Graduate Courses

Are you ready to dive deeper into your faith? The Theological Institute courses available for graduate credit or audit are listed here. Please scroll below for the course schedule and course descriptions.

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Course Schedule

Course Schedule for the Summer 2013:

Summer 2013 Courses:
Religious Education and the Impact of the Second Vatican Council (elective)	Tues., 6-9 pm (5/28-7/16)
Mary and the Saints (elective)	Tues., 6-9 pm (5/28-7/16)
The New Evangelization and Bereavement Ministry (elective)	Wed., 6-9pm (5/29-7/17)
Basic Truths of the Catholic Faith (MAM core)	Wed., 6-9pm (5/29-8/7)

Fall 2013 Courses:
Fundamental Theology (MAM/MTS Core)	Tues., 5-7pm
Faith and Reason (MAM/MTS Core)	Tues., 7:30-9:30pm
Canon Law (MAM Core)	Tues., 7:30-9:30pm

Catholic Social Doctrine (MTS Core)

Wed., 5-7pm

God: One and Three (MTS Core)

Thurs., 5-7pm

Catholic Social Doctrine (MTS Core)

Wed., 5-7pm

Moral Theology (MAM/MTS Core)

Thurs., 5-7pm

The New Evangelization (MTS Core)

Thurs., 7:30-9:30pm

Old Testament (MAM/MTS Core)

Thurs., 7:30-9:30pm

Friday Formation Colloquium (MTS)

Fri. 6:30-9:45pm (monthly)


Fall 2013 Electives:

Transformative Learning II: Call to Holiness and Implications for Evangelization

Tues., 7:30-9:30pm

Prayer in the Old and New Testaments

Thurs., 5-7pm

Documents of Vatican II

Tues., 5-7pm

Pastoral Theology

Tues., 9-11:45am

Course Descriptions

Summer 2013 Courses:

RE601 Religious Education and the Impact of the Second Vatican Council

The Second Vatican Council opened catechetical doors. Through the auspices of the Bishops.Porta Fidei-Door of Faith,Benedict XVI’s letter announcing the “Year of Faith,” coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the opening of Vatican II, point out that the Church is the door of faith. Vatican II made us aware that the Church is all of us who are baptized. When better than this “Year of Faith”, to explore documents of the Second Vatican Council and some since then that have enriched and expanded our opportunities to study, to understand our faith, and to know ourselves as being called to evangelize? Come and see!

Prof. Susan Kay, Tues., 6-9 pm (5/28-7/16) (2 credits)

PC606 Mary and the Saints

This course will explore the place of Mary and the Saints in Christian life, past and present. Marian doctrines, titles, feasts, prayers, and apparitions will be reviewed. Saints’ life stories, patronage, veneration, intercession, relics, canonization, and marks of holiness will be covered, as will theological disputes and some recent convergence. Profiles of liturgically prominent saints and a few candidates for consideration will be studied as well.

Rev. George Evans, Tues., 6-9 pm (5/28-7/16) (2 credits)

PT601 The New Evangelization and Bereavement Ministry for the “Year of Faith”

This course will explore ways to develop faith formation for the Year of Faith through the vehicle of the New Evangelization. Spirituality and pastoral care especially during times of crisis bring healing and hope. The new science of bereavement will assist us placing loss into the context of faith and trust. St. John of the Cross, Mother Teresa, St. Paul and others will be noted as examples of being evangelizers whom we can imitate in our spiritual and pastoral care. Special attention will be given to journaling and “telling our story” in light of Christ as the person for others. This course will emphasize our encounter with the Lord in our ‘post-modern world.’

Rev. Terence Curley, Wed., 6-9pm (5/29-7/17) (2 credits)

TH511 Basic Truths of the Catholic Faith

This course will cover the basic teaching of the creed, the moral life, and liturgy based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Rev. Paul Ritt, Wed., 6-9pm (5/29-8/7) (3 credits)

Fall 2013 Core Courses:

TH500 FOUNDATIONAL THEOLOGY (MAM/MTS Core)
This course concentrates on the fundamental concerns present in all theological inquiry. The goal is to assist the student to elaborate a theology of revelation, a theology of faith, a theology of tradition, a theology of Sacred Scripture.
Fr. Ritt, Tues. 5:00-7:00PM

MM500 CANON LAW (MAM core)
Canon law is the system of rules that govern Church order and discipline. This course will present an overview of the nature, history, and function of Church law, and will introduce students to the norms of the 1983 Code of Canon Law--primarily Book I (general norms), Book II (laity, clerics, and the Church hierarchy), Book III (the teaching office), Book V (temporal goods), and Book VI (sanctions). The objective of the course is to introduce basic structures and functions of the Church as addressed by the Code, and to familiarize students with those canonical norms helpful to their effective ministry in the Church.
Fr. O’Connell, Tues. 7:30-9:30PM

