Redemptive Suffering (SF590)

Have you ever wondered why God allows suffering? Do you cry for escape but feel frustrated that there is none to be found? Redemptive Suffering is a new course offered by Denver Seminary that will explore the answers to these and other questions about suffering.

This particular course is designed to be very practical. Course work includes a group experience, and a field interview in which students will be asked to summarize the pain of another person, how they have processed their suffering and where they perceive God to be in the nature of their hope. This course is relevant to life and will be devotional in nature. It is ideal for both people who are experiencing suffering themselves and those who minister to people who are hurting.

The course is taught by Dr. Bruce Demarest, who has taught the Bible, theology and spiritual formation at Denver Seminary for more than 30 years. He directs the Seminary's MA program in Christian Formation and Soul Care. In 2008, Dr. Demarest experienced illnesses requiring four surgeries. He will teach, encourage and counsel from this first-hand experience of suffering.

SF590 Redemptive Suffering: May 18-29

This course explores the universal phenomenon of human suffering with special attention directed to God's purposes for suffering in the lives of Christian disciples. God honoring responses that should appropriately be made and the transformational outcomes of suffering are also explored (2 hours).

Course Objectives
  1. Understand how leading biblical persons and Christians throughout history have experienced suffering
  2. Identify the sources of physical, emotional and spiritual suffering
  3. Consider how suffering fits into God's wise and providential plan for His children
  4. Recognize appropriate responses Christians ought to make amidst seasons of suffering
  5. Identify transformational outcomes of suffering redemptively handled
Course Topics
  • The Human Reality: Physical, Emotional and Spiritual Suffering (day 1)
  • Biblical Case Studies: Abraham, Joseph, Job, Elijah, Jeremiah, Paul (day 2)
  • Jesus, the Ultimate Model of Suffering (day 3)
  • Historical Case Studies: Bunyon, Brainard, Cowper, Ten Boom, C.S. Lewis, Wurmbrand (day 4)
  • Spiritual Suffering: Dark Night of the Soul: John of the Cross (day 5)
  • Group Process: Sharing Our Stories of Hardship and Suffering. In-class presentations by Christians who have suffered greatly. (day 6)
  • Understanding Why We Suffer: The Etiology of Suffering (day 6)
  • Suffering in Relation to Divine Providence / Theodicy (day 7)
  • Spectrum of Responses to Suffering (day 8)
  • Redemptive and Transformational Outcomes of Suffering (day 9)
  • Summation: Facing Trials with Submission, Courage and Trust (day 10)

For additional information about this course, please contact Dr. Bruce Demarest at 303-762-6904 or .