This seminar introduces seminary students to graduate-level research and writing skills with specific attention to academic writing, theological research, citations, and elements of writing style. The seminar introduces the nature of theological reflection and “thinking theologically” concerning various topics and issues they encounter in academic study and ministry. This course is a prerequisite for all certificates and degrees.

This course will explore how to defend the faith (1 Pet 3:15), answer every question (Col. 4:6), reason with others (Acts 18:4), and cast down arguments (2 Cor 10:5) regarding the basic principles of the faith. This course assists servants to reactively respond to questions by removing intellectual and existential barriers, while proactively sharing the relevant message of the Gospel. This course will prepare and equip servants to respond to basic challenges of the faith. This course fulfills a general elective for all programs.

This is a survey of the structure and content of the biblical books of the Old Testament, and associated literature. Additional topics covered include the manuscripts of the Holy Bible, development of the Old Testament Canon, different patristic methodologies for interpreting the Old Testament as well as modern interpretive approaches. This course fulfills a core requirement for the MTS program and the Orthodox Scripture Certificate.

This course is a careful study of the life, thought and writings of St. Paul. We will explore Paul’s epistles from a literary and historical perspective for the purpose of uncovering the author’s intended meaning and message, with special emphasis on passages which became important theological statements of the early Church or for Orthodox Christian life. We will examine the historical, cultural, and geographical setting of the Pauline writings, including authorship, audience, literary techniques and characteristics, as well as the theology and important themes of Paul’s epistles. We will investigate the literary, religious and philosophical currents in first century Judaism and the Greco-Roman world which we see reflected in these letters. We will also study the ancient and modern controversies which Paul and his writings engendered and the influence of Paul’s writings on the development of early Christian communities as well as how St. Paul’s thoughts were interpreted later by Christians of heterodox traditions. This course fulfills a Biblical and General Elective for all programs.

This course is a survey of the liturgical history of the Church's liturgical traditions. During this course, students will learn the fundamental methodology of liturgical research, how to properly proceed from data to conclusions. Next, the course will explore the liturgical tradition of the church from a historical perspective during the New Testament period, the Early Church before Nicaea (AD 325), the post-Nicene Church, and later developments. The emphasis throughout will be on the development of the Eucharist, the Church's most-central worship event, and on the sacraments of Baptism and Chrismation. This course fulfills a core requirement for the MTS Program and fulfills an elective for the Certificate Programs.

Many writers throughout Christian history have left behind commentaries on liturgical rites, especially the Eucharistic liturgy. As texts about the liturgy, commentaries are exegetical works describing and interpreting liturgical rituals, much like biblical commentaries explain and interpret the texts of holy Scripture. This course provides an overview of this important literary genre from its origins in the Early Church to the medieval period and in its various examples in the Coptic Orthodox tradition, but also in Byzantium, Syria, and Ethiopia. Discussion of each text pays special attention to its authorship, historical context, liturgical details, and hermeneutic principles. This course fulfills a core requirement for the ThM, a general elective for the MTS and certificate programs.

This course provides a preliminary study of Koine based on the New Testament. The basic concepts of New Testament Greek grammar, syntax, and vocabulary are studied and applied to the text of the Gospels. This course is for students who have little or no prior knowledge of Greek. A basic outline of the Grammar, both in etymology and syntax, sufficient for earlier stages of the study with graduated exercises will be introduced. Examples to be studied will be taken primarily from the Scriptures and from the Greek language in the Coptic liturgy. This course fulfills a core requirement for the MTS program and a general elective for the certificate programs.

This course focuses on the Orthodox doctrine of the knowledge of God—the Trinity, the humanity and divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Other topics discussed include the doctrine of Creation and cosmology, biblical inerrancy, the nature of the Church, and the means of grace and salvation, and eschatology. This course fulfills a core requirement for the MTS Program and fulfills an elective for the Certificate Programs.

This course will provide participants with an opportunity to examine the strategies and practices of participatory servant leadership style, biblically and with a strengths-based mindset, focusing on the application of strengths, and service through strategic collaboration and interdependence. The course will encourage participants to experience the power of team building and developing servant-leadership concepts among communities they work with or minister to, establishing a legacy. They will be able to experience challenges of leadership and how to face them. This course fulfills a core requirement