Church History

Concentration Chair: Dr. John Bequette

Courses offer a comprehensive study of the Church from its foundation to the Second Vatican Council. They include the teachings of the Church Fathers as well as the history of the Church in America. They provide students with an understanding of the role of Catholics in knowing the times and interpreting them in light of the Gospel.

Concentration Goals

  1. Graduates will know a basic outline of the Western Church, and the Church’s involvement in the formation of western civilization.
  2. Graduates will learn how to use primary sources, examine the relevant secondary sources, and from this background become critical thinkers in evaluating historiography through properly composed assignments, research papers and presentations.
  3. In forming a genuine Catholic leader, the Church history concentration will lead students especially in the historical circumstances of the development of doctrine and how it was expressed in light of the Church’s missionary activity.

Concentration Outcomes

  1. Students will understand the foundational “language” of Church history and thus be able to express in spoken word and writing its relevant events and ideas, while being formed for a more profound study.
  2. With evangelization in mind, students will express Church history in a convincing prose based upon scholarly research done in light of Christ, having examined various forms of historiography and their philosophical, theological and methodological foundations.
  3. Graduates can convey profoundly the historical circumstances of the Church’s Faith while clearly delineating a tradition of ideas, mission, liturgy, art and culture in light of a reflection upon the needs of contemporary culture

Co-requisites for Theology:

  1. PHS 607 Philosophy for Theologians
  2. DTH 600 Faith and Revelation (Prerequisite is PHS 607)

Theology Core:

  1. DTH 731 One and Triune God
  2. DTH 751 Christology (Prerequisite is DTH 731)
  3. MTH 611 Fundamental Moral Theology I
  4. SAS 651 Synoptic Gospels

Concentration Core:

  1. CHH 881 Patristics
  2. CHH 700 Church History *
  3. CHH 661 Catholic Modernism
  4. CHH/DTH 671 Documents of Vatican II

Concentration Electives (Choose one of the following):

  1. CHH 613 Church in America
  2. CHH 620 The Catholic Reformation

Comprehensive Exam Course:

  1. ENG 890 MA Summative Evaluation:  Comprehensive Exam & Professional Paper (Theology)

*Note Church History to 1400 & Church History from 1400 have been combined as one course. This change took place Fall 2016.

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