Wendy M. Wright, Ph.D.
Dept. of Theology HC 137
(402) 280-2611
email: wmwright@creighton.edu
Office Hours:
Wednesday 10-12 and Thursday 1-2

Course Description:
The purpose of the class is fourfold:

* to introduce students to the history of Christian spirituality through the lens of the history of the saints;
* to examine the tradition of sanctity and the communion of saints in the Christian church by surveying their theological, canonical, liturgical and devotional development; 
* to assess past models of holiness and image contemporary ones;
* to consider the meaning of the universal call to holiness in the contemporary church.

Assigned Reading:
                Constitution on the Church

Packet of Xeroxed readings (available for purchase from University College)

Elizabeth A. Johnson. Friends of God and Prophets: A Feminist Theological Reading of the Communion of Saints. New York: Continuum, 1999.

Robert Ellsberg. All Saints. New York: Crossroad, 1997.

Requirements:
* Regular attendance (absences should be cleared with instructor).
* Completion of all reading assignments.
* Participation in class discussions.
* Two integration papers, due October 9^th and November 13th
the purpose of which is to give students the opportunity to reflect on the class material from the perspective of their own experience.
* One oral report (maximum of 10 minutes) in class on a topic to be arranged with the instructor or the preparation and facilitation of class discussion on one of the assigned readings.

Grades:
Participation and preparation of assignments: 1/3 of grade
Papers: 1/3 of grade
Oral Report: 1/3 of grade
Papers will be evaluated on the following criteria:
Clear, succinct thesis
Clear, succinct method
Writing style
Grasp of content, facility of ideas
Imagination of presentation
Maturity of integrative reflection.

Assignments

August 28
Introduction
The universal call to holiness
Read: Constitution on the Church
 (Universal Call to Holiness and Eschatological nature of the Pilgrim Church)

September 11
Early church and its saints: martyrs and desert ascetics
Read: Martyrdom of Sts.Perpetua and Felicitas
Development of the doctrine of communion of saints
Wonderworkers and relics
Read: Martin of Tours

September 18
Legends and hagiography
Read: Golden Legend and True and Perfect Joy
Medieval monastic saints and holy fools
Read: Gregory the Great, Life of Saint Benedict
[Weinstein and Bell, Saints and Society;]

October 9
Canonization
Read: K. Woodward, Making Saints
Women saints; Saints "False and True"
Read: Cecilia Ferrazzi, "Testimony and Autobiography"
FIRST PAPER DUE

October 23
Apostolic patterns of holiness
Read: Francis de Sales: A Testimony by St.Jane de Chantal
Protestant and Catholic Perpsectives
Read: Foxe's Book of Martyrs and McClendon, Biography As Theology

October 30
Devotions to the Saints
Read: J. Chorpenning, The Holy Family Devotion
Theologies of Holiness
Read: Hans Urs Von Balthazar, Elucidations
or Karl Rahner, Theological Investigations, Vol. III or VIII, or "Prayer to the Saints"

November 13
Theology and the Saints
Read: Elizabeth Johnson, Friends of God and Prophets
Saints and the Liturgical Year
SECOND PAPER DUE

November 27
Contemporary Models of Sanctity
Read: L. Cunningham, The Meaning of Saints
Coming Home, Bielincki;, "Marks of Compassion"; Kownacki, "One Day at a Time", U.S.Catholic.
Simone Weil, Last Thoughts; The Life of St.Thomas More; "The Actor Saint"
Political Holiness
Read: Leonardo Boff, "The Need for Political Saints; E. Egan, "The Final
Word is Love: Dorothy Day"

     Resources   

On Line Resources

    Creighton Reinert Memorial Library  http://reinert.creighton.edu/

       Internet Theology Resources     http://www.csbsju.edu/library/internet/theochht.html

      Online Sources/Medieval Spirituality  

        http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~degregor/spirituality.html

       Bollandists/Hagiography   http://www.kbr.be/~socboll/

         Christus Rex       http://www.christusrex.org/

         Christian Classics Ethereal Library     http://www.ccel.org/   

          Internet Medieval Sourcebook  

           http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html                    

      1913 Edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia  

      http://newadvent.org/cathen/          

           Documents of the Roman Catholic Church  

            http://listserv.american.edu/catholic/church/church.html

            Lives of Saints        

            http://www.ocf.org/OrthodoxPage/reading/St.Pachomius/Saints/index.html

                 Popular sites:

      Catholic Online Saints  http://saints.catholic.org/index.shtml

          Saints Biographies  http://www.carr.org/stjohn/saints.htm

Called to Holiness

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