The Cradle of Early Christianity: A Journey Through Turkey and Greece
Our journey through the Mediterranean offers an unparalleled opportunity to study the texts of early Christianity in the lands in which they were written and at the sites where the Church itself was formed and grew. We will visit the sites where the Apostle Paul preached the Gospel to the early Christians and travel the routes the early Christian missionaries and martyrs traveled. We will study the writings of the later Church leaders and writers of the 2nd and 3rd centuries who taught and led these Churches out of their infancy. We will also examine the Creeds in the cities in which they were written and promulgated. We will benefit from local guides and lecturers who will place these sites and their history in perspective and examine the local cultures and ancient Churches, which still survive today.
Christian Initiation and Worship in the Early Church: Rome, Italy
This course is an invitation to enter imaginatively into the modes of piety, patterns of thought, and styles of practice that shaped Christianity from its beginnings up to the fifth century. We will explore the origins of the catechumenate, initiation rites and baptism in their cultural, religious, and architectural setting. We will study what can be gleaned from the ancient sources about the structure, content and theology of the liturgy. Special attention will be given to the liturgical and theological function of early Christian art and architecture.
Catholicism and Orthodoxy in Ukraine
This course will introduce students to the distinction between Roman (i.e. Latin-rite) Catholicism, Greek (i.e., Byzantine-rite) Catholicism, and Russian-Ukrainian Orthodoxy. The course will study the history of Christianity in the Ukraine, theological and liturgical differences and similarities among these Churches, the persecution of the Churches under Communism, and contemporary situation of the Churches, their successes and problems.
Paul L. Gavrilyuk 