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LIMITED TIME OFFER: Save More Than 50% Off the Monthly Plan with this Annual Plan Special Offer! Offer Ends 06/22/2025.

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LIMITED TIME OFFER: Save More Than 50% Off the Monthly Plan with this Annual Plan Special Offer! Offer Ends 06/22/2025.

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LIMITED TIME OFFER: Save More Than 50% Off the Monthly Plan with this Annual Plan Special Offer! Offer Ends 06/22/2025.

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LIMITED TIME OFFER: Save More Than 50% Off the Monthly Plan with this Annual Plan Special Offer! Offer Ends 06/22/2025.

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LIMITED TIME OFFER: Save More Than 50% Off the Monthly Plan with this Annual Plan Special Offer! Offer Ends 06/22/2025.

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LIMITED TIME OFFER: Save More Than 50% Off the Monthly Plan with this Annual Plan Special Offer! Offer Ends 06/22/2025.

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Trailer

01: What Is Theology?

For more than two millennia, Christians have explored a set of critical theological questions: Who is Jesus Christ? How does his life impact the lives of the faithful? This lecture offers a definition of the intellectual discipline that seeks to answer these questions: Christian theology.

32 min

02: Early Christian Proclamation

For the first believers, Christian faith was a quest to understand the nature of a single, remarkable person. In this lecture, you will gain an understanding of what the first members of this faith believed about Jesus as you explore the earliest recorded Christian hymns, prayers, and sermons.

31 min

03: Pauline Eschatology

Early Christians viewed themselves as living between the time of Christ's resurrection and Christ's return as redeemer and king. This lecture examines the theology of this expectation of the Second Coming—called "eschatology"—as it is presented in the writings of the apostle Paul.

32 min

04: The Synoptic Gospels

The Gospels are the four books of the New Testament that narrate the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Three of them, the synoptic Gospels, tell his story in roughly the same order. This lecture analyzes the subtle literary structure by which these narratives evoke an answer to the question, "Who do you think Jesus is?"

31 min

05: The Gospel of John

Unlike the synoptic Gospels, the Gospel of John dwells at length on Jesus's divine identity. You explore the unique elements of John's message—including his famous prologue in which he declares that Jesus is the Word of God made flesh—and examine how the Gospel of John provides a foundation for later doctrines about Christ's divinity.

31 min

06: Varieties of Early Christianity

By the second century, the Christian church was largely non-Jewish, or Gentile. In this lecture, you take a closer look at some radical offshoots of Gentile Christianity, the Gnostics, and see how these controversial groups rejected Christianity's Jewish roots in favor of a more spiritual view of the universe.

31 min

07: The Emergence of Christian Doctrine

Here, you learn how the very idea of official church doctrine arose, as well as its opposite, "heresy." In response to Gnosticism and other rejected teachings, the mainstream church developed institutions such as the office of bishop, whose function was to maintain continuity with the tradition of teaching by the apostles.

31 min

08: Christian Reading

Looking back to Jewish scriptures, early Christians could not ignore the powerful relationship between the Jewish people and their God. You examine how early Christians created strategies to insert themselves into this grand story by interpreting the ancient teachings as bearing witness to Jesus Christ.

32 min

09: The Uses of Philosophy

You explore the profound interplay between two great forms of ancient thought: early Christianity and ancient philosophy. Agreeing with the philosophers' emphasis on reason, wisdom, and happiness, the church fathers adapted many themes from ancient thinkers, including Platonist metaphysics and Stoic moralism.

32 min

10: The Doctrine of the Trinity

You examine the most fundamental teaching proposed by the church fathers, the doctrine of the Trinity, which identifies the God of the Christian faith as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—a single divine essence that mysteriously manifests itself in three distinct, complete individuals.

32 min

11: The Doctrine of the Incarnation

The establishment of the doctrine of the Trinity paved the way for the development of a second key teaching, the doctrine of Christ's Incarnation. You examine the implications of this doctrine, which states that as the Son of the Father, Jesus is truly God, while as the son of Mary, he is truly human.

31 min

12: The Doctrine of Grace

The third fundamental doctrine proposed by the early church fathers states that believers become children of God by adoption, through the grace of Christ who is the Son of God by nature. Augustine develops this into a doctrine of the inner help of the Holy Spirit, which is necessary for salvation.

32 min

13: The Incomprehensible and the Supernatural

You move from the ancient world of the late Roman Empire to the Middle Ages as you consider a distinctive concept of Christianity: the incomprehensibility of God. This concept follows from the Nicene doctrine of the Trinity and is grounded in ineffable mysteries such as the eternal begetting of God the Son by God the Father.

