The concentration consists of four courses (twelve hours) approved by the Director. Of these, two must belong to the cycle of courses dealing with the history of spirituality, i.e., Patristic Theology and Spirituality, Medieval Spirituality and Modern Spirituality. Descriptions follow.
History of Christian doctrines from apostolic times to the end of the Patristic period in the West and into the Byzantine period in the East, with special attention paid to the interconnection between early Christian doctrine and spirituality. Authors studied may include: Origen, Evagrius, Athanasius, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa, Denys the Areopogite, Maximus the Confessor, Ambrose, Augustine. Prerequisite: Theology 2311, Western Theological Tradition.
Deals with monastic spirituality, pastoral spirituality, the spirituality of the friars and late Medieval spirituality. Authors studied may include: Benedict of Nursia, Gregory the Great, Bernard of Clairvaux, William of St. Thierry, Aelred of Rievaulx, Richard of St. Victor, Francis of Assisi, Clare, Bonaventure, Jordan of Saxony, Humbert of Romans, Eckhart, Catherine of Siena, Walter Hilton, Rusbroec, Nicholas of Cusa, Thomas à Kempis.
Close reading of major texts showing the development of the contemplative tradition from the sixteenth through the twentieth century. Authors studied may include: Thomas More, Luther, Calvin, Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Francis de Sales, Bérulle, Pascal, Spenser, Wesley, Newman, Thérèse of Lisieux, Merton.
Chair and Associate Professor of English Debra Romanick Baldwin, Ph.D., and Professor of Physics and recent Interim Dean of Constantin College Sally Hicks, Ph.D., have secured a $299,078 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support writing instruction at UD for the fall 2020 semester.
+ Read MoreHis first step was to enroll in physician’s assistant school at Baylor’s College of Medicine, a career trajectory to which he had aspired since his early childhood. Nowadays, Jonathan Cunningham, BA ’17, is dedicated to the vocational pursuit of comfort and healing at MD Anderson in Houston, among the largest cancer treatment centers in the U.S., where he was once a chemotherapy patient himself.
+ Read MoreDuring his Rome semester in 1991, Joseph Meaney, BA '93, with his friends (now Father) Kevin Cook, BA '94, and (now Texas State Representative and UD Trustee) Tan Parker, BA '93, attended a private Mass with Pope St. John Paul II. Several weeks earlier, they had hand-delivered a letter to the Swiss Guards outside St. Peter's requesting the Mass and including their contact information; at last, they'd received the phone call instructing them to be at the Bronze Gates at 5 a.m.
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