The Incarnational Imagination: Growing in Faith, Hope, and Love through the Power of Literature

Dr. Christina Bieber Lake

MS 719 / 819
Mode: In-person and remote
Course dates: May 27-Aug 30
On-Campus Dates: July 8-12
Tuition: $1,725 (Credit) / $575 (Audit)
Community life fee: $115
Apply by: May 1

We live in an age of increasing simulation, stimulation, and speed. The soul of the church has suffered from our culture’s tacit acceptance that what happens in the mind is more important than what happens in the body, leading to increasingly abstract and virtual substitutes for embodied community and transformative experience. This techno-gnosticism has left us empty and despairing, our imaginations both manipulated and flattened by a relentless consumer culture. Pounded by a culture of “total work,” we live lives of quiet desperation, exhausted and unable to slow down and attend to the arts—the very acts of attention that have the power to transform the way we see the world and interact with others.

In this class we will explore both why and how the church can recover the transformative power of thinking through fiction and poetry—not just about it. A deeply sacramental writer, Flannery O’Connor called fiction an “incarnational art” because it defies gnostic fantasies of transcending the body and its limitations. Literature follows the logic of the incarnation of Jesus. It offers a revelatory experience of the true, the good, and the beautiful, not an argument. The arts of story and poetry reach through the imagination and the senses to our hearts and souls, opening new possibilities for resonance with God and one another. The class will focus on how we can grow in the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love by developing habits of contemplation and being that only the arts can offer.

Other than the week on campus, there are no other scheduled meetings for this course. Students will be given independent reading and assignments to be completed within the course dates.

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Reflections of Genesis in the Old Testament

The Rev. Dr. Travis Bott

OT 710 / 810
Mode: In-person
Course dates: May 27-Aug 30
On-Campus Dates: July 8-12
Tuition: $1,725 (Credit) / $575 (Audit)
Community life fee: $115
Apply by: May 1

In recent years, biblical scholars have become more interested in how the New Testament authors used the Old Testament Scriptures, both explicitly and implicitly. It is less commonly acknowledged, however, that later Old Testament authors also made use of prior Old Testament texts. This usage is more difficult to detect because it often involves subtle allusion. The most fundamental text in the Bible is Genesis, the book of beginnings. Using the metaphor of image and reflection, this class will investigate how the narrative images of Genesis are reflected, through similarity and contrast, in later Old Testament stories. We will begin with a literary study of the book of Genesis itself, followed by consideration of various texts that allude to Genesis. Finally, students will discover and explore their own examples of reflections of Genesis in later Old Testament books.

The Ascetical Theology of the Caroline Divines

The Rev. Dr. Greg Peters

AT 750 / 850
Mode: In-person
Course dates: May 27-Aug 30
On-Campus Dates: July 8-12
Tuition: $1,725 (Credit) / $575 (Audit)
Community life fee: $115
Apply by: May 1

The late Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey once said that to understand Anglican theology we need to look not only at Hooker and the Elizabethan theologians but to the Caroline Divines. This class will examine the ascetical theology of the Caroline Divines, particularly their spirituality of the Holy Eucharist, priesthood, and Christian living in the parish. We will consider the works of Lancelot Andrewes, William Laud, Jeremy Taylor, and George Herbert.

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The Vocation of the Deacon

The Rev. Ben Jefferies

PM522
Mode: In-Person
Course Dates: May 27-Aug 30
Dates on Campus: July 8-12
Cost: $1725 (Credit) / $575 (Audit)
Apply by: May 1

This course is designed specifically for students preparing to be, or currently serving as, vocational deacons. It will introduce students to the biblical, historical and theological foundations for the diaconate. It will also provide a practical basis for the role of the deacon in the parish and focus on areas of ministry traditionally regarded as the vocation of the deacon.

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Enchanted Worship

The Rev. Dr. Hans Boersma

ST 706/806
Mode: In-person
Course dates: May 27-Aug 30
On-Campus Dates: July 15-19
Tuition: $1,725 (Credit) / $575 (Audit)
Community life fee: $115
Apply by: May 1

This course grounds worship within a sacramental ontology—that is to say, a way of looking at the world that acknowledges the real presence of God in earthly realities. In worship we go up to heaven to join the angelic choirs, while heavenly realities become present here on earth. We will ask how we can ground such assertions metaphysically. And we will turn in some detail to the two specific elements of sacramental worship that have always been regarded as central to Christian liturgy: Scripture and Eucharist. The course aims to contribute to a theology of worship that is grounded in a participatory outlook on life that re-enchants both the cosmos as a whole and our liturgical Sunday morning worship of the triune God.