31 min

14: Eastern Orthodox Theology

Next, you examine a second great development in medieval Christian history, the formation of a distinctly Eastern Orthodox version of Christian theology. You explore some of the hallmarks of Eastern Orthodox theology, including the veneration of icons, the transfiguration of Christ, and the energies of the Trinity.

31 min

15: Atonement and the Procession of the Spirit

In 1054, the Christian Church saw its first great schism: the separation between Eastern Orthodoxy and the Western church. You explore a fundamental principle that led to this schism: the doctrine of "double procession," which teaches that the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from both the Father and the Son.

32 min

16: Scholastic Theology

In medieval universities, scholars such as Thomas Aquinas applied Aristotelian concepts of logic and science to the study of theology. You examine the result of the intellectual interplay: scholasticism, a distinctively Western deepening of the relationship of faith and reason that used a method of disputation to harmonize diverse strands in the theological tradition.

32 min

17: The Sacraments

Take a closer look at the practices of the medieval church as represented in the development of an important church institution—the seven sacraments. Derived from scripture and believed to be instituted by Christ, these sacred rites were seen as external signs that both signified an inner gift of divine grace and bestowed it on those who believe.

32 min

18: Souls after Death

While early Christians were more concerned with the second coming of Christ than with the fate of the soul after death, there eventually developed teachings about the Christian afterlife. In this lecture, you examine the development of these beliefs and see how they derived from a variety of sources, including Hebrew scripture, the New Testament, and Platonic philosophy.

31 min

19: Luther and Protestant Theology

The break between medieval Catholicism and Protestantism is marked most importantly by a single famous figure, Martin Luther (1483–1546). In this lecture, you examine how Luther came to make his break with the established church and examine some of his key teachings, including the idea that one is justified by faith alone.

32 min

20: Calvin and Reformed Theology

You begin to examine a second great movement of Protestant theology, the Reformed tradition. Founded by John Calvin, Reformed theology pioneers a new concept to Protestant thought, adoption, or the idea that God elects to make some people his children through the grace of Christ.

31 min

21: Protestants on Predestination

Calvin taught that God predestines some people for damnation as well as salvation. Later Calvinists incorporated this doctrine of "double predestination" into a system of eternal divine decrees governing all the events of time. Examine the development of these views as they appear in the classic five-point doctrine of Calvinism.

32 min

22: Protestant Disagreements

While the Reformed and Lutheran traditions of theology were very similar, they also diverged on several key points. One of these key points, which you explore in this lecture, is the nature of Christ's presence in the Eucharist, or the Lord's Supper.

31 min

23: Anabaptists and the Radical Reformation

A radical wing of Protestantism, the Anabaptists, diverged even further from the Catholic tradition when they could see no grounds for infant baptism in scripture. You explore the origins of these persecuted Christian communities and trace their development in today's Mennonite tradition.

32 min

24: Anglicans and Puritans

Now, you move from Germany and Switzerland to England to trace a further divergence within Protestant theology. You see how the Anglicans sought to find a middle way between Catholic practices and Reformed theology, while the Puritans desired a more thoroughly Reformed church divested of all traces of Catholicism.

32 min

25: Baptists and Quakers

Continue your consideration of English Protestantism with two new Christian communities: the Baptists and the Quakers. These traditions are known for their rejection of the state church, their persecution by governing authorities, and their championing of religious freedom.

32 min

26: Pietists and the Turn to Experience

In response to the dry arguments of Protestant scholasticism, the Pietist theologians of Germany advocated a focus on the inward, emotional experience of religious faith. In this lecture, you explore the teachings and practice of the Pietists and a similar but distinct group, the Moravians.

30 min

27: From Puritans to Revivalists

Continue your examination of Protestant traditions with an introductory look at American Revivalism. Beginning in the 18th century with the teachings of Puritan theologian Jonathan Edwards, the Revivalists stressed the importance of a strong, deeply felt conversion experience as a critical part of salvation.

31 min

28: Perfection, Holiness, and Pentecostalism

You trace the further development of American Revivalism as it was influenced by the teachings of John Wesley, who proposed that through the process of sanctification, one could attain spiritual perfection. This notion became a key tenet of Methodism as well as in the Holiness movement promoted by Phoebe Palmer and led to the concept of the baptism of the Holy Spirit in Pentecostalism.

