Master of Arts

Online and Offsite Courses:
Courses and Registration Information

The special cost for online courses or off-site courses will be: $348 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.

Application Deadlines for Online Courses:

• Fall Semester is July 15th
• Spring Semester is November 1st

To expedite the processing of applications, the online application should be completed and submitted by the above deadlines.

Admission to the Graduate School

Non-Degree Applicants must complete all of the following:

• Complete and electronically submit the online application form
• Submit the application fee by credit card, check, or money order using the payment system associated with the online application
• Submit a statement of intent through the online application system
• Submit a curriculum vitae or resume through the online application system
• Request official transcripts from each post-secondary institution attended and have them mailed directly to the Office of Graduate Admissions (please note that transcripts may not be attached to the online application)

Additional Information for Graduate Admissions: http://graduateschool.nd.edu/html/admissions/app_materials.html

Apply to Graduate School: https://app.applyyourself.com/?id=nd-grad

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/

Registration and Enrollment:

1. Continuing Degree Students and Non-degree Students must register for courses by using the University's Web registration. This information can be viewed in "insideND".
2. All degree and non-degree students must "web enroll" through "insideND" each semester.

Additional Information:

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 2010 Online Course

THEO 60602 Catholic Social Teaching
3 credits, Professor Margaret Pfeil
Location code: Distributed Education
The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with the tradition of Catholic social teaching with a view to 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.

Fall 2009 Online Course

THEO 64212 Eucharist in the Middle Ages
Professor Joseph Wawrykow
Location code: Distributed Education
The Eucharist stands at the heart of western European Christianity in the high Middle Ages. The insistence of church officials on regular reception of the Eucharist; the numerous scholastic treatments of the theoretical issues associated with the Eucharist; the recourse by spiritual authors, especially women, to the Eucharist to express their most profound religious and devotional insights; the pointed reference to the Christ Eucharistically-present to establish Christian identity and to distinguish the members of Christ from others, both within and outside of western Europe; the development of new rituals focused on aspects of the Eucharist; the burgeoning of artistic representations of Eucharistic themes-all testify to the centrality of the Eucharist in medieval theological and religious consciousness. Through the close reading of representative texts by a wide variety of 13th-century authors, and, the study of the different kinds of 'Eucharistic' art, this course examines the uses made of the Eucharist by a broad spectrum of high medieval Christians. A special concern of the course is the relation between Eucharistic doctrine and religious practice-to what extent have teachings about transubstantiation and real presence shaped religious expression? How has religious experience itself occasioned the refinement of these doctrines?

Spring 2010: Tucson, Arizona Course

THEO 60240 Contemplation and Action (Spring Semester 2010)
Instructor: Prof. Matt Ashley
Location: Tucson, Arizona, Redemptorist Renewal Center
Dates: December 2009-January 2010
Syllabus
What is the relationship between contemplative prayer and action on behalf of others? The tendency in the Christian tradition has been to see prayer as superior to action, since it is there that one experiences, however fleetingly, that union with God that is our ultimate beatitude and destiny. However, there have been innovative attempts in the history of Christian spirituality to break down overly rigid barriers between these two essential components of the Christian life. This course will look at a cross-section of views on this question. We begin with scriptural loci for considering the relationship between prayer and action, and then move to Greek thought, with the distinction between theoria and praxis. We then consider how this conceptual pair was taken over in the history of Christian spirituality in some classic understandings of the relationship between the vita contemplativa and the vita activa. We will focus in particular on patristic and medieval homilies on Martha and Mary (Lk 10: 38-42). Figures in this section include Augustine, Bernard of Clairvaux, Thomas Aquinas, and Meister Eckhart. In the next section of the course we consider the late-Medieval and Reformation spiritualities of Catherine of Siena, Ignatius of Loyola and John of the Cross. We conclude with three contemporary figures who have attempted to interrelate contemplation and action: Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, and Gustavo Gutiérrez.

