Open Classroom

Audit, Personal Enrichment, or Continuing Education

Open Classroom provides not-for-credit courses from the Graduate School of Theology to learners at all levels whose aims may include professional development for apostolic work, continuing education for teachers, theological training for the diaconate, as well as personal edification and spiritual enrichment. You may choose from courses to audit, book studies, and workshops.

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Spring 2024 Open Classroom Offerings

Audit

The following courses provide full-length Master’s-level course lecture material over the course of a semester.

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Book Studies

Join the faculty for engaging book studies that include live video-conference conversations.

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Workshops

These 5-week workshops will take place online, and learners will interact with faculty via video-conference.

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HIST 501-AU The Church in the Ancient and Medieval World with Carl Vennerstom

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January 15–May 1
Cost: $400
Last Day to Register: January 15

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “[t]he Church is in history, but at the same time she transcends it” (CCC 770).
This course invites students to pursue deeper understanding of this teaching by means of an introduction to the basic contours of the Church’s historical pilgrimage from the Ascension of Christ to the fourteenth century. Taking political, cultural, and social circumstances into account, the course approaches this history primarily in terms of evangelization, that is, the reception, embodiment, articulation, and transmission of the inexhaustible Mystery of the Gospel. The course focuses on Christianity’s initial expansion, the emergence of distinctively Christian modes of thought and life, and reconfigurations of Christian culture in response to new challenges.

THEO 503-AU Moral and Spiritual Theology with Scott Hefelfinger and John Bishop

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January 15–May 1
Cost: $400
Last Day to Register: January 15

“What good must I do to have eternal life?” (Mt 19:16) asked the young man of Jesus. This same question marks the governing and guiding question of this course. Meditating upon the response Christ gives, drawing upon the resources of reason illuminated by faith, the texts of Scripture, and the Church’s reflection on the work of God, we will deepen our reflections using the path taken by the third and fourth section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and additional primary and secondary sources. Topics considered include: the dignity and ultimate end of the human person; human freedom and the actions that flow from it, the virtues that perfect these actions, the laws that guide them, and the vices and sins that deform them; the social dimension of the moral life; and the nature and role of prayer and conversion in the Christian life.

LANG 602-AU Biblical Greek II with James Prothro

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January 15–May 1
Cost: $400
Last Day to Register: January 15

This course completes student instruction in the grammar of Koine (biblical) Greek and proceeds to deeper translation and analysis of ancient texts. After one unit completing all basic grammar not covered in Greek I, the lectures and assignments will focus on reading and translation of whole passages from the New Testament, along with some passages from the Septuagint and Apostolic Fathers. Lecture and other material will provide further perspective on syntax, how to analyze theologically significant terms, and interpretation.

SCRP 502-AU Jesus and the Gospels with John Sehorn and Curtis Mitch

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January 15–May 1
Cost $400
Last Day to Register: January 15

The four canonical Gospels constitute “the principal witness for the life and teaching of the incarnate Word, our savior” (Dei Verbum 18). For believers, the highest aim of all study of the Gospels is to know Jesus Christ ever more fully. In this course, students will gain insight into how historical, literary, and theological tools can be fruitfully engaged to that end. The relationship between the Gospels and the Old Testament receives special consideration. The course primarily follows a canonical itinerary, attending to the distinctive characteristics of each of the Evangelists’ portrayals of the one Lord Jesus Christ.

SCRP 602-AU Psalms & Wisdom Literature with Mark Giszczak

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January 15–May 1
Cost: $400
Last Day to Register: January 15

This course will explore the literature of worship and wisdom in the Old Testament. Through an in-depth engagement with these ancient texts in light of recent scholarship, students will examine the historical background, literary provenance and poetic purposes of the diverse books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Sirach and Wisdom. Rather than limiting the scope to form-critical and compositional concerns, the course will consider the function of the Psalms in the cult of ancient Israel and the social role and development of wisdom literature in the life of post-exilic Judaism. Furthermore, this course will uncover the roots of Christological interpretation of the Psalms in the New Testament, and the use of Psalms in Jewish and Christian traditions of prayer. The course will highlight the theological significance of these texts’ structures, their inner coherence, their original meaning and their relevance for the life of the Church today.

