General survey of Western Christianity, with special emphasis on institutional, theological, pastoral and spiritual issues. Lays the foundation for understanding many features of the Church today. Topics include monasticism, establishment of the modern papacy, lay apostolic movements (e.g. beguines), religious orders (e.g., Franciscans, Jesuits), heresies, crusades, inquisitions, scholasticism, saints (e.g., Hildegard of Bingen, Francis of Assisi, Ignatius of Loyola), popular devotions, women in church, mysticism, Protestant Reformation, church councils (e.g., Trent), overseas evangelization. Lectures, readings in primary sources, focused discussion.

A study of the spiritual doctrine of St. Ignatius Loyola as articulated in the text of the Spiritual Exercises, but with reference to other texts such as Ignatius' Testament, letters, and the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus. The focus is how Ignatius' treatment of prayer, discernment of spirits, and discernment of God's will, work together to form a "contemplative in action."

What John O'Malley, S.J. calls the Church's "long nineteenth century," from the French revolution to the 1950's, although often considered a period of secularization, was also a great age of renewal for the Roman Catholic Church. It witnessed a tremendous institutional growth of the Church, the assertion of doctrinal and administrative control from Rome known as ultramontanism, the flowering of spirituality and devotional life, and the spread of the faith from Europe throughout the world by means of extensive missionary activity. This course will consider the institutional and intellectual transformation of the Church in the nineteenth century, but will also pay close attention to changes in popular piety and the social role of the Church. Focus will be both topical and regional.

This course provides an introduction to the theology of Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274) in its historical, intellectual, and institutional contexts, with a focus on reading and understanding the primary texts of Thomas (in English translation). The course considers Thomas's treatment of central theological topics including the nature and extent of theology, the status and interpretation of Sacred Scripture, the existence and essence of God, divine providence and predestination, God's triune nature, creation, human nature, evil and sin, grace and its effects, merit, faith and its relationship to reason, the Incarnation, Christ's passion and death, His resurrection and ascension, and the sacraments. Throughout attention will be given to Thomas's assumptions and working method as a scholastic master and the uses he makes of various authorities (scriptural, patristic, philosophical, etc.) in the development of his theology.

This course will consider broadly and in narrative fashion the existence of religious life and religious communities in the history of the church, primarily in the West. From the early days of the church, intentional communities have existed. Eventually, communities of desert monastics arose and monastic rules developed. Religious life came to be ordered in particular ways, eventually in what we would think of as religious orders with governing structures, but also in the form of confraternities and lay movements. This course will explore instances of religious life lay, vowed, and clerical from the deserts to the cities, from patristic times through the medieval, modern, and postmodern periods. The course will consider not only arrangements and institutions, but also the spirituality of various groups and the attempt to follow Christ more closely by Christian women and men throughout time.

Liturgy in the West from Gregory the Great to the eve of the Reformation. Focus will be on the Eucharist and the Liturgical Year.

Just four women have been designated Doctors of the Church. They were, variously, church reformers, subjects of inquisitions, founders of religious movements, counselors to prelates, spiritual directors, theologians, preachers, visionaries, mystics, artists, religious nun or laywoman. We will examine how world events, ecclesiastical politics, and theological currents shaped and were shaped by them. The course will examine their writings; how each women understood herself, the Church, and Christian life in their respective eras; how their contemporaries understood or misunderstood them; and what motivated popes to declare them Doctors of the Church; and what they have to teach us today.

Throughout the Middle Ages the Old Testament Book of Job attracted the attention, scholarly acumen, and artistic insight of a number of Christian clerics, exegetes, theologians, philosophers, historians, poets, and painters. This course surveys some of the most important medieval Christian engagements with and interpretations of Job, both in exegetical and theological works (e.g., the Moralia of Gregory the Great; the commentaries of Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, and Nicholas of Lyra; and commentaries on the Sentences of Peter Lombard), on the one hand, and in vernacular and popular works (e.g., artistic depictions, Old English literature, the sermons of John Wycliffe and his followers), on the other.

Pilgrimage is a phenomenon that has shaped Christianity from its inception to our days. The immense popularity of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, in Spain, has generated numerous reflections in recent decades, as well as a flood of works, both popular and scholarly. Taking a large view, the course will explore the history and theology of the practice of pilgrimage, especially in its Christian dimension, but extend also to its actuality as a spiritual practice at the frontier of the institution (within and without), and linked to the narrative construction of the self. The scope of documents read will include historical documents, spiritual texts, Church documents, contemporary narratives and studies, as well as films.

This course will examine the Ressourcement of early and medieval theology by leading representatives of the so-called Nouvelle theologie movement in the mid-twentieth century, including: Jean Danilou, Marie-Dominique Chenu, Henri de Lubac, Yves Congar, and tienne Gilson.

Mesopotamian imperial politiesAssyria, Babylon, and also Persiarepresented a nearly constant threat to the kingdoms of the Eastern Mediterranean during the period between the ninth and late sixth centuries B.C.E. The kingdoms of Israel and Judah, like their neighbors, absorbed punishing military defeats, but also many cultural and material influences. One group of intellectuals, the prophetic figures in Israel and Judah, consistently responded to these Mesopotamian influences. This course examines a selection of prophetic texts from the Hebrew Bible as evidence for the intellectual and cultural engagement with the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian polities. Biblical texts will be studied alongside Mesopotamian and other epigraphic West Semitic texts to understand how prophets perceived and accounted for the Mesopotamian influences. Modern methods for reading prophetic texts will be introduced, alongside examination of Assyriological scholarship on the historical and archaeological contexts of these texts. The material culture of Israel and Judah, but also of the urban centers of the East, can also illuminate the political valences of prophetic texts.

Surveys the many different and often competing forms of Christianity that arose and flourished in the second to the seventh century. Topics covered include martyrs, apocalypticism, Hell, Gnostics, prophecy, magical texts, angels and demons, and the various meanings of Christ.