This course will examine the history of Christian thought from the beginnings of the Common Era until the high middle ages, with special attention to the formative centuries of the patristic period. The course is designed to be primarily a history of Christian thought to enable future ministers and other Christian leaders to know the basic grammar of Christian speech, some of the contours along which it evolved, some of the detours it sought to avoid (that is “heresies”) on the way to being able practitioners of Christian speech themselves. No course could cover such an expanse of time in the depth and breadth it deserves. So this course will attempt both to hit the highlights of doctrinal history (the formation of the canon, the relationship to Judaism, the rise of monasticism, the Trinitarian and Christological controversies, plus a few key thinkers in the middle ages). Students will spend extra time in the thought of Sts. Augustine, Gregory Nazianzen, Cyril of Alexandria, Anselm, and Julian of Norwich, with special emphasis on their doctrines of God, Christ, salvation, and the church.
Available by Distance
Both synchronous & asynchronous.