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Foundations for theological ethics
This course introduces students to the central
concepts and key debates in theological ethics,
with a focus on the manner in which they are
developed within the Catholic tradition. The
course will examine the nature of moral
experience and its relation to religious faith.
The course will introduce students to key
debates in theological ethics including natural
law and the universality of ethics; the nature and
role of conscience, moral reasoning and the role
of moral principles; the role of Church teaching
authority in the Catholic tradition (the
magisterium) in the moral area.
How to apply
Applications can be made to the Director of
the Loyola Institute, Irish School of Ecumenics
and Loyola Institute Building, Trinity College,
Dublin 2. Applications should be received by
16
September 2013.
Fee
€150 for each course. For security reasons
payment should be by cheque/draft/postal
money order only, made payable to Trinity
College no. 1 account. A concession rate is
available to second and third level students,
unemployed persons and those in receipt of
a social welfare pension.
Date
Teaching in Michaelmas term commences
during the week beginning 23 September 2013.
Please note these are day-time courses.
Duration
The courses run for a total of eleven weeks in
Michaelmas term.
Further information
Contact: Emma Lindsay, Executive Officer,
Loyola Institute, Trinity College, Dublin 2.
Email:
Hilary term (January-April 2014)
The making of Catholic theology: the
Patristic period
The purpose of this course is to explore the
emergence of the discipline of theology in its
historical, social and cultural contexts in the
early post-New Testament period. The Patristic
period exerted a great infuence on such important
areas as the establishment of the canon of
scripture, the science of the interpretation of the
biblical text, the development of liturgy, and both
refection and catechesis on the sacramental
rites. The Fathers of the Church contributed
greatly to the development of Christian theology
in such vital areas as Christology, pneumatology
and Trinitarian theology.
Liturgical theology
This course will introduce the student to the idea
of sacrament, in the first part, as a central
theological hermeneutic that underpins some of
the key ways of thinking in the Catholic tradition.
The idea of the ‘sacramental imagination’ will be
explored from the perspective of the early
Christian writers (for example, Augustine), as
well as in modern theological discourse.
Theological anthropology
The vocabulary of grace is redeployed, but also
re-fashioned, argued over, refined. Among many
others there are breakthrough theologies of
grace articulated by Augustine, Aquinas, Luther,
Trent. Perspectives on graced desire and
graced bodiliness will be seen as foundational
to Catholic thinking on sexuality, justice, and
the dignity of human life. The course will also
give attention to the different and distinctive
vocabularies that developed in the Eastern
tradition around themes of sanctification and
deification. The course will explore, in summary
form, other important narratives of human
alienation, including Freud, Marx and Lacan.
In this regard it will debate whether there are
resources in theological anthropology for an
understanding of human nature which have
been lost in modern culture.