31 min

29: Deism and Liberal Protestantism

You examine two traditions that grew out of the intellectual crisis of the 18th-century Enlightenment. The Deists sought to derive a "natural religion" from the teachings of Reason, while the liberal Protestants based their theology on inner experience, and especially the inner impression made on Christian consciousness by the historical Jesus.

32 min

30: Neo-Orthodoxy—From Kierkegaard to Barth

In the 20th century, neo-orthodox theologians turned from liberal theology's focus on consciousness to an Existentialist focus on the transformation of human existence. Examine how theologian Karl Barth pioneered this reimagining of faith, only to reject it later for a revision of the doctrine of election

32 min

31: Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism

You explore how Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism developed out of the concern that liberal theology was rejecting fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith. Learn about Dispensationalism, whose doctrine of the end times was influential both in Fundamentalism and its offshoot, Evangelicalism.

31 min

32: Protestantism after Modernity

Modernity is both Protestantism's child and its challenge. In this lecture, you examine this central irony—how Modernity was produced by the habits of mind inculcated by Protestantism and yet, according to some theologians, may undermine the faith through its increased emphasis on secularization.

31 min

33: Catholic Theologies of Grace

Now, you return to the 16th century and pick up the story of modern Catholicism. Starting with the teachings of the Council of Trent, you trace the development of Catholic teachings on grace, its role in salvation, and its relation to free will.

32 min

34: Catholic Mystical Theology

In modern Catholicism, mystical theology means supernatural prayer directed toward a union with God in love. This lecture explores this tradition through the writings of St. Theresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross and in Rome's response to the mystical movement known as Quietism.

31 min

35: From Vatican I to Vatican II

You continue to follow the history of Roman Catholic theology in the modern period with an examination of the 19th-century council that defined the infallibility of the pope and the 20th-century council that opened up the Roman Catholic Church's relationship to the world, other religions, and other Christians.

31 min

36: Vatican II and Ecumenical Prospects

The Roman Catholic involvement in ecumenism, initiated in Vatican II, has major consequences for other Christians, especially Protestants. In this final lecture, you explore the notion that Protestants and Catholics have much to learn from each other as they continue to develop their traditions of faith.

32 min

Overview Course No. 6450

Today, the story of Jesus is known the world over. And yet, more than two millennia later, great thinkers and everyday people still struggle to answer questions like: Who was Jesus? Does his salvation apply to everyone? How does one become saved? Over the centuries, these questions have led to fierce debate and produced deep divisions among the faithful. They have driven profound acts of faith and worship and incited war and persecution. They have contributed to the building of nations and the shaping of lives and have deeply influenced some of the greatest thinkers of Western philosophy. To ponder questions like these is to understand the very shape of the Western world and to comprehend the remarkable power Christian faith has in the life of believers.

Now, you have an opportunity to explore these profound questions and the many responses believers, scholars, and theologians have developed over more than 2,000 years. Through this 36-lecture course, award-winning Professor Phillip Cary of Eastern University reveals the enduring power of the Christian tradition - as both an intellectual discipline and a spiritual path.

Through this course, you will gain thought-provoking insights into a set of teachings that changed the world and discover how, by learning about the diverse beliefs and practices within the wider Christian community, you can enrich your own experience of this great faith.

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About

Phillip Cary

In many ways, Plato was the founding figure of Western philosophy; although there were philosophers before him, his writings were the first that founded a lasting Western philosophy.

ALMA MATER

Yale University

INSTITUTION

Eastern University

Dr. Phillip Cary is Professor of Philosophy at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania, where he is also Scholar-in-Residence at the Templeton Honors College. After receiving his B.A. in English Literature and Philosophy from Washington University in St. Louis, Professor Cary earned his M.A. in Philosophy and Ph.D. in Philosophy and Religious Studies from Yale University. Professor Cary is a recent winner of the Lindback Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching at Eastern University. He has also taught at Yale University, the University of Connecticut, and the University of Hartford. As the Arthur J. Ennis Post-Doctoral Fellow at Villanova University, he taught the nationally recognized undergraduate Core Humanities seminars on ancient, medieval, Renaissance, and modern thought. As a scholar, Professor Cary's specialty is the thought of Augustine, but he has also published scholarly articles on Luther, the doctrine of the Trinity, and personal knowledge. His most recent books include two on Augustine, Inner Grace and Outward Signs, both published by Oxford University Press in 2008, as well as a commentary on the book of Jonah, also in 2008, published by Brazos Press.

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