Seminar: Doctors of the Church: Hildegard, Catherine, Teresa and Therese

3 credits

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.