Journal for Case Teaching

 

 

 

Table of Contents

Volume 4

Fall 1992

 

Editorial

 

 

Case Studies

 

More Questions Than Answers

Anne Reissner

Mike, an experienced professor of ethics, reflects on his teaching in light of insights gained while on a travel seminar to South America. He then faces the challenge of teachings ethics with a global perspective.

 

Evangelicals in a New Key

Robert Stivers

Latin American student attending a North American evangelical seminary tries to reconcile his experience with poverty and injustice at home and globalization with the traditional emphases of the seminary and his own vocational choices.

 

To Go Home Again

Erskine Clarke

A Central American immersion course leads to lifestyle and vocational crises for a female seminarian.

 

God Biggie Biggie

Arthur G. Holder

Two American seminary students, husband and wife, are at a Nigerian theological college on a globalization program. He is treated as an ordinand by local church authorities, but she is not. Their commitment to gender equality conflicts with their desire to be culturally sensitive.

 

Should I Burn Incense at Grandpa's Grave

Henry N. Smith

After becoming a Christian, a Chinese college student feels she would commit idolatry if she were to participate with her family in the annual pilgrimage to and offerings at their ancestors' graves. This puts her in conflict with her father who insists on traditional filial devotion.

 

Who Gets the Job?

Elizabeth L. Patterson

The only Hispanic administrator at a seminary reconsiders his role among the other minority representatives to a search committee who is to select a new Director of Multi-Cultural Studies.

 

The Very Last Thing

Marjorie Hall Davis

An interim minister tries to deal with her retired predecessor who still attends his former church and continues to conduct weddings and funerals despite promising to end his ministry there.

 

The Staples Community Church Crisis

Gaylord Noyce

The church is divided over its newly-called minister who is homosexual. The Search Committee knew of his sexual preference, but the con-gregation only learns when plans are made for his ordination.

 

Calvary at the Crossroads

William Pyle

A minister committed to evangelism and church growth meets resistance from long-time members as the rural community becomes a suburban development and new people attend.

 

Flat on His Face

Lemuel Schaffer and Hugo Venegas

A brilliant seminarian wants to remake his first church into a mega-church, but the members are ambivalent about his enterprising style in contrast to his predecessors' pastoral care.

 

Where Are the Kitchen Keys?

Lemuel Schaffer and Hugo Venegas

A church with a history of lay leadership frustrates its minister who wants to reorganize the power and authority structures for more effective leadership and mission.

 

Walking Away

Lemuel Schaffer and Hugo Venegas

A seminarian with a definite apologetic agenda witnesses to his fellow workers at his part-time job in a systematic, but unsuccessful way.

 

Slaves, Obey Your Masters

Henry N. Smith

A missionary in Jamaica in the 1830's struggles with his church's instructions not to interfere in local politics as he experiences his own growing opposition to the slave trade.

 

The Case of the Conflicting Isms

Elizabeth L. Patterson

Two students advocate different views on ecumenism and feminism in the classroom of a seminary professor who feels a strong commit­ment to both positions as well as to keeping a positive learning environment in her class.

 

Rehoboam: Vulnerable or Vicious?

Carl Schultz

The biblical king must decide whether to continue his father Solomon's policies of taxation and building, or to govern with more humane, but vulnerable strategies.

 

To Read or Not to Read?

Carl Schultz

A college administrator finds himself between the faculty and the president over a disputed denial of tenure. The faculty asks the administrator to read publicly a letter of protest which the president has forbidden.

 

A Matter of Statistics?

Marjorie Hall Davis

Genetic screening reveals a chromosomal defect in the first fetus of a woman who feels she is nearing the end of her child-bearing years. The likely effects of the defect are uncertain, and the statistical probability of its recurring seems remote. The couple considers an abortion.

 

Another Test?

Sandra Magie

Public hospital laboratory personnel discuss adopting a new test for fetal development which is known to produce false negatives, perhaps prompting decisions to abort.

 

A Custody Case?

Sally Jacobs, edited by M. B. Handspicker

A judge is deciding a case in which a divorcing couple dispute custody of frozen embryos that they had stored for possible future implantation. Few legal precedents exist to guide allocation of custody.

 

Honor Thy Father

Allan Armstrong-Patriquin

When a father has a series of heart attacks, the doctor asks the son to advise him about the use of life-support systems if a life threatening crisis occurs. Father and son have agreed to let nature take its course in a crisis, but a close friend advocates doing all that it takes for survival.

 



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