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Spring 2009: Tucson, Arizona Course

THEO 60240 Contemplation and Action
Instructor: Prof. Matthew Ashley
Location: Redemptorist Renewal Center of Picture Rocks, Tucson, Arizona
Dates: December 28, 2008--January 9, 2009

What is the relationship between contemplative prayer and action on behalf of others? The tendency in the Christian tradition has been to see prayer as superior to action, since it is there that one experiences, however fleetingly, that union with God that is our ultimate beatitude and destiny. However, there have been innovative attempts in the history of Christian spirituality to break down overly rigid barriers between these two essential components of the Christian life. This course will look at a cross-section of views on this question. We begin with scriptural loci in the Bible for considering the relationship between prayer and action, and then move to Greek thought, with the distinction between theoria and praxis. We then consider how this conceptual pair was taken over in the history of Christian spirituality in some classic understandings of the relationship between the vita contemplativa and the vita activa. Figures in this section include Augustine, Bernard of Clairvaux, Thomas Aquinas, and Meister Eckhart. In the next section of the course we consider the late-Medieval and Reformation spiritualities of Catherine of Siena, Ignatius of Loyola and John of the Cross. We conclude with three contemporary figures who have attempted to interrelate contemplation and action: Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, and Gustavo Gutiérrez.

Required Texts: Students should acquire the following texts and read the pages indicated.

• The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius: A Translation and Commentary, translated and edited by George Ganss, SJ (Chicago: Loyola Press, 1992) – we will read paragraphs 1-237; 313-336.
• Catherine of Siena: The Dialogue, translated and edited, Suzanne Noffke, OP (Mahwah: N.J.: Paulist Press, Press, 1980) – we will read pp. 23-160
• Gustavo Gutiérrez, On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis. 1987). We will read the entire book.
• Dorothy Day, Selected Writings, edited with an introduction by Robert Ellsberg (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 2005) – we will read pp. 1-48, 121-184, 205-258, 319-364.
• Thomas Merton, Contemplation in a World of Action, with a foreword by Robert Coles (Notre Dame, In.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1998) – we will read pages 5-83; 154-176, 215-66.

Other Readings: Unless otherwise noted these readings will be made available in a photocopy packet.

• Nicholas Lobkowicz, Theory and Practice: A History of a Concept from Aristotle to Marx (Notre Dame, 1967), 3-58
• Augustine of Hippo, Sermons 103 and 104; from The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century (New City Press, 1990- ), vol III, part 5: 76-87
• Augustine of Hippo, Tractate 124: On John 21:19-25, from Tractates on the Gospel of John, translated by John W. Rettig. (Catholic University Press, 1988), vol. 5, 82-94.
• Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermon 50 on the Song of Songs, in Bernard of Clairvaux: Selected Works, trans. G.R. Evans (Paulist Press, 1987), 241-245.
• Sermons 3 and 5 on the Assumption, from St. Bernard’s Sermons on the Blessed Virgin Mary, trans. by a Priest of Mount Melleray (Devon, EN: Augustine Publishing, 1984), 184-193, 206-228
• Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II.II: Q 179, Q 180.1-5, 8; QQ 181, 182 [ available on-line at: http://www.ccel.org/a/aquinas/summa/FP.html .
• Meister Eckhart, Sermon 2, from Meister Eckhart: The Essential Sermons, Commentaries, Treatises and Defense, trans. with introductions by Edmund Colledge, O.S.A. and Bernard McGinn (Paulist, 1981), 177-81.
• ______________, Sermon 86, from Meister Eckhart: Teacher and Preacher, ed. Bernard McGinn (Paulist, 1986), 338-45.
• Bernard McGinn, “The God Beyond God: Theology and Mysticism in the Thought of Meister Eckhart,” Journal of Religion 61 (1981): 1-19.
• John O’Malley, “Some Distinctive Characteristics of Jesuit Spirituality in the Sixteenth Century” in John O’Malley, John Padberg & Vincent O’Keefe, Jesuit Spirituality: A Now and Future Resource (Chicago, IL: Loyola University Press, 1990), 1-20.
• John of the Cross: selections from The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, trans. Kieran Kavanaugh & Otilio Rodriguez (Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 1991), 50-61, 113-18, 469-71, 583-87, 610-615, 638-9, 708-15, 761-763
• Edward Howells, “Mystical Experience and the View of the Self in Teresa of Avila and John of the Crossi,” Studia Mystica 18 (1997), 87-104.
• Gustavo Gutiérrez, “John of the Cross: A Latin American View,” trans. James Nickoloff, in Density of the Present: Selected Writings (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1999), 137-146.
• Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness (New York: Harper & Row, 1952), 243-62

