A Christian Account of the Sexes in Conversation
Christian accounts of male and female are often limited in the degree to which they engage with sources outside of the Bible and the Christian theological tradition. Yet, in the absence of such engagement, our perception of the Christian teaching can be distorted; it can be regarded as an alien imposition upon nature and society,…
Aquinas and the Summa Contra Gentiles (First Half)
Whereas Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae is aimed primarily at Christians, to educate them in the revealed doctrines of the faith, his Summa Contra Gentiles is more of an apologetic work. The bulk of the work deals with questions of natural theology and reason. In this seminar, students will study the first half ofSumma Contra Gentiles,…
John Davenant and John Owen on the Death of Christ
Among the Reformed, the question of the extent of the atonement is an area of intense intramural disagreement. Indeed, with the “L” in TULIP (the popular acronym for the so-called Five Points of Calvinism) famously standing for “Limited Atonement”, many would argue that a certain view of the doctrine is necessary if one is to…
Protestant Moral Theology
Protestant moral theology is memorably summed up by Martin Luther’s dictum, “The Christian is the most free lord of all, subject to none. The Christian is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to everyone.” In this course, we will unpack this profound dialectic, explaining the true shape of Christian liberty that flows from…
Maimonides and the Guide for the Perplexed
This course is a close reading of Maimonides’s famous Guide for the Perplexed, especially as it influences Christian tradition through Latin medievals in translation as Dux neutrorum. Our main focus is on Maimonides’s text itself (in English), which we will work through piece by piece. Special focus will be on divine metaphors, and issues of…
Celtic Christianity: Fact and Fiction
Far off on the edge of the world and the shores of civilization, the Irish came to faith in Jesus later than their neighbors in Roman Britain and the Mediterranean world. Yet when they caught fire for the Christian faith, they would not only launch the evangelisation of the Picts in what is now Scotland,…
Political Theology and the English Reformation
This class will focus on the political theology of English Protestants in the 16th century. We will look at the writings of Peter Martyr Vermigli, Heinrich Bullinger, John Jewel, and other influential Reformed theologians on the English Reformed Church. Special attention will be given to the role and duty of the civil magistrate regarding religion…
The Emotions of God
How are we to make sense of how Scripture speaks of the apparent emotions of God, such as “repenting” that he had ever made man, being “jealous” of Israel, “angered” by sin, or “sympathising” with our pain? In this course, students will grapple with these divine emotions (more traditionally called “divine passions”) under the guidance of Church…
Augustine and Ephrem Against the Manicheans
This course will focus on two of the greatest authors of their respective traditions: Augustine of Hippo (354-430), whose writings cover over the Latin West, and Ephrem the Syrian (d. 373) whose influence stretches across the Syriac Orient. Though they never met or knew of each other, they both wrote a great deal against a…
The Seven Ecumenical Councils in Historical Context
From 325 to 787, seven major church councils were convened by Roman emperors. These were attended by as many bishops as possible from the known inhabited world, the oikoumene (though most usually came from the eastern half of the Roman emperor). Seven of these were recognised as being truly representative of the universal (or at…