Content

This unit introduces students to key thinkers, doctrinal themes, and spiritual practices that characterise the so-called “patristic” period of Christian history. Students will investigate discrete doctrinal themes, attend to social, ecclesial and historical contexts within which leading Christian thinkers lived and worked, and explore the tensions at play in the relations between orthodoxy and heresy, church and state, east and west, doctrine and practice, and creative and inauthentic progress. Progressing historically, and preparing students for critical engagement in other systematic, historical, and pastoral theological disciplines, the subject emphasises the Fathers’ commitment to the centrality of the incarnation for knowing the meaning of the universe, the decisive role of Christ’s humanity for creaturely participation in divine life, and the primacy of the lived experience of prayer and liturgical communion for integral Christian existence.

Unit code: CT3015C

Unit status: Approved (Major revision)

Points: 18.0

Unit level: Undergraduate Level 3

Unit discipline: Systematic Theology

Proposing College: Catholic Theological College

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Learning outcomes

1.

Demonstrate facility with a wide range of skills needed to utilise key secondary research tools for studying the first five centuries of the Christian era.

2.

Demonstrate basic facility with some of the skills needed to access and engage primary patristic sources in English translation.

3.

Comprehend and articulate the dynamic relation between select Christian thinkers, doctrines and/or practices and their respective historical, intellectual, and cultural contexts.

4.

Elucidate the progressive character of patristic theology by demonstrating the ways certain words and concepts developed and changed according to context.

Unit sequence

This unit presupposes basic (level 1) acquaintance with the New Testament, Theology, and Early Church History. BN1001C, CT1110C, CH1001C are recommended.

Pedagogy

Learning tasks in this unit will consist in preparatory assisted reading with discussion questionnaires, guided classroom discussions, interactive lectures and formative and summative written assessment tasks.

Indicative Bibliography

  • Burton-Christie, Douglas. The Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in Early Christian Monasticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
  • Davis, Leo D. The First Seven Ecumenical Councils (325–787): Their History and Theology. Wilmington: Michael Glazier, 1987.
  • Di Berardino, Angelo, and Basil Studer. The Patristic Period. History of Theology 4. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1996.
  • Drobner, Hubertus R. The Fathers of the Church: A Comprehensive Introduction. Peabody: Hendrickson, 2007.
  • Fitzgerald, Allan, ed. Augustine Through the Ages. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999.
  • Harvey, Susan Ashbrook and David G. Hunter, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
  • Price, Richard and Michael Gaddis. The Acts of the Council of Chalcedon. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2007.
  • Ramsey, Boniface. Beginning to Read the Fathers. New York: Paulist Press, 2012.
  • Studer, Basil. Trinity and Incarnation: The Faith of the Early Church. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1993.
  • Wilken, Robert L. The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God. Yale: Yale University Press, 2003. (EBook available.)

Assessment

Type Description Word count Weight (%)
Tutorial Paper/Seminar Paper

Tutorial paper

250 5.0
Tutorial Paper/Seminar Paper

Tutorial paper

250 5.0
Tutorial Paper/Seminar Paper

Tutorial paper

250 5.0
Tutorial Paper/Seminar Paper

Tutorial paper

250 5.0
Essay

Essay

1000 20.0
Essay

Essay

3000 60.0
Approvals

Unit approved for the University of Divinity by Prof Albert Haddad on 13 Jun, 2023

Unit record last updated: 2023-06-13 16:35:26 +1000