Spring 2009 (Online Course)

THEO 64208 Patristic Exegesis (HC)
Instructor: Professor John Cavadini

This course will be an examination of traditions of biblical interpretation in the early Church. Since the greatest proportion of exegetical literature in the early Church was homiletic, this course will also entail an examination of traditions of preaching. We will devote considerable attention to ancient allegorical schools of interpretation (Origen), to reactions against it (“Antiochene” exegesis), and to Western exegetes (Augustine, Gregory the Great). We will also look at the uses of the Bible in ascetical literature (desert Father and Mothers, etc). Requirements will include short papers and final exam.

Spring 2009: Pune/Poona, India Course

THEO 64808 Christianity, World Religions, and Liberation
Instructor: Bradley Malkovsky
Dates: Dec. 28, 2008 to Jan. 14, 2009
Location: Pune/Poona, India
Additional Information (click here)

The M.A. Program in Theology is offering a new course in India, called “Christianity, World Religions, and Liberation,” scheduled for Dec. 28, 2008 to Jan. 14, 2009 in the city of Pune/Poona in the western state of Maharashtra. The course, offered by Prof. Bradley Malkovsky, editor of the Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, will be taught in conjunction with some of India’s best Catholic theologians, who will offer lectures in their areas of specialization. Along with introductions to the history, thought, and spirituality of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam, additional topics will include Christian dialogue with other religions, Hindu-Muslim relations, Indian feminism, social liberation movements, and Indian politics. From our home base at the Jesuit-run Papal Seminary, we will make numerous field trips into Pune and beyond. These include, but are not limited to, a visit to the only Hindu seminary for women in India, where we will witness a puja-ceremony performed by women priests; a little pilgrimage to Alandi outside Pune to visit the shrine of a much revered Hindu saint; a visit to two local slums, where some of the seminarians share the life of the poor; a trip to Mumbai (Bombay) to visit the famous Haji Ali Mosque; a five hour trip north to Aurangabad where we will spend two days visiting India's most magnificent cave temples (Buddhist, Hindu, Jain) in Ajanta and Ellora (both listed as World Heritage sites). Though considerable reading is expected prior to the course, no writing is required until after the return from India. A single research paper of 15-20 pages will be due by the end of April 2009.

COSTS:
(1) Flight: students will pay for their flight to India independently of "in-India" course expenses.
(2) Tuition: leaves $1044 for tuition
(3) Room and board, travel, stipends for India professors: $850

Fall 2008 M.A. Online Course

THEO 64402 Liturgy and Popular Devotions (LS, SS)

Instructor: Nathan Mitchell

In December 2001, the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments issued a comprehensive DIRECTORY ON POPULAR PIETY AND THE LITURGY: PRINCIPLES AND GUIDELINES. This document builds on-and amplifies-paragraph 13 of the II Vatican Council's Constitution on the Liturgy,which “highly recommended” popular devotions and directed that they be “drawn up so they harmonize with the liturgical seasons, accord with the sacred liturgy, are in some way derived from it, and lead the people back to it.” This course explores the nature of Christian liturgy and devotions in their relation to (and differences from) each other. It pays specific and detailed attention to Christian devotions centering around the person of Jesus (e.g., Christian hymnody; the Jesus Prayer, the Jesus Psalter); to “worship of the Eucharist outside Mass” (e.g., “visits,” eucharistic exposition and adoration, Benediction, Forty Hours, eucharistic congresses, etc.); to Marian piety (expressed, e.g., in the Hours or “Little Office” of the Blessed Virgin; the rosary in its various forms; private prayers, litanies, and devotions addressed to the Mother of God); and to devotions derived from the church’s Liturgy of the Hours (e.g., special offices devoted to the Passion of Christ).

Please find three course announcements to take place offsite this winter and next summer. If you are interested in taking one course or a combination of courses, please send an email to Matt Zyniewicz (Zyniewicz.1@nd.edu) and he will be sure to place you on the list. Space is limited.

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

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

Previous Graduate Online Courses (.pdf)