THEO 511-AU The Christian Life and Discipleship with John Sehorn and Carl Vennerstrom

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January 15–May 1
Cost: $400
Last Day to Register: January 15

Discipleship is the pattern of effective evangelization and formation. This course explores discipleship as the means of conversion and growth in the qualities exhibited by a mature follower of Christ. Texts include: Second Vatican Council, Apostolicam Actuositatem; Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi; John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio; and Francis, Evangelii Gaudium.

THEO 116 Flannery O’Connor’s The Violent Bear It Away: Four Literary Approaches with Jacob Pride

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January 15–February 15, Mondays at 4:00pm MST
Cost $100
Last Day to Register: January 15

The four literary approaches (for approaching literature) are excellent ways of going deeper into any great work of literature, but in this book study, we will learn and use them to plunge (or to be plunged?) into Flannery O’Connor’s second and final novel, The Violent Bear It Away. This study, therefore, will serve a three-fold purpose: to learn four useful literary approaches for understanding any fiction you have read, are reading, or will read; to study O’Connor’s extraordinary novel, specifically; and finally, to grow deeper in our Catholic faith, since as O’Connor herself boldly professes: “For me the meaning of life is centered in our Redemption by Christ and what I see in the world I see in its relation to that.”

THEO 416 Penance, Hope, and God’s Mercy: A Lenten Walk through Scripture with James Prothro

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Alumni Only
February 19–March 1, Mondays at 4:00pm MST*
*Due to daylight saving, March 11 will be at 4:00pm MDT

Last Day to Register: February 19

The season of Lent summons us to prepare for Christ’s resurrection in penance, confession, and self-denial. But self-denial isn’t meant to just be a No to our sinful desires, but also a Yes to God and God’s invitation to his forgiveness and love. Join James Prothro in a book study that walks through the drama of repentance and salvation in Scripture and hear in its pages God’s call to be reconciled to him. The Bible and Reconciliation: Confession, Repentance, and Restoration (A Catholic Biblical Theology of the Sacraments) is available for preorder.

CEDU 301 The World Will Little Note—The Contemporary and Enduring Power of Great Speeches with Andrew Seeley

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January 15–February 16
Cost $400
Weekly Sessions: Thursdays, 6:30–7:45pm Mountain

Last Day to Register: January 15
For Credit Opportunity: The following 5-week Open Classroom workshops will be online, and learners will have interaction with faculty via Zoom. Learners who choose to submit assignments and subsequently enroll in the MA Catholic Education program will have the opportunity to earn 1 credit per course.

Classical education aimed to form leaders who could draw upon the full power of language to convey rich ideas with power to penetrate the souls of their listeners and change the course of history. In this course, we will discuss speeches which have had such power in the light of the categories and techniques of the traditional art of rhetoric.

CEDU 303 J.R.R. Tolkien—Educator of the Second Spring with Andrew Seeley

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April 1–May 3
Cost $400
Weekly Sessions: Thursdays, 6:30–7:45pm Mountain

Last Day to Register: April 1
For Credit Opportunity: The following 5-week Open Classroom workshops will be online, and learners will have interaction with faculty via Zoom. Learners who choose to submit assignments and subsequently enroll in the MA Catholic Education program will have the opportunity to earn 1 credit per course.

Plato called Homer “The Educator of the Greeks” because his great epics shaped the cultural imagination of Greek society. For a similar reason, JRR Tolkien might fittingly be called the educator of what Stratford Caldecott, following St. Newman, referred to as “The Second Spring” of Catholicism. In this course, we will discuss the content and effects of his great epic, The Lord of the Rings, as we work to understand the power of Tolkien’s craft.

Join Open Classroom

There is a one-time fee of $50 to join Open Classroom.

If your parish, diocese, school, or apostolate is in need of non-degree academic training, contact Kathryn Gillette, to discuss the ways we can provide continuing education for your organization through Open Classroom.

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