Master of Arts
Online and Offsite Courses:
Courses and Registration Information
The special cost for online courses or off-site courses will be: $331 per credit hour (tuition), plus $50 per credit hour for online services, a $50 general fee, and an additional application fee of $50 for new student applicants.
If you remain interested in the online courses, you will need to contact the Graduate School and apply to the M.A. (Theology) program either as a degree-seeking or non-degree seeking student. Students may register for the online courses on a first-come-first-served basis. Students who are seeking the M.A. degree may be able to apply up to 6 credits taken online toward their degree requirements.
Registration Information:
Once you receive your notification of the Graduate School's acceptance of your application, you can obtain Registration Information at the following link: http://registrar.nd.edu/
If you would like more information about the master's programs, about STEP or about the Graduate School, please refer to the respective Web sites:
- http://theology.nd.edu/graduate-program/master-of-arts/
- http://step.nd.edu/
- http://graduateschool.nd.edu/
Spring 2008 (Online Course)
TO SIGN UP FOR THIS GRADUATE COURSE, PLEASE CALL OUR OFFICE
(Tel. 574-631-4254)
THEO 64602 Catholic Social Teaching
3 credits
Instructor: Professor Margaret Pfeil
Course Description
The primary goal of this course is to familiarize students with the tradition of Catholic social teaching with a view toward developing skills for critical reading and appropriation of these documents. We will examine papal, conciliar, and episcopal texts from Rerum novarum (1891) up to the present time, identifying operative principles, tracing central theological, ethical, and ecclesial concerns, and locating each document in its proper historical context. We will also hold recurring themes in conversation with the broader theoretical framework of Catholic social thought and relevant secondary literature. Requirements include five analytical papers of four pages each, an integration notebook with two one-page entries per week, and weekly participation in an online discussion board.
Spring 2008: Tucson, Arizona Course
December 30, 2007 to January 11, 2008
TO SIGN UP FOR THIS GRADUATE COURSE, PLEASE CALL OUR OFFICE
(Tel. 574-631-4254)
THEO 64104 Major Theological Themes in the Old Testament (BS)
Instructor: Professor Gary A. Anderson
3 credits
The course will begin Sunday evening the 30th of December and conclude on Thursday evening the 10th of January. This Notre Dame course will take place at the Desert Renewal Center in Tucson, Arizona (http://www.desertrenewal.org/).
Costs:
1. travel costs, e.g., airline ticket (if necessary)
2. Housing/meals ($955 for the period of Dec. 30, 2007-January 11, 2008)
3. Tuition costs ($331 per credit= $993 for the course)
------------------BRIEF SYLLABUS--------------------
Books to be purchased:
1. Jewish Study Bible, Oxford University Press [It is of crucial importance that everyone have this Bible both for the translation and the annotations to the text.]
2. Uriel Simon, JPS Commentary on Jonah
Source Packet (To purchase a course packet, please call the office, 574-631-4254 to speak with Cheron Price):
1. Jon Levenson, Death and Resurrection, pp. 143-169
2. John Donahue, "Mark"
3. C. Ackley, "Christ Presented to the People"
4. Adele Berlin, "Ruth"
5. Uriel Simon, "Birth of Samuel"
6. Claire Mathews McGinnis, "Ignatian Reading"
7. Uriel Simon, "That Man is You!"
8. Childs, "Psalm Titles"
9. Gregory of Nyssa, Psalms Inscriptions (excerpt)
10. Midrash Tehillim
11. NRSV, "Tobit"
12. Nickelsburg, "Tobit"
Grading
Grading will be a combination of a take-home final examination (two hours in length) and paper (10 pages or so).
Schedule of Sessions
Each number below will comprise a two-hour class session. The course will have 18 sessions plus a conclusion.
Joseph and Election
- Gen 37 Levenson, excerpt from Death and Resurrection.
- Gen 38-41
- Gen 42-45
- Gen 46-50
- Mark 8-10; 11-16 Donahue, Mark, Ackley, Christ Presented to the People
Ruth and the Law
- Ruth
- Ruth Berlin, "Ruth"
David and Election
- I Sam 1-15 Simon, "Birth of Samuel"
- I Sam 16-30 McGinnis, "Ignatian Reading"
- II Sam 1-10
- II Sam 11-12 Simon, "That Man is You!"
- II Sam 13-20
- II Sam 21- I Kings 2 + Luke 1
- Psalms Childs, "Psalm Titles," Gregory of Nyssa, Psalms Inscriptions, Midrash Tehillim
Jonah and the Question of Justice and Mercy
- Jonah Simon, JPS Commentary on Jonah
- Jonah
Righteous Suffering in the Book of Tobit
- Tobit Nickelsburg, "Tobit"
- Tobit
Fall 2007
All new students or returning students that did not take a class in the Spring 2007 semester, but plan to take a class in the Fall 2007 semester will need to apply or reapply by July 1, 2007.
