Hi Mary Ann:
I have been teaching an intro to Catholicism course for about 10 years now -- a full year course at the U of T, which is about a semester and a half of content at a U.S. university (our semesters are 12 weeks -- just a little over a quarter).
My approach has been to divide the course into three units: history (with an emphasis on primary texts), documents of Vatican II, and then a unit called "Visions and Views." None of these units as such focus on theology or doctrine, though we do a lot of theology and doctrine as we go.
For the last unit, in particular, I try to assign three whole arguments ("Visions"), which students read along with what I call "complicating views." For the past few years, the three visions have been: John Paul II (selections of RH, SRS, EV and Letter to Women), Julie Hanlon Rubio (FE) and Mary Jo Leddy (OFG). Since these readings all deal with broader issues from a Catholic perspective (i.e. international development, feminism, family meals, immigration, etc.), students from many different traditions can find space to talk about them.
Rubio's book has worked particularly well (I'm reading exams right now): it's not written as a textbook, so it stretches students. But they really like it.
Pax,
Reid