PH500 FAITH AND REASON (MAM/MTS Core)
This course serves to introduce the student to the role of philosophy in the discipline of theology. To accomplish this goal the student will examine how theologians of different historical eras have made use of various philosophical insights. In the process, students will gain a familiarity with philosophical concepts that have become important in the study of theology.
Prof. Anthony Keaty, Tues. 7:30-9:30PM

TH515 GOD: ONE AND THREE (MTS Core)
The central mystery of Christian faith and life is the revelation that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Seeking to understand the Trinitarian faith, definitively expressed in the Ecumenical Councils, requires a consideration both of what is common to the Three Persons, as well as of what is proper to each. The harmony of faith and reason will be a constant theme. Saint Thomas Aquinas’s treatment of the mystery of God in the Summa theologiae will serve as the key text for this course. We will pay special attention to the spiritual analogy for the processions in God, while also exploring the complementary path to unfolding the imago Trinitatis in terms of the communion of persons. We will end with a consideration of Hans Urs von Balthasar’s contemplative theology.
Dr. A. Franks, Th 5:00-7:00PM

MT500 MORAL THEOLOGY FOR THE LAY APOSTOLATE (MAM/MTS Core)
Happiness is to be found in embracing the true ends of our nature. The universal call to holiness, which is at the heart of the Second Vatican Council’s teaching, is therefore the path to true happiness. We will seek to understand this intrinsic dynamism of human nature as illuminated by the moral realism of Saint Thomas Aquinas, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and John Paul II’s encyclical Veritatis splendor. Grounded in the fundamentals of moral theology, we will then turn our attention to urgent moral (especially bioethical) issues of the day in light of Humanae vitae and Evangelium vitae. Clarity in moral theology is crucial to carrying out the lay apostolate: to leaven all aspects of the world with the truth and beauty of the Gospel.
Dr. D. Franks, Th 5:00-7:00PM

OT500 OLD TESTAMENT: SURVEY (MAM/MTS Core)
The organization of this introductory course has been guided by two overarching goals: first, to give students the information—historical, literary, and theological—that they need in order to engage the biblical text intelligently and productively within the living tradition of the Church. Secondly, the course invites students to experience the personal transformation which is the fruit of sustained dialogue with the Word of God.
Prof. Sirois, Th 7:30-9:30PM

TH513 THE NEW EVANGELIZATION (MTS Core)

What is evangelization? It is the Word becoming flesh, through every sanctified heart. It is existential communication, impelled by the Spirit of Love, of the Truth Who is Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, within the personal interiority that constitutes history. Thus the Church at Vatican II, in giving the program for the evangelization of the modern world (which Blessed John Paul II would name the new evangelization) places the universal call to holiness at the center of her teaching. Evangelization is the Marian mediation of the Person of Christ, the essential mission of the Church: to draw the world (the saeculum in its every strata) into the Trinitarian communion, and to do so by a sinless solidarity without reserve. This is the mystery of God the Father’s plan of loving goodness. The Father’s Word of Love is the living source of all goodness, truth, and beauty. To evangelize is to serve, with catholic magnanimity, as an instrument of Trinitarian vitality in the renovation of culture, so that all men may be more easily drawn by the Father’s eternal Word of Love.

Drs. David and Angela Franks, Th 7:30-9:30pm

MT506 CATHOLIC SOCIAL DOCTRINE (MTS Core)
This course serves as a general introduction to the Catholic tradition of reflection upon life in society, including questions of justice in the political and economic order. Students will gain familiarity with the documents of modern Catholic social teaching, including fourteen major church documents such as encyclicals from Popes, pastoral letters from episcopal conferences, synods of bishops and ecumenical councils. Attention will be paid to the various contexts (ecclesiological, cultural, institutional, historical) in which the moral reasoning of these documents unfolds. Themes will include human rights, solidarity, common good, peacemaking, economic development, work, property ownership, family life, subsidiarity, ecology, social justice, and preferential option for the poor. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the distinctive ways in which the documents strike a balance between the dignity of individuals, on one hand, and concern for community and promoting the common good, on the other hand.

