TUESDAY EVENINGS 6:30PM-8:30PM
January 24th – February 28th
Professor : Erik Twist, M.Div.
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This class will explore the history of the Catholic Church and Europe from the fall of the Roman empire in the late 5th century to the beginning of the Reformation in the 16th century. This thousand year span saw the flourishing of Christendom's theological, political, and philosophical thought; it saw the rise of Islam and its first clash with Christian Europe; it saw the return of Aristotle, most importantly in the works of St. Thomas Aquinas; it saw both great heroism and corruption amidst the many lay and religious leaders of the era. In short, the medieval world was one of fascinating developments which forever shaped every generation that followed. This class will offer an engaging overview of the main figures and events of the time.
No text required. Recommended reading: The Making of Europe by Christopher Dawson.
WEDNESDAY EVENINGS 6:30PM-8:30PM
January 25th – February 29th
Professor : Rev. Christopher Fraser, MA, M.Div, JCL
This course will consist of a survey of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger’s book, “Called to Communion: Understanding the Church Today.” Writing as Cardinal Ratzinger years before his election to the See of St. Peter, this important contribution to the ongoing study and understanding of the Catholic Church and the theology upon which it is grounded and defined provides us with a renewed appreciation and respect for the Magisterium and the gift of pastoral authority and governance of the Holy Father and the College of Bishops. Using Ratzinger’s text as our guide, we will focus on the origin of the Church, the Primacy of Peter and his role in maintaining the communion of the Church, the Universal and Particular Church, and the essence of the priesthood as it relates to our theological understanding of the Catholic Church and the sacraments. In addition to Cardinal Ratzinger’s book, we will also review the document Lumen Gentium from the Second Vatican Council, numbers 11, 12, 14,16, & 17, relevant laws from the Code of Canon Law, and the motu proprio Ad Tuendam Fidem issued in 1998 by Blessed John Paul II. The goal of this course is to familiarize students with relevant texts in order to understand how theology, canon law, and the history of the origins of the Church learned from the Scriptures intersect to create what we know and love as the Church of Christ on earth.
Text: Called to Communion: Understanding the Church Today, by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
THURSDAY EVENINGS 6:30PM-8:30PM
January 26th – March 1st
Professor: Rob Drapeau, MA.Ed
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Have you ever wondered what Christianity might look like from the outside? G.K. Chesterton recommends this imaginative exercise to any critics whose familiarity with Christianity has bred contempt for the Faith. Written as a response to H.G. Well's Outline of History, The Everlasting Man tackles Well's dual contentions that Man is a mere animal and that Christ was a mere man. The result is a literary masterpiece that C.S. Lewis considered "the best popular defense of the full Christian position." Take this class and find out why.
Text: The Everlasting Man by G. K. Chesterton
MONDAY EVENINGS 6:30PM-8:30PM
Monday, March 19th – May 7th:
Professor: Rev. Oliver Vietor, M.Div
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The truth about Jesus remains intact, coherent, and vital in every generation. In other words, Jesus is still the Son of God despite his critics. Cardinal Schönborn’s recent work on Christology will lead us more deeply into the truth about Jesus, and this will help us to know the Savior himself.
Text: God Sent his Son: A Contemporary Christology, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2010).
WEDNESDAY EVENINGS 6:30PM-8:30PM
March 21st – May 9th
Professor: Rob Drapeau, MA.Ed
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Along with George Orwell, Aldous Huxley was deeply skeptical of the utopian futures imagined by H.G. Wells and others. Unlike Orwell however, Huxley's greatest fear wasn't a tyrannical government that ruled by the threat of pain, rather it was a dictatorship that enslaved through the promise of pleasure. This class will explore Huxley's ideas as expressed in his dystopian novel Brave New World. How close to realizing his dystopia are we? Is there anything being done to prevent his vision from coming true?
Text: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
THURSDAY EVENINGS 6:30PM-8:30PM
March 22nd – May 10th
Professor: Gayle Somers, MA
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The Church calls us to read the New Testament in light of the Old Testament, or, as scholars say, to do "canonical exegesis." How do we do this? Happily, in his book, Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week, Pope Benedict XVI gives us an outstanding example of this kind of Scriptural reading. We will use the book as our text to learn how our familiarity with the Old Testament deepens and enriches our understanding of the Gospel accounts of Christ's Passion, an excellent Lenten opportunity.
Text: Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week by Pope Benedict XVI