This course will introduce students to a range of models of intentional Christian community from the Early Church, Monasticism, the Anabaptists, Moravians, and contemporary Christian communities such as Catholic Covenant Communities, L'Arche, Sojourners, House Churches, and the Base Ecclesial Communities. It will explore the way these communities have related to the church and the way they have sought to impact society. It will provide perspectives for evaluation and determining general applicability and will identify ways in which Christian communities are developed and maintained. Lectures include:

1. Introduction to Christian Communities
2. Sociological Perspectives on Christian Communities
3. Theological Perspectives on Christian Communities
4. Early Christianity
5. Monasticism
6. Anabaptist Communities
7. Moravian Communities
8. Methodist Small Groups & Wesley's Classes
9. Contemporary Forms of Christian Community
10. Small Christian Communities

Charles R. Ringma BD (Reformed Theological College, Australia), BA, MLitSt, PhD (University of Queensland). He has been teaching at Regent College since 1998. He has previously done mission work among the Aborigines in Australia, was the founder and director of the Good News Centre which worked with alcoholics in Brisbane, and was Australian founder and executive director of Teen Challenge, also in Brisbane. He is author of, among other books, Gadamer’s Dialogical Hermeneutic, Cry Liberation: With Voices from the Developing World, and Seek the Silences: With Thomas Merton.