Sr. Jeanne Gribaudo, Wed., 5:00-7:00PM

FC100 and FC200 MTS FRIDAY FORMATION COLLOQUIA (MTS Core)
These colloquia provide the keystone of the MTS formation program, during which certain great books of Western civilization (philosophy, theology, literature) and great works of painting and music, as well as spiritual theology and evangelically fruitful psychology and sociology, will be explored. The momentum of the ideological pedagogy of contemporary culture is towards narcissistic self-enclosure and consumerist rapacity. The imagination is a central field of contest, and the MTS’s cultural/artistic formation seeks to foster self-transcendence through contact with the true, the good, and, especially, the beautiful. As Pope Benedict XVI has said, “Beauty also reveals God because, like Him, a work of beauty is pure gratuity; it calls us to freedom and draws us away from selfishness.” The Colloquia occur eight times a year for two years. Students will receive two credits for the completion of each year’s program. This course is required of MTS students in their first two years. Interested students who are not part of the MTS program may register for either or both years of the Colloquia. Auditing is not permitted.
Drs. Franks First Fridays each month 6:30-9:45PM FALL & SPRING

Fall 2013 Electives:

RE503 Transformative Learning II: Call to Holiness and Implications for Evangelization

This course will examine the foundational call to holiness of all of the baptized with special attention to the lay faithful in view of the mission of evangelization. A study of Transformative Learning theories will provide educational insight to support the goals of catechesis as presented in the National Directory for Catechesis. Illustrations and inspiration will be sought through an examination of the lives of great teachers and saints. Although this course will build on RE 502 Transformative Learning: Evangelization and Catechesis, students who have not taken RE 502 may take this course. This course will fulfill the spirituality elective requirement for MAM students.

Dr. Aldona Lingertat, Tues., 7:30-9:30pm

BL604 Prayer in the Old and New Testaments

This course will be a survey of what both the Old and New Testaments have to say about prayer. Inspired by “Part IV” of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, this course will expose the students to the many modes and methods of prayer found in the Sacred Scriptures, giving particular attention, as the Catechism does, to the prayer of Jesus.

Prof. Celia Sirois, Thurs., 5-7pm

TH631 Documents of Vatican II

The Second Vatican Council was arguably the most significant ecclesial event for Roman Catholicism in the last four centuries. Although “Vatican II” has become a staple of contemporary church lingo, few who invoke it seem to have really grasped what happened at that council and what its consequences are for the life of the church today. This course will study the Second Vatican Council as both a seminal ecclesial event and as a source for a revitalized vision of the church for the third millennium. Special attention will be given to the council’s four constitutions.

Sr. Jeanne Gribaudo, Tues., 5-7pm

PT501 Pastoral Theology

In providing pastoral care for others and in developing understanding of one’s self, the minister relies on the insights of the behavioral sciences. The conduct of pastoral ministry entails personal relationships of various depths. The psychological makeup of the pastor, the parishioner, and the group has an important impact on pastoral care. The course provides an overview of selected topics in the behavioral sciences, especially psychology, that enhances the self-understanding and pastoral skill of the minister.

Rev. John Grimes, Tues., 9-11:45am

Spring 2013 Core Courses:

NT500 NEW TESTAMENT (MAM/MTS Core)

The goal is to introduce the student to the New Testament by way of its historical setting, literary structure, and major theological themes. Starting with the Pauline letters, the class will read selected passages giving attention to their message for their original hearers and the way in which this may be appropriated today.

Fr. Grover Th 7:30-9:30PM

TH511 BASIC TRUTHS OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH (MAM Core)

This course will cover the basic teaching of the creed, the moral life, and liturgy based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Fr. Ritt Th 5:00-7:00PM

CH500 CHURCH HISTORY (MAM/MTS Core)

An overview of Western Christianity from the second through the twentieth century. The course introduces the major figures, theological developments, forms of devotion, institutional changes, and interaction between Church and society. In order to provide students with a framework, each class will emphasize a major turning point of Church history.

Fr. Belschner Tu 7:30-9:30PM

TH511 BASIC TRUTHS OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH (MAM Core)

This course will cover the basic teaching of the creed, the moral life, and liturgy based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Fr. Ritt Th 5:00-7:00PM

TH514 THEOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY (MTS Core)

This course will focus on the natural and supernatural dignity of the embodied human person, created in the image of God, and called to communion. Grounded in the thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas, this exploration of human nature in history begins with an overview of philosophical anthropology and covers creation, sin, grace, merit, and eschatology.

