Archives: Courses

  • Natural Law and Scriptural Authority

    Natural Law and Scriptural Authority

    Although Protestants are well-familiar with the classical Protestant insistence on the doctrine of sola Scriptura, they are less familiar  with the equally important teaching of the Reformers that God reveals himself through the “two books” of Scripture and nature. As Paul  teaches in Romans 1 and 2, God has revealed enough of his nature to render…

  • A Christian Account of the Sexes in Conversation

    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,…

  • Introduction to the Gospels: Jesus Christ is Lord and God

    Introduction to the Gospels: Jesus Christ is Lord and God

    Origen called the Gospels the “first-fruits of all that has been written.” Do we concur? Over the past 150 years, the Gospels have come under attack my countless secular scholars. In response, orthodox Christians gave developed robust defenses of their reliabilty. Yet in doing so, the unity of the Four Evangelists, and a sense of…

  • Approaches to Defending the Faith

    Approaches to Defending the Faith

    In this course, we take a rhetorical approach to defending the faith. The defense of the faith, both to others and for ourselves, involves appeal to the whole person. This includes both giving satisfying reasons to believe, and satisfying answers to objections or hesitancies that stand in the way of belief. And yet in a real…

  • Aquinas and the Summa Contra Gentiles (First Half)

    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,…

  • Monasticism from St. Anthony to the Reformation

    Monasticism from St. Anthony to the Reformation

    The Reformation almost entirely did away with monasticism. Yet for over 1000 years, the monastic movement was itself a powerful force in the life of the church, at times for great spiritual good, at times to the detriment—and even Reformers like Martin Luther found some spiritual value in the writings of the monks who came…

  • John Davenant and John Owen on the Death of Christ

    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…

  • Plato Seminar: Philosophy and Death in the Apology and Phaedo

    Plato Seminar: Philosophy and Death in the Apology and Phaedo

    In this course, we will be deep-diving into two of Plato’s most important dialogues: the Apology and the Phaedo. In the Apology, we find Socrates defending himself and his teachings before the jury of Athens. Accused of corrupting the youth by turning them away from the gods, Socrates faces the death penalty. In the Phaedo,…

  • The Psalms: A Bible in Miniature

    The Psalms: A Bible in Miniature

    In his introduction to his lectures on the Psalms, Martin Luther described the Psalter as “a little Bible,” declaring that “in it is comprehended most beautifully and briefly everything that is in the entire Bible.” For nearly three millennia, the psalms have been at the heart of the worship of the people of God. This…

  • Maimonides and the Guide for the Perplexed

    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…