History of the Papacy: Beginnings to Vatican II

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

The question of the Bishop of Rome's role in the Church is a longstanding theological matter that bears upon not only Catholics in communion with him, but ecumenical dialogues with Orthodox and Protestant Christians, who are no longer so. This course surveys papal history from its Apostolic origins to the close of Second Vatican Council. We will attend not only to the biographies of various Popes throughout those centuries, but will also account for the development of the papacy itself. Thus we will address topics such as: the Pope and empire, how the papacy relates to Church councils and synods, the papacy and Eastern Churches, and the Pope as theologian, among other topics.