Church Fathers and Early Christianity

Program Overview

The Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Church Fathers and Early Christianity studies the centuries in which Christian doctrine, worship, canon, and ministry took the shape the church still inhabits. The creeds were not handed down whole; they were hammered out by people arguing about Scripture under pressure, often at personal cost. A student who reads Athanasius, Basil, Augustine, and Cyril closely comes away with better judgement than any summary can give. The curriculum works through the primary texts in sequence: the apostolic fathers, the apologists, Irenaeus and the response to gnosticism, Tertullian and Cyprian on church and discipline, Origen and the Alexandrian tradition, the Trinitarian controversies from Nicaea to Constantinople, the Christological controversies from Ephesus to Chalcedon and beyond, Augustine on grace and the church, the monastic literature, and the development of liturgy, canon, and penance. Reading knowledge of Greek and Latin is developed throughout, along with the skills the discipline requires: using critical editions, weighing attribution and pseudonymity, handling translation history, and situating a text in its rhetorical and political setting. Late antiquity is treated as a real world of emperors, cities, councils, and persecutions rather than a backdrop for ideas. The dissertation makes an original contribution on a father, a controversy, a text, or a practice. Graduates teach historical theology and patristics, translate and edit, and serve churches with a long memory of how doctrine was won.

Core Courses

• PAT 801 — Sources and Method in Patristic Studies (6 credits)
• PAT 812 — Apostolic Fathers to Irenaeus (6 credits)
• PAT 824 — The Trinitarian Controversies (6 credits)
• PAT 836 — The Christological Controversies (6 credits)
• PAT 848 — Augustine, Monasticism, and Church Practice (5 credits)
• PAT 860 — Research Design in Patristic Studies (4 credits)
• PAT 899 — Doctoral Dissertation in Patristic Studies (24 credits)

Admission Requirements

• Master's degree in biblical studies, theology, history, or a closely related field
• Prior coursework in the biblical or historical languages the specialization requires
• Statement of purpose naming the research question you intend to pursue
• Academic writing sample, ideally an exegetical or historical research paper
• Current curriculum vitae
• Official transcripts from prior institutions when available