PATRISTIC CHURCH -- HOME & SYLLABUS

Purpose, Goals, and Method

This course is an introduction to the two inseparable fields of patrology and patristics, as defined by the Congregation for Catholic Education [CCE] in its Instruction on the Study of the Fathers of the Church in the Formation of Priests. Patrology studies the life and writings of the fathers of the Church, whereas patristics focuses on the theological thought of the fathers.

The goal of the course is threefold. First, students will be introduced to the lives and thought of major fathers, along with the setting and message of key texts from the early Church. Second, students will become familiar with the wider corpus of writings that have survived from the early Church, and the resources for studying them today, as a springboard for life-long learning. The third goal is articulated by the CCE: "The real crowing of the formative task is reached ... only when the student comes to make some friends among the fathers and assimilates their spirit."

The CCE also provides the method of the course: "It is in fact through the professor's and the student's direct contact with the sources, particularly at an academic level and in special courses, that patristics must be taught and learned." Thus students will read primary texts from the early Church, which will be contextualized and explored through lectures and discussions in class and on Blackboard. Of the four possible organizational models for presenting this material (analytical, panoramic, monographic, and thematic), this course mainly follows the thematic, "which emphasizes some of the more representative fathers."

 Global Vision Goals

What role does this course play in the wider task of forming seminarians to serve the Church as priests of God? In other words, why study the fathers? First, the fathers are a key source for theological knowledge; their unanimous consent is a definitive norm, and they are privileged witnesses to apostolic tradition. Second, the fathers provide models and methods for evangelizing the culture (inculturation) without compromising what is unique to Christian identity. They also constitute, alongside scripture, a key source for ecumenical dialogue, since they are a common object of study of the Latin Rite, Eastern Orthodoxy, and many Protestants. Finally, sincerely studying the lives and writings of the fathers contributes dramatically to authentic human development, particularly on the part of seminarians who will follow in the footsteps of the fathers as pastors of Christ's Church. 

 Required Texts

1. Augustine. Confessions. Trans. Henry Chadwick. Oxford Worlds Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

2. Early Christian Writings: The Apostolic Fathers. Trans. Maxwell Staniforth. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin, 1987. [ECW]  

3. The Trinitarian Controversy. Ed. and trans. William G. Rusch. Sources of Early Christian Thought. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1980. [TC]

4. Readings labeled BB are available as Adobe files on Blackboard.

5. Readings labeled OLE ("obtain online or elsewhere") on the syllabus are linked on the interactive online syllabus posted below and on Blackboard.

COURSE CALENDAR

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Why Study the Fathers?

Recommended: Congregation for Catholic Education, Instruction on the Study of the Fathers of the Church in the Formation of Priests (10 November 1989)

Class 1, Tuesday 30 August

Class 2, Friday 2 September

• Vincent of Lerins, Commonitorium [OLE]

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Apostolic Fathers

Class 3, Tuesday 6 September

• The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians [ECW 23-51]

• The Didache [ECW 190-99]

Class 4, Friday 9 September

• Ignatius, Epistles to the Ephesians, to the Romans, and to the Smyrnaeans [ECW 59-68, 83-89, 100-105]

• The Epistle of Polycarp and The Martyrdom of Polycarp [ECW 119-35]

Recommended: John Chrysostom, Homily on Ignatius of Antioch

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Apologists and Martyrs

Class 5,  Tuesday 13 September

• Justin Martyr, First Apology, chapters 1-32 [OLE]

• The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity  [OLE]

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 Battling the Gnostics

Class 6, Friday 16 September, S. Ioannis Chrysostomi, episcopi et Ecclesiae doctoris

• Selections from gnostic texts [BB]

• Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book III, chapters 1-5; Book IV, preface and chapters 1-2, 26 [OLE]

Class 7, Tuesday 20 September

• Tertullian, On the Flesh of Christ [OLE]

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Origen and Prayer

Class 8, Tuesday 27 September

• Origen, Treatise on Prayer [BB]

Recommended: Gregory Thaumaturgus, Panegyric for Origen

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St Athanasius and the Trinitarian Controversy of the 4^th Century

