The Church We Believe In

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

From the New Testament on, the Christian community has turned repeatedly to the formulation and description of its identity, essence and constitutional elements. Specifying what is entailed in the claim of the creed--"I believe in the one, holy and catholic church"--has been especially necessary at certain crucial moments in the history of the Christian movement. Providing an introduction to the main themes and problems in ecclesiology (the doctrine about the Church), this course will examine the teachings of leading theologians in the Patristic and Medieval period (e.g., Augustine; Aquinas; Luther) and the determinations of the last two Vatican councils, largely concerned with such ecclesiological matters as the constitution of the church, the role of the papacy, infallibility, and the Universal versus Local Churches.