about questions of
American diversity, especially economic diversity.
AMERICAN DIVERSITY – LEARNING
Learning: A brief explanation of how coursework (e.g., papers, exams, videotaped
presentations) will be used to measure student achievement of each of the Learning
Outcomes. Please address the outcomes directly and one by one.
TRS 117: “Wealth and Poverty in the Bible”
2. Analyze aspects of social diversity (e.g., ethnicity, race, socio-economic status,
gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, ability, and political identity) and
how they affect society in the United States of America; and
Almost daily written assignments (usually via the class’s Moodle website) are used so
that students can demonstrate that they have read the assigned material (whether primary
texts from the Bible or secondary class texts). Our primary means for analyzing social
diversity and its effects on society is through studying books by David Shipler (The
Working Poor), Mark Labberton (The Dangerous Act of Loving Your Neighbor), and
Joerg Rieger (No Rising Tide). In addition, students read other shorter texts, including a
chapter from David Kling’s book (The Bible in History) on the reception history of the
Exodus story in the United States, and the 1986 US Catholic Bishops’ Pastoral Letter,
“Economic Justice for All,” that also helps in this regard. Student learning on American
diversity and its effects can be assessed via daily assignments and class discussions in all
cases. Students are held accountable for their learning from these books and major
readings primarily especially through exam questions on both the mid-term and the final
(in addition to daily assignments and extensive class discussions). Exam questions can be
‘objective’ in style (e.g., short answer, matching, multiple choice) or essay style. On the
final exam, for example, approximately half of the test is devoted to Rieger’s book;
students are required to write for an hour or more summarizing and evaluating Rieger’s
complex arguments.
2. Explain how social categories and structures of power may affect the human
person.
While students learn about both aspects of this outcome—i.e., how social categories
and structures of power may affect the human person—through all of the course
readings identified above, various course materials contribute to different aspects of
student learning. Labberton especially treats social categories (at mostly an
interpersonal level, as a root of broader societal injustice), while Shipler, Rieger, and
“Economic Justice for All” focus especially on the effects of structures of power on
humans. Again, student learning in these areas can be assessed via daily (Moodle)
assignments and class discussions, but primary assessment emphasis in this
connection is placed on the two examinations.