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Leadership in the Anglican Tradition

The Rev. Dr. Kelly O’Lear

PM 705/805
Mode: In-person
Course dates: May 27-Aug 30
On-Campus Dates: July 15-19
Tuition: $1,725 (Credit) / $575 (Audit)
Community life fee: $115
Apply by: May 1

This course provides advanced instruction in and analysis of leadership in the Anglican tradition. This is accomplished through focusing on prominent Anglicans within their historical contexts. Upon completion, students will gain knowledge in the life and leadership of laudable Anglican leaders, common elements of leadership, applications of effective leadership, and warning signs of leadership failures. 

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Introduction to Church Music

Dr. Geoffrey Williams

CM 501H
Course Dates: June 10- July 22
On-Campus Dates: July 15-19
Mode: In-person
Tuition: $1,725 (Credit) / $575 (Audit)
Community life fee: $115
Apply by: May 1

An offering for hybrid-distance students and inquiring amateur musicians. This one-week intensive course offers a concise history of Christian church music and introduces basic musical skills necessary for liturgical officiating and participation. Students will receive a basic proficiency in reading music, chanting, and pointing collects and lessons. The course explores the development of liturgical music, from the early church to the present providing the framework for examining plainsong, Anglican chant, psalmody, hymnody, and other music. Students will learn liturgical and musical terms and put them into practice in their historical context through daily Chapel services.

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Church Musicians Workshop

July 21-26

An immersive, five-day residential program under the direction of Dr. Geoffrey Williams that combines the liturgical life of Nashotah House with the expertise of renowned veteran church musicians and scholars to create a vehicle for professional development and personal enrichment that is unlike any other. Participants will engage in daily liturgies in St. Mary’s Chapel and opportunities for group and private study in composition, ensemble singing, voice, and organ. All are invited to participate: singers, conductors, organists, and clergy alike.

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Systematic Theology 1

The Rev. Dr. Thomas Holtzen

ST 501H
Mode: In-person
Course dates: July 22-August 30
On-Campus Dates: July 22-26
Tuition: $1,725 (Credit) / $575 (Audit)
Community life fee: $115
Apply by: May 1

The first in a two-course sequence of Christian doctrine from the Anglican perspective, covering divine revelation, Scripture, tradition, reason, faith, creation, original sin, the Trinity, christology, and pneumatology. This course will examine the major Christian doctrines, from their biblical foundations through their historical developments to their modern expressions. We will give particular attention to how Anglicans have received and understood these doctrines and to their importance in the life of the church.

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Old Testament Survey 1

Dr. Matt Lynch

OT 511H
Mode: In-person
Course dates: July 22-August 30
On-Campus Dates: July 22-26
Tuition: $1,725 (Credit) / $575 (Audit)
Community life fee: $115
Apply by: May 1

This course is designed to introduce students to the ongoing vitality of the Old Testament for the ministry and mission of the church. After addressing key interpretive issues, the course surveys the contents of the Old Testament, with a focus on the historical context, literary shape, and theological and ethical challenges of each book. At the end of the course, students should gain a new appreciation for the Old Testament as an integrated whole and its potential as a resource for the Christian journey. This is the first of a two-part “complex”(OT 511-512) that introduces students to the Old Testament.

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Practical Liturgics for the Parish Priest

The Rev. Dr. Matthew S. C. Olver

LT 601H
Mode: In-person
Course dates: July 22-August 30
On-Campus Dates: July 22-26
Tuition: $1,725 (Credit) / $575 (Audit)
Community life fee: $115
Apply by: May 1

The goal of this course is to prepare those intending to serve as priests in the Anglican tradition in all aspects of liturgical priestcraft. We will focus on the principles undergirding Western ceremonial and its application to Anglican liturgies, along with vestments, the furnishings of a church, the liturgical calendar, and lectionaries. The centerpiece of the course will be the celebration of the Mass in all its possible varieties (sung and spoken, ad orientem and versus populum, traditional and contemporary language), along with Christian initiation (baptism and confirmation), Holy Matrimony, Christian Burial, and the special liturgies of the liturgical year.

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