Orthodox/ Eastern Christian Studies at Trinity College

NOTE: Students should be aware that this programme must take its recess breaks according to key liturgical days in the Orthodox calendar, not according to the published U. of T. schedule

(4) Early Fathers/Mothers: Eastern Thought, Doctrine and Theology to 431 TRT 2504 H

Prof. Maria-Fotini Poulidoulis-Kapsalis

Or, contact Trinity College Divinity Faculty, 416-978-2133,

This course offers students the opportunity to read attentively, academically, critically, spiritually, and contemplatively, excerpts from primary texts of the Church’s first five centuries. While its subject matter is formal ideas and thoughts, it will be presented in proper Orthodox fashion – not as a “History of Dogmas” or some other abstract notion imported from Western approaches, but rather as theology, i.e., the quest for the True Word about God.

From the reading in this course – as always in our programme, we insist on learning from the primary texts – students will acquire awareness of the leading doctrinal ideas, and also of the passionate exchange and ferment of positions and debates, which led to the development of those ideas and doctrines from the time of the New Testament writers until the aftermath of the Third Ecumenical Council.

But more than just ideas, the course will also emphasize the development of “critical thinking” and modes of theologizing created by these earliest Christian writers, and raise the question of why some of them are acknowledged by Tradition as Fathers (and Mothers) of the Church while others are demoted to the status of heretics. Because of this emphasis in the course – viz., that Christian thought is dynamic, rather than dogmatic or formulaic -- the course is titled “Thought, Doctrine, and Theology” rather than “Dogmatics”; in fact, “dogmatic theology” is really a foreign abstract notion, imported from Western scholasticism; recent Orthodox patristic study has re-discovered a dynamic, clash-of-understandings presentation of the development of thought, intended to give a sense of vitality and urgency to the key topics of dogmatic theology. To repeat what was emphasized above: for the Fathers and Mothers, Christian thought is Theology, finding the True words to say about God. (This also helps to explain why some of the key doctrinal writing of the Fathers is found in practical letters, not only in formal treatises; theology is “doctrine,” i.e., teaching, not a set of philosophical propositions.

Students will read excerpts from the writings of key church fathers (and some mothers) from Justin through Cyril of Alexandria, with emphasis on why their issues are significant -- indeed on why they arose as issues. The course will ask why Councils formulated some of the ideas from the dialogue among the Fathers into Creeds, and also make a theological evaluation of the doctrines and thought-modes in the Credal documents of major Councils through Ephesus and Cyril. One major issue will be identifying the doctrinal bases for theological anthropology, and the issues of relationship between God and mankind.

For Eastern Christians, to read these texts is to meet the minds and hearts of their historical writers. Such reading would of course be true as well for any Christian reader open to the historical Tradition of the Faith, but for the Eastern Christian reader -- for whom Scripture and Tradition are an inseparable whole -- encounter with texts of the Fathers and Mothers of the Church goes even farther, and penetrates deep into the life and gospel of Christ and Christianity. Read in this eschatological way, the questions of the ancient Fathers/Mothers become our own.

Early Church writers give an understanding of humanity, divinity and the relationship between the two, in the way they respond to questions. And their understanding can inform our responses to today’s human questions. Indeed, a central truth of Orthodoxy is that we will never be able to give proper answers to contemporary questions unless we root our understanding firmly in a grasp of the vision of God, Christ, and persons forged by the early Church teachers.

The questions which they asked were root-and-branch fundamental: Who is God? What is humanity? How do the two inter-connect? What does it mean for humans to be saved? What did Jesus come here for, and what difference does he make to our lives? How does the Incarnate Jesus Christ relate as Son to God as Father, and as person to ourselves? How does the concept of “church” as an eschatological society arise from these central views of Christ and salvation? In the texts we will read, the patristic theological responses to these theological questions help us respond to the practical questions of our daily lives.

The most capable students – including all degree credit students -- will be expected to explain the difference between Fr. John Behr’s approach to patristic theology and previous approaches, both classical (Harnack) and recent (Pelikan), as well as previous Orthodox approaches (Florovsky, etc.) to patristic theology. Classes will be mostly devoted to intense exploration of selected passages from the primary writings, to permit deep appreciation of the mentality and approach, as well as the ideas, of each Father/Mother

By the end of the course, it is intended that students will increase their ability to read, comprehend, and evaluate texts of the early Church; become more familiar with the lives, times and thought of several early Christian figures; better appropriate the theology and spirituality of these early Christians; discover more and more the “mind” of the early Church, the “mind” of Christ, and the relationship between their own faith and the faith of the Church.

Characteristic reading might include:

Non-credit Certificate students

Justin Martyr and Tertullian, apologetic writings

Ireneus of Lyons, Proof of the Apostolic Preaching (SVS Press) and Against Heresies

Origen, select passages from Commentary on John and On First Principles

Athanasius, On the Incarnation

Basil the Great, sels. from On the Human Condition and On the Holy Spirit (SVS Press)

Gregory Nazianzus (the Theologian), On God and Christ [Theological Orations] (SVS)

Gregory of Nyssa, Of God and Man and Life of Macrina

pseudo-Athanasius, Life of St. Syncletica

Cyril of Alexandria, Against those who are Unwilling to Confess that the Holy Virgin is Theotokos, tr. George Dragas; idem, On the Unity of Christ (SVS Press); letters

G.R. Evans, The First Christian Theologians (Blackwell, 2004).

Henry Chadwick, The Early Church (Penguin)

doctrinal decrees of the 1st-3rd Ecumenical Councils

Additional for credit

John McGuckin, The Westminster Handbook of Patristic Theology

John Behr, The Way to Nicea (SVS Press)

John Behr, The Nicene Faith (2 vols) (SVS Press)

Frances M. Young, Biblical Exegesis and the Formation of Christian Culture (Hendrickson)

Georges Florovsky, sel. chaps. From The Eastern Fathers of the Fourth Century and The Byzantine Fathers of the Fifth Century

Henry Chadwick, The Church in Ancient Society (Oxford)

Course requirements for credit:

Degree Credit (Masters Level) Students

Two one-page reflection papers on primary/secondary sources – total 40%

Class Presentation/Participation ……………..…………………….15%

Final Research Paper ………………..………………….………….40%

40-word description

A study of the leading formal ideas, modes of theologizing, and approaches to “critical thinking” characteristic of key Church Fathers and Mothers, and of ecumenical councils, from the 1st C. to Cyril of Alexandria. Emphasis on patristic thought as “dynamic theology” – a quest for the True Word about God – rather than a dogmatic system.