Description
This Theology course is taught by Davenant Teaching Fellow Ryan Hurd, and will run from July 4th through August 26th 2022. The syllabus is available here.
Amidst the recent resurgence of interest in Thomas Aquinas, it is often forgotten that, as well as being a master theologian and philosopher, he was also a preacher. As high-flying as Thomas’s thought may be, his work was always ultimately pastoral, designed to aid both clergy and laity in their worship of Christ. Medieval masters, aiming to be magistri sacrae paginae (masters of holy Scripture), disciplined themselves in three functions: lectio, (reading holy Scripture); disputatio, (explaining holy Scripture); and praedicatio, (preaching holy Scripture). As a foremost master of the newly minted Order of Preachers, Thomas’s task as a theologian included careful preparation and delivery of sermons–often delivered to future preachers and in the presence of current ones. Through studying Thomas’s sermons, this class will attempt to understand this aspect of his work and garner fresh insights into the theological task of preaching.
Students will undertake a reflective reading of around two dozen of Aquinas’s sermons. Students will carefully read his sermon series on the Lord’s Prayer, alongside working through his “academic sermons” (a series of twenty sermons delivered at university) and his inaugural lecture sermons, wherein we find Thomas arguing that the preacher is first and foremost a magister sacrae paginae.Through reflective reading of around two dozen sermons by Thomas Aquinas, this course serves as an introduction to Aquinas as a preacher. Students will carefully read his sermon series on the Lord’s Prayer, alongside working through his “academic sermons” (a series of twenty sermons delivered at university) and his inaugural lecture sermons, wherein we find Thomas arguing that the preacher is first and foremost a magister sacrae paginae.
Ryan Hurd is a doctoral student at the Theologische Universiteit Kampen, and a Teaching Fellow in systematic theology at The Davenant Institute.
Online only, runs 8 weeks, meeting 2.5 hr./wk. via Zoom. Students will also have the option to participate in class discussion on the Davenant Common Room Discord server. Register to reserve your spot and schedule will be set after a poll of participating students; if the class time does not fit your schedule, you will be eligible for a full refund.
This is a graduate-level course. Although a BA is not a necessary pre-requisite for this course, students should come prepared to do graduate-level work.