The application deadline for admission to the Graduate School for Fall Semester 2007 is July 1, 2007. Apply Online
Fall 2007 (Online Course)
THEO 64605 American Catholicism: History, Theology, Social Thought (HC, MT)
3 credits
Instructor: Professor Michael Baxter
An historical survey of American Catholicism from the colonial times to the present, with a focus on the struggle of Catholics to find a home in the United States of America. Special emphasis will be placed on Catholic political, economic, social thought as it emerged in the nineteenth century, developed throughout the twentieth century, and has become a point of controversy in the twenty-first century, especially in context of electoral politics. Writings to be examined include those by Orestes Brownson, Isaac Hecker, John Ireland, John A. Ryan, John Courtney Murray, John Tracy Ellis, Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Bryan Hehir, Richard John Neuhaus, George Weigel, and David Schindler. Topics to be addressed include Catholic immigration, the Americanist Crisis, the condemnation of modernism, Catholic teaching on economics, war and peace, church-state relations, Catholics in politics, and the New Evangelization and "Evangelical Catholicism." Requirements include weekly papers and a research paper due at the end of the semester.
Spring 2007 (Online Course)
THEO 64208 Patristic Exegesis (HC)
3 credits
Instructor: Professor John Cavadini
Spring 2007: TUCSON, ARIZONA COURSE
DECEMBER 31, 2006-JANUARY 12, 2007
THEO 64204 Eucharist and Spirituality (SS,LS,HC)
Instructor: Professor Keith Egan
Additional Practical Information for Tucson, Arizona
The cost of the program would include:
1. travel costs, e.g., airline ticket (if necessary)
2. Housing/meals ($65 per day)
3. Tuition costs ($314 per credit= $942 for the course)
This course takes its cue from Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen gentium #11 and Presbyterorum ordinis # 5, which state that Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life.” The specific focus of this course is the theological spirituality that emerges from this sacrament’s scriptural foundations, its historical and ecclesial tradition including the theological reflections of key theological figures like Thomas Aquinas. This is a course in historical theology, that is, it seeks to theologize from the perspective of the History of Christianity and by means of the methodology of history. The course will identify especially texts from the tradition that act as loci theologici, “places” from which to develop a Eucharistic Spirituality that is theologically sound.
This course pays special attention to the conviction of Yves Congar, O.P., about the role of the Holy Spirit in the Eucharist: “the life of the Church is one long epiclesis,” and to the Jesuit Edward Kilmartin’s understanding that the prayer of anamnesis, the prayer of remembrance, bestows on the assembly a covenant faith that brings the assembly into communion with the Triune God. We shall ask how the Eucharistic Prayers reveal a Christian Spirituality through their anamnetic and epicletic action. The aphorism lex orandi, lex credendi (the way of praying is the way of believing) is a reminder of the coherence between liturgical celebration and the believing Christian community.
The course begins with an exploration of the meaning of Christian Spirituality and in particular asks: what constitutes a Christian Spirituality grounded in the celebration of the Eucharist? The writings of Walter Principe, C.S.B., are explored in explicating the meaning of a theological spirituality. The course seeks ways to keep a Spirituality of the Eucharist in creative tension with Trinitarian Theology, Christology, Pneumatology and Ecclesiology.
Another inquiry in this course concerns the relationship between contemplation and the celebration of the Eucharist, an issue that much concerned Raissa and Jacques Maritain. This inquiry explores the early use of mystical terminology in speaking of the encounter with Christ in Baptism and Eucharist and the evolution of the term Corpus mysticum.
Finally, this course explores what contribution a spirituality grounded in Eucharistic celebrations can make in the deepening of an enduring personal relationship with Jesus Christ and to the concerns of contemporary pastoral and spiritual theology.
Required Texts
1. The Bible, e.g., the New American Bible or the New Revised Standard Version.
2. The Aquinas Prayer Book: The Prayers and Hymns of St. Thomas Aquinas. Trans. Robert Anderson and Johann Moser. Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute1993, 2000. ISBN: 1-928832-14-8 (paper)
3. Cunningham, Lawrence and Keith J. Egan, Christian Spirituality: Themes from the Tradition. NY: Paulist Press, 1996. ISBN: 0-8091-3660-0 (paper).
4. Deiss, Lucien. Celebration of the Word. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1991.
ISBN: 0-8146-2090-6 (paper)
5. Kevin Irwin, Models of the Eucharist, N.Y.: Paulist Press, 2005. ISBN: 0-8091-4332-1 (Paper)
6. Handouts during the course provide pericopes from the Eucharistic tradition.
The above texts are meant to provide ongoing background reading. Biblical texts need, of course no justification. The Aquinas text is meant to offer a flavor of the Eucharistic prayer life of Thomas Aquinas and to offer a sampling of Thomas’ Eucharistic theology as expressed in his Corpus Christi compositions. Deiss is read as background to the conversation on the importance and character of the Liturgy of the Word. Chapters in Cunningham/Egan are backdrop for various themes as they arise in the course. Irwin’s text covers thoroughly Eucharistic themes raised since Vatican II. Chapters of this text will be read for daily discussions.
Daily Process
The daily class session will consist in lectures on the Eucharistic tradition and on theological spirituality as they have evolved over the centuries, sometimes as a robust spirituality, sometimes less so. An attempt is made daily to develop a reliable method of theological reflection that relies on the methodology developed by Bernard Lonergan, S.J., in order to identify moments in the tradition that help one construct a viable and vital theological spirituality of the Eucharist. Each class will allow time for conversation, questions, comments and observations. This course seeks to allow “leisure” for reading, reflection and clarification of thought through very brief daily reflections begun in class and slightly longer reflection over the weekend and at the end of the course. On both Fridays time will be set aside in class for reflection papers on themes from the course. These papers and class particpation will consitute the grade for the course.
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
T. S. Eliot, “Little Gidding,” Four Quartets