Dr. D. Franks Th 7:30-9:30PM

TH550 CHRISTOLOGY (MAM/MTS Core)

An introduction to the basic elements in the study of the identity and saving work of Jesus Christ, as developed throughout the Catholic Tradition, with particular attention to the contribution of St. Thomas Aquinas. The course proceeds from an examination of the data of Revelation in both the Old and New Testaments, to a detailed study of the Christological formulas articulated by the Church through the Third Council of Constantinople (680-81), to a systematic treatment of topics rooted in the two natures and one Person of Jesus Christ, including the knowledge, holiness and mediation of Christ. The course concludes with an examination of the basic principles of soteriology.

Fr. Pignato Tu 5:00-7:00pm

TH551 ECCLESIOLOGY (MAM/MTS Core)

A systematic study of the nature and mission of the Church, emphasizing particularly the vocation and mission of the baptized.

Fr. O’Connor Th 5:00-7:00PM

Sr. Jeanmarie Gribaudo W 5:00-7:00PM

ST500 LITURGY AND SACRAMENTS (MAM/MTS Core)

The goal of this course is to give the students a fuller appreciation of the liturgical life of the Church. This will be accomplished by first addressing a general understanding of what is meant by liturgy. The course will then look at each of the sacraments of the Church developing both an historical perspective of the sacraments’ liturgical expression and appreciation of the theology that underlies each of the sacraments. As part of the coursework the current ritual expression of each sacrament will be addressed to see how it continues the traditions of the Church and how it expresses the theology of the sacrament.

Fr. Mahoney Tu 7:30-9:30PM

FC100 and FC200 MTS FRIDAY FORMATION COLLOQUIA (MTS Requirement)

These colloquia provide the keystone of the MTS formation program, during which certain great books of Western civilization (philosophy, theology, literature) and great works of painting and music, as well as spiritual theology and evangelically fruitful psychology and sociology, will be explored. The momentum of the ideological pedagogy of contemporary culture is towards narcissistic self-enclosure and consumerist rapacity. The imagination is a central field of contest, and the MTS’s cultural/artistic formation seeks to foster self-transcendence through contact with the true, the good, and, especially, the beautiful. As Pope Benedict XVI has said, “Beauty also reveals God because, like Him, a work of beauty is pure gratuity; it calls us to freedom and draws us away from selfishness.” The Colloquia occur eight times a year for two years. Students will receive one credit for the completion of each academic semester. The course is graded on a Pass/Fail grading scheme. This course is required of MTS students in their first two years. Interested students who are not part of the MTS program may register for either or both years of the Colloquia. Auditing is not permitted.

Drs. David and Angela Franks, Fridays once a month 6:30-9:45PM

Spring 2013 Electives:

BL602 THE MYSTERY OF SUFFERING IN THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS

This course will consider various biblical approaches to the mystery of human suffering. In the psalms of lament and the speeches of Job,in the passion of Christ and the preaching of Paul,it will look notfor pat answers, but for pastoralresources for confronting the unanswerable questionsthat suffering raises.

Prof. Sirois Th 5:00-7:00PM

BL603 BIBLICAL CONCEPTS OF SIN AND SALVATION

This elective will identify and explore the language used in both the Old Testament and the New to talk about sin and salvation. Beginning in the pre-exilic writings with the notion of sin as “weight” and working through the later understanding of sin as “debt” to the atoning sacrifice of Jesus and the idea of justification in Paul’s letters, the course will encourage students to revisit and perhaps even to revise their understanding of sin and their appreciation of salvation. The overarching objective of the course is to uncover the biblical basis of the Church’s teaching on sin and salvation. Prerequisites: Old Testament; New Testament.

Prof. Sirois SATELLITE LOCATION TBA

MM610 MARRIAGE AND CANON LAW

This course is a study of marriage in the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church, focusing upon the canonical prescriptions for its valid and licit celebration. Topics covered include marriage preparation, issues relating to the celebration and recording of marriage, matrimonial consent and impediments, and the annulment process.

Fr. Laughlin Tu 5:00-7:00PM

ST604 SPIRITUALITY OF THE LITURGICAL YEAR

The Liturgical Year is something that we mainly think about in pieces such as Christmas or Easter. We fail to see that the Liturgical Year is intended to be a journey of faith that forms and transforms us as we experience and contemplate the meaning of the mystery of Christ. The purpose of this course is to explore this grand passage and seek to better understand its meaning. It is to see the year not simply as pieces, but, rather, as unified whole that seeks to help us unpack the meaning of Christ in our lives. The course will explore the meaning of each season, how it developed and what it means to us. The course will also help one better appreciate how the liturgical year should influence our spiritual lives and how it prepares us to live out more fully the mystery of Christ.

Fr. B. Mahoney Tu 5:00-7:00PM

Or contact Maryellen Lenihan.

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