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For St. Augustine, Christ was not only the goal of learning but also the way there: “See how Christ crucified is taught and learned,” he wrote, “and know that it relates to his cross that in his body we too are crucified to the world.”
In this public presentation, Catechesis Institute director Alex Fogleman introduces his new book, Knowledge, Faith, and Early Christian Initiation (Cambridge University Press, 2023), with comments from David Lyle Jeffrey and Q&A.
Hosted a Christ Church Waco on January 18, 2024.
About the Book:
Knowledge, Faith, and Early Christian Initiation presents a new history of the rise of catechesis in the early church. What was its central focus? How did new believers learn to know the God revealed in Jesus Christ? By attending to the earliest writings about catechesis in the second century and third century, to its prominent champions in the fourth and fifth centuries, Fogleman reveals the central role that catechesis played in early Christian devotion, ethics, and theology.
Patristic catechesis also sheds new light on central questions about faith and education. How does Christianity teach wisdom and virtue to those just starting out? And what difference do Christian commitments to understanding Jesus Christ as both divine and human make for Christian modes of knowing? By listening to the voices of the ancient past, we gain new insight and imagination for building communities of faithful witness in the present. -
In this virtual book launch, theologian and Catechesis Institute fellow Hanna Lucas presents her new book, Sensing the Sacred: Recovering a Mystagogical Vision of Knowledge and Salvation (Wipf & Stock, 2023), with responses and discussion from Simon Oliver (Van Mildert Professor of Theology at Durham University) and Ephraim Radner (Professor Emeritus of Historical Theology at Wycliffe College, University of Toronto).
Order a copy of the book here, with discount code CATECHESIS to get 40% off.
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For Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Christian teachers who surrender self in loving humility for the sake of their hearers capture a core dimension of the faith that they teach. The same humility that Christ models, that Scripture communicates, and that seekers germinate as they come to be taught, teachers also share in.
In this public lecture, renowned Augustine scholar Dr. Michael Cameron explores the pedagogical dynamics of humility in Augustine’s great treatise, De catechizandis rudibus (On the Instruction of Beginners), showing it to be the treatise’s hidden crux, in two senses: both as a central theme of Christian teaching, and, paradoxically and counterintuitively, as the mainspring of the teaching act.
This lecture was co-hosted with the Religion and Philosophy Department at Hillsdale College on October 9, 2023.
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On his way to Rome to be martyred, Ignatius of Antioch urges the Christians there not to interfere with his impending fate: “Don’t hinder me from living,” he wrote. “Let me attain the pure light; then I will be a human being.”
Drawing on early Christian sources, especially the newly edited and translated volume, On the Human Image of God, by the fourth-century theologian St. Gregory of Nyssa, this workshop features John Behr, Natalie Carnes, and Thomas Breedlove exploring what it means for human beings to be made in the image of God. What does it look for human beings, as “images of the Image,” to be a work in progress—growing in Christ until we attain the “full measure of Christ.”
The Very Rev. Dr. John Behr is Regius Professor of Humanity at the University of Aberdeen. He previously taught at St. Vladimir’s Seminary, where he served as Dean from 2007-2017. He is a leading expert on the early church and has translated many seminal texts from the patristic era. His doctoral work focused on issues of asceticism and anthropology in St. Irenaeus of Lyons and Clement of Alexandria, and was published by Oxford University Press in 2000. Fr. John then began the publication of a series on the Formation of Christian Theology: The Way to Nicaea (SVS Press, 2001), and The Nicene Faith (SVS Press, 2003). Synthesizing these studies is the book The Mystery of Christ: Life in Death (SVS Press, 2003). Fr. John also edited and translated the fragments of Diodore of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia, setting them in their historical and theological context (OUP, 2011). Next, Fr. John published a more poetic and meditative work entitled Becoming Human: Theological Anthropology in Word and Image (SVS Press, 2013) and a full study of St. Irenaeus: St. Irenaeus of Lyons: Identifying Christianity (OUP, 2013). He then completed a new critical edition and translation of Origen’s On First Principles, together with an extensive introduction (OUP, 2017), and John the Theologian and His Paschal Gospel: A Prologue to Theology (OUP, 2019). Most recently, he is the editor and translator of Gregory of Nyssa’s On the Human Image of God (often titled, “On the Making of Humankind” or “De Hominis Opificio”) (OUP, 2023).
Dr. Natalie Carnes is Professor of Theology at Baylor University. She holds a Ph.D. from Duke University, an M.A. in Religion from University of Chicago, and a B.A. from Harvard University in Comparative Religious Studies. A constructive theologian who reflects on traditional theological topics through somewhat less traditional themes, like images, iconoclasm, beauty, gender, and childhood, Natalie draws on literary and visual works as sites of theological reflection to explore questions of religious knowledge and authority. In addition to authoring articles in Modern Theology, Journal of Religion, and Scottish Journal of Theology, among other journals, she is the author of Beauty: A Theological Engagement with Gregory of Nyssa (Cascade, 2014), Image and Presence: A Christological Reflection on Iconoclasm and Iconophilia (Stanford University Press, 2017), and Motherhood: A Confession (Stanford University Press, 2020). For more information on events, blogposts, and other writings, you can visit her website: nataliecarnes.com.
Dr. Thomas Breedlove is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies. He holds a Ph.D. in Theology from Baylor University, an M.Div. from Duke Divinity School, and a B.A. from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. His primary research topics include issues of human nature, embodiment, and divine image in the fourth-century theology of Gregory of Nyssa and contemporary French phenomenology. He has published on these topics and theology and the arts in Modern Theology, St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly, Religion and Literature, Literature and Theology, Political Theology, Anglican Theological Review, Heythrop Journal, and a forthcoming volume on phenomenology and art with Bloomsbury Press.