Class 9, Friday 30 September

• TC pp. 29-56

Class 10, Tuesday 4 October

• Athanasius, Orations against the Arians [TC pp. 63-129]

Recommended: Gregory of Nazianzus, Panegyric for Athanasius (Or. 21)

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The Cappadocian Fathers

Class 11, Friday 7 October

• TC pp. 131-161

Class 12, Tuesday 11 October

• Basil of Caesarea, On the Holy Spirit [OLE]

Recommended: Gregory of Nyssa, Panegyric/Eulogy for Basil The Great

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St John Chrysostom

Class 13, Friday 14 October

• John Chrysostom, On the Priesthood,  III.4-IV.2 [BB]

Recommended: Palladius of Helenopolis/Aspuna, Dialogue on the Life of St John Chrysostom

MID-SEMESTER EXAMINATION

Class 14 Tuesday 18 October

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St Ambrose of Milan

Class 15, Friday 21 October

• Ambrose, Prologue to Homilies on Luke [BB]

• Ambrosian Hymns: Aeterne rerum conditor and Splendor paternae gloriae  [OLE]

• Ambrose, On the Duties of the Clergy (De officiis), II, 21, 102 – II, 30, 156 [OLE]

Recommended: Paulinus, Life of Ambrose; Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Letter on the Sixteenth Centenary of the Death of St Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church Operosam diem (1 December 1996)

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St Augustine

Class 16, Friday 28 October

• Augustine, Confessions, I-II

Recommended: Possidius, Life of Augustine; Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Letter on the Occasion of the 16th Centenary of the Conversion of St Augustine, Bishop and Doctor Augustinum Hipponensem (28 August 1986)

Class 17, Friday 4 November

• Augustine, Confessions, III-IV

Class 18, Tuesday 8 November

• Augustine, Confessions, V-VI

Class 19, Tuesday 15 November 

• Augustine, Confessions, VII-VIII

Class 20, Friday 18 November

• Augustine, Confessions, IX-X

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St Jerome

Class 21, Tuesday 22 November

• Jerome, The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary [OLE]

• Jerome, Letter XXII [OLE]

Recommended: Pope Benedict XV, Encyclical on St Jerome Spiritus Paraclitus (15 September 1920)

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St Leo the Great and the Christological Controversy of the 5^th Century

Class 22, Tuesday 29 November

• Nestorius, First Sermon Against the Theotokos [BB]

• Nestorius, Second Epistle to Cyril of Alexandria [OLE]

• Cyril of Alexandria, Second Epistle to Nestorius [OLE]

• Cyril of Alexandria, Third Epistle to Nestorius [OLE]

• Cyril of Alexandria, Epistle to John of Antioch [OLE]

• Council of Chalcedon, Definition of Faith [OLE]

Class 23, Friday 2 December

• Leo the Great, Letter 28 (the Tome of Leo) [BB]

• Leo the Great, Sermons 26-27, 82-84  [BB]

Recommended: Pope Pius XII, Encyclical Letter Sempiternus Rex (8 September 1951); Pope John XXIII, Encyclical Commemorating the Fifteenth Centenary of the Death of St Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church Aeterna Dei sapientia (11 November 1961)

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Resolving the Pelagian Question

Class 24, Tuesday 6 December, S. Nicolai, episcopi

• The Council of Orange [BB]

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St Gregory the Great

Class 25, Friday 9 December

• Gregory the Great, Pastoral Care, Part I (entire), II.1-5, III.1-5, IV (entire) [BB]

• Gregory the Great, Homily 17 [BB]

Recommended: Pope Pius X, Encyclical on Pope Gregory the Great Iucunda sane (12 March 1904); Pope John Paul II, Message to the President of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences for the 14^th Centenary of the Death of Pope St Gregory the Great (22 October 2003)

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St Maximus the Confessor

Class 26, Tuesday 13 December

• The Trial of Maximus [BB]

• Maximus the Confessor, Opusculum 6: On the Two Wills of Christ in the Agony of Gethsemane [BB]

FINAL EXAM: to be held on the last day of class, Friday 16 December

Dies irae, dies illa,

Solvet saeculum in favilla,

Teste David cum Sybilla.

Quantus tremor est futurus,

Quando judex est venturus

Cuncta stricte discussurus