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Theology

Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts > Academics > Areas of Study > Theology

Through our core courses on Scripture and theology, we seek to arrive at a deeper understanding of the full splendor and deposit of the faith, a deposit that has enlivened Christian hearts and minds for over two millennia.  This is undertaken primarily by examining patristic and scholastic writings, Sacred Scripture, magisterial documents, and writings by contemporary thinkers and authors. 

The teachers of theology at Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts receive the mandatum, an acknowledgment by our bishop “that a Catholic professor of a theological discipline is a teacher within the full communion of the Catholic Church.” 

For non-Catholic students, this six-semester sequence allows them to gain a thorough understanding of the Catholic teachings in both their historical and contemporary dimensions. Non-Catholic students are encouraged to participate fully in the conversations throughout the sequence, sharing their perspectives freely.

Six courses constitute this sequence and students who complete it (meeting certain criteria) may earn our “Apostolic Catechetical Diploma”:

The Sacraments and Prayer

Freshman Year, fall semester, 3 credits
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“God became man that man might become God.” These astounding words of St. Athanasius, repeated so often by the Church Fathers, summarize the great mystery of salvation in Christ. In the Incarnation, the God-man, Jesus Christ, “deified human nature” and by sending the Holy Spirit, he has made the Church the means of deification of every human person.

This course focuses on this Mystery of Salvation as it is believed, celebrated, and experienced in the Church’s mystical life of prayer and the sacraments. Together we seek both a practical and theological understanding of the nature of prayer and the sacraments as the means by which the Holy Spirit bestows the grace of divine life, deepens our personal communion with God, and transforms us into “partakers of the Divine nature” (2 Pete 1:4). Texts for this course include: Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy; Raniero Cantalamessa, Life in Christ: A Spiritual Commentary on the Letter to the Romans; R. M. French, The Way of a Pilgrim and The Pilgrim Continues His Way; and Rev. Jean Corbon, The Wellspring of Worship.

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Credo

Freshman Year, spring semester, 3 credits
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Having explored, last year, the mystery of salvation in Christ as it is experienced in the mystical and sacramental life of the Church, we move now to a study of the mystery as it is professed and believed by the Church. Through this course we will come to know, understand, and appreciate the fundamental truths of the Christian faith as enshrined in the Nicene Creed. This will be accomplished through our broad examination of the context, development, and theology of the basic dogmas of the faith, as well as of the major heresies in response to which the dogmas were defined and proclaimed. Key texts include: Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Introduction to Christianity; and Documents in Early Christian Thought, ed. Wiles and Santer.

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Sacra Scriptura I and II

Sophomore Year, fall & spring semesters, 3 credits each
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While acknowledging with St. Jerome that “ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ,” we also recognize that knowledge of scripture is critical to understanding most of our Western cultural patrimony. Thus, through this course students enter deeply into God’s self-revelation through Sacred Scripture and chart its development through time by sacred tradition. Particular emphasis will be given to the covenantal and nuptial character revealed by God throughout salvation history and developed to the present day by magisterial teaching. The course will allow for a closer study of key teachings of the Catholic faith, i.e. creation, Fall, redemption, the theology of the body, discipleship, etc., through discussions, lectures, presentations, research, critical assessments, and written analysis. In addition to the direct reading and study of Scripture, key texts include: Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, In the Beginning…A Catholic Understanding of the story of Creation and the Fall; The Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation: Dei Verbum; Ignacio de Potterie, The Hour of Jesus; and others.

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Life in Christ (Moral Theology)

Junior Year, fall semester, 3 credits
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What is our image of complete human flourishing in communion with God and our fellow persons? How can this be achieved? How do we address the claims of moral relativism and is there an alternative that speaks to both reason and faith? In this course students develop answers to these questions rooted in the classical understanding of the human person and the moral teachings of the Catholic Church. We will also take up themes intrinsic to a proper understanding of a Catholic moral theology in light of our respective disciplines (through research, critical assessment, and written and oral discussion of topics related to our major fields.) Texts include: Pope Saint John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor; Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, On Conscience; Servais Pinckaers, O.P., The Sources of Christian Ethics, and others.

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Theology of Love

Junior Year, spring semester, 3 credits
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Drawing from theological and literary sources, students will develop a richer understanding of what it means to be a human person made in the image and likeness of God (Imago Dei) and to love as Christian persons. Students will also reflect upon the call to holiness and to a communion that both brings us into the life of the Trinity itself and transforms our human relationships. Texts include: C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves; Karol Wojtyla, The Jeweler’s Shop: A Meditation on the Sacrament of Matrimony Passing on Occasion Into a Drama; Pope Saint John Paul II, Man and Woman He Created Them; Pope Benedict XVI, Deus caritas est, and others.

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The Apostolic Catechetical Diploma

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On October 17th, 1983, the Sacred Congregation for the Clergy, granted the College permission to award the “Diploma for Religious Instruction.” Today, the College awards its “Apostolic Catechetical Diploma,” independently of the Vatican, to Catholic students who complete the six-semester sequence of theological studies with at least a 2.0 in each course and who pledge to teach Catholic doctrine in communion with the Holy See.

Learn More About Our Sequence of Readings

Academics

Finding God on the Quad: Benedict XVI’s Vision for Catholic Higher Education

On this, the ninety-third birthday of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, we offer this essay on his inspiring vision of the ends and means of Catholic education. Today, we are in the midst of a great renewal in Catholic higher education. Colleges and universities founded after the Second Vatican Council with the intention of cultivating a...

Magdalen Students “Writing the Light”

Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts is delighted to announce that students and alumni of the College have been selected to participate in an iconography workshop under the renowned iconographer George Kordis.  This extraordinary program, “Writing the Light,” will be held in Athens and Crete late this summer.   Through generous benefactors, Ms. Keri Wiederspahn, who...

Leo XIII’s “Revolution” and Subsidiarity in Daily Life

The following remarks were offered by one of our theology professors, Karl Cooper, at a recent conference on Wendell Berry. Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891) inaugurated the modern economic age and placed the Catholic Church right in the middle of it.  The Church’s answer to the industrial revolution, Rerum Novarum describes two worlds,...

The Heroic Thomas Aquinas

In the very beginning of the Summa theologiae, Thomas explains what it means to be a theologian. He does this in one quaestio, ten articles; the whole presentation takes only seven pages in the edition I use. I predict that someday you will read it. It may not occur until you are old and find you have...

Newman as Prophet, Newman as Physician

This article was originally published in the March 2020 issue of Inside the Vatican Magazine.  The crisis began well before Newman. In the seventeenth century, René Descartes released pathogens of skepticism and reductionism into higher learning that ultimately hollowed out its core and destroyed its foundations. The effects of his work and those who came after...

Alumna Co-Authors Screenplay for Major Fátima Film

Magdalen College is proud to announce that Dr. Barbara Nicolosi Harrington, ‘94, has co-written the screenplay for Fátima, a film to be released nationwide on 1000 screens.  The film features Harvey Keitel and Sonia Braga as part of an international cast. The college will be scheduling a screening of the film for the fall of...