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Before leaving this earth, Jesus commissioned his apostles: “Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you” (Matt 28:19-20). As one pastor has put it, “We are doing a pretty good job of baptizing people, but we are falling short in our obligation for teaching them to obey everything that the Lord commanded.”
Catechesis is the ancient practice of instruction in “the basic teaching of Christ” (Heb 6:1-2). It has historic roots in the claim by Tertullian of Carthage that Christians “are made, not born.” Instruction in these elemental matters is critical to ensuring that the faith is faithfully handed on to faithful followers of Christ (2 Tim 2:2).
In this workshop, participants will learn how for centuries Christians passed on the basic teaching of Christ, and explore how retrieving the lost practice of catechesis might equip the church to be more faithful and effective in following the call to make disciples. Pastors, teachers, catechists, parents and others interested in learning more about catechesis are especially welcome.
Resource: Curtis W. Freeman, Pilgrim Letters: Instruction in the Basic Teaching of Christ. Fortress Press, 2021.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Dr. Curtis Freeman (Duke Divinity School)
Dr. Curtis W. Freeman is Research Professor of Theology and Baptist Studies and Director of the Baptist House of Studies at Duke Divinity School in Durham, NC, and a Research Fellow with the IRCC. His research and teaching explores areas of Free Church theology.
His most recent book, Pilgrim Letters: Instruction in the Basic Teachings of Christ (Fortress, 2021) is a work of catechetical instruction written as a series of letters providing instruction in the basic teaching of Christ (read an IRCC review here). He is also the author of Undomesticated Dissent: Democracy and the Public Virtue of Religious Noncomformity (Baylor University Press, 2017), Contesting Catholicity: Theology for Other Baptists (Baylor University Press, 2014), A Company of Women Preachers: Baptist Prophetesses in Seventeenth-Century England (Baylor University Press, 2011), and Baptist Roots: A Reader in the Theology of a Christian People (Judson Press, 1999). He is an ordained Baptist minister and serves as editor of the American Baptist Quarterly and serves on the Baptist World Alliance Commission on Doctrine and Christian Unity.
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Greg Peters on the nature of medieval monastic theology as a model for contemporary Christian catechesis. Delivered at Christ Church Waco on February 23, 2022.
ABOUT
Since the publication of Jean Leclercq’s groundbreaking book, The Love of Learning and the Desire for God: A Study of Monastic Culture, there have been two main of ways of thinking about the theological methods that prevailed in the Middle Ages: monastic versus scholastic.
While many Christians are more familiar scholastic theology—characterized by the disputation method and question-and-answer format of luminaries like St. Thomas Aquinas—monastic theology is less well known or is thought to deal with practical monastic affairs like prayer, purity of heart, and asceticism.
However, monastic theology has a unique theological sensibility of its own. Monastic theology was done by monks living in monasteries. It was highly dependent on the Apostolic Fathers and sought to provide a robust theological reflection on the articles of Christian faith. In monastic theology, the principal task of the theologian is to transmit and explain the Bible not, for example, to reconcile the many conflicting theological perspectives that exist in Christian history. The end of monastic theology was prayer and ultimately union with God.
This talk will investigate the nature of “monastic theology,” retrieving its methodology as a way of conducting contemporary Christian catechesis. For both monastic theology and for catechesis, the goal is to reform of catechumen ab verbo et exemplo—in both word and deed, in mind and action.
Rev. Dr. Greg Peters (PhD, St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto; SMD, Pontificio Ateneo di Sant’Anselmo) is Associate Professor of Medieval and Spiritual Theology at the Torrey Honors College at Biola University, the Servants of Christ Research Professor of Monastic Studies and Ascetical Theology at Nashotah House Theological Seminary, an ordained Anglican priest, and Benedictine oblate. He studies the history of monasticism and spiritual and ascetical theology, and has written numerous books on the retrieval of monasticism for the contemporary Church, including The Monkhood of All Believers: The Monastic Foundation of Christian Spirituality (Baker Academic, 2018); The Story of Monasticism: Retrieving an Ancient Tradition for Contemporary Spirituality (Baker Academic, 2015); and Reforming the Monastery: Protestant Theologies of Religious Life (Cascade, 2014).
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February 2020
Eucharist Church | San Francisco, CA
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February 2020
Eucharist Church | San Francisco, CA
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March 23, 2019
Christ Church | Waco, TX
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March 23, 2019
Christ Church | Waco, TX
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March 23, 2019
Christ Church | Waco, TX
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Catechesis as Mystagogy
feat. Hans Boersma
2019 Catechesis Colloquium
What is the purpose of catechesis? What is its place in the (post-)modern world? How does catechesis relate to ongoing, lifelong discipleship? What is the ultimate goal of catechetical theology?
Learn from theologian Hans Boersma how a robust sacramental approach to theology can strengthen and enliven the ministry of catechesis in the church today. "Mystagogy" is an ancient term meaning "leading into the mysteries." In this conference, we will explore how the notion of catechesis as mystagogy—as being led into life with God—can enable the flourishing of lifelong discipleship. More than just learning the catechism, more than just a "check list" of ideas to memorize, catechesis is about preparing for and entering deeper into life in Christ.
Ideally suited for pastors, catechists, lay educators, seminarians, and parents, this one-day immersion in catechesis will enable you to learn from one of the best minds in the church today, and enjoy the fellowship of like-minded pastors and laypeople who are passionate about the renewal of catechesis.
