NewLinkBanner

Patristic
Church

Augustine

Course Home

Popes on Patristics

Resources
 

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

 

_______________________________________________________________________________

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, Monday 23 August

 

Class 2, Wednesday 25 August, S. Ludovici

       Vincent of Lerins, Commonitorium [OLE]

 

_______________________________________________________________________________

Apostolic Fathers

Class 3, Monday 30 August

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

       The Didache [ECW 190-99]

 

Class 4, Wednesday 1 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

 

 

Monday 6 September Labor Day, no class

 

_______________________________________________________________________________

Apologists and Martyrs

 

Class 5,  Wednesday 8 September

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

       The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity  [OLE]

 

_______________________________________________________________________________

 Battling the Gnostics

Class 6, Monday 13 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, Wednesday 15 September, Beatae Mariae Virginis perdolentis

       Tertullian, On the Flesh of Christ [OLE]

 

_______________________________________________________________________________

Origen and Prayer

Class 8, Monday 20 September

       Origen, Treatise on Prayer [BB]

       Recommended: Gregory Thaumaturgus, Panegyric for Origen

 


_______________________________________________________________________________

St Athanasius and the Trinitarian Controversy of the 4th Century

 

Class 9, Wednesday 22 September

       TC pp. 29-56

 

Class 10, Monday 27 September

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

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

 

_______________________________________________________________________________

The Cappadocian Fathers

 

Class 11, Wednesday 29 September, Michaelmas/Ss. Michaelis, Gabrielis et Raphaelis, archangelorum

       TC pp. 131-161

 

Class 12, Monday 4 October

       Basil of Caesarea, On the Holy Spirit [OLE]

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

 

_______________________________________________________________________________

St John Chrysostom

Class 13, Wednesday 6 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 Monday 11 October

 

_______________________________________________________________________________

St Ambrose of Milan

Class 15, Wednesday 13 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:

o    Paulinus, Life of Ambrose

o    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)

 

 

Monday 18 October Quarter Break, no class

 

 

FIRST DRAFT DUE BY MIDNIGHT via e-mail attachment on Friday 22 October

 


_______________________________________________________________________________

St Augustine

Class 16, Wednesday 20 October

       Augustine, Confessions, I-II

       Recommended:

o    Possidius, Life of Augustine

o    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, Monday 25 October

       Augustine, Confessions, III-IV

 

Class 18, Wednesday 27 October

       Augustine, Confessions, V-VI

 

Monday 1 November Omnium sanctorum sollemnitas, no class

 

Class 19, Wednesday 3 November 

       Augustine, Confessions, VII-VIII

 

Class 20, Monday 8 November

       Augustine, Confessions, IX-X

 

Wednesday 10 November Day of Recollection, no class S. Leonis Magni, papae et Ecclesiae doctoris memoria

 

_______________________________________________________________________________

St Jerome

Class 21, Monday 15 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)

 

_______________________________________________________________________________

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

 

Class 22, Wednesday 17 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, Monday 22 November

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

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

       Recommended:

o    Pope Pius XII, Encyclical Letter Sempiternus Rex (8 September 1951)

o    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)

 

Wednesday 24 November Thanksgiving Break, no class

 

PAPER DUE BY MIDNIGHT via e-mail attachment on Saturday 27 November

 

_______________________________________________________________________________

St Gregory the Great

Class 24, Monday 29 November

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

       Gregory the Great, Homily 17 [BB]

       Recommended:

o    Pope Pius X, Encyclical on Pope Gregory the Great Iucunda sane (12 March 1904)

o    Pope John Paul II, Message to the President of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences for the 14th Centenary of the Death of Pope St Gregory the Great (22 October 2003)

 

_______________________________________________________________________________

St Maximus the Confessor

Class 25, Wednesday 1 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, Monday 6 December, S. Nicolai, episcopi

 

Dies irae, dies illa,

Solvet saeculum in favilla,

Teste David cum Sybilla.

Quantus tremor est futurus,

Quando judex est venturus

Cuncta stricte discussurus

 

 

Wednesday 8 December In conceptione immaculata beatae Mariae Virginis sollemnitas

 

 

 

 

 

in te domine speravi non confundar in aeternum


 © 2010 Daniel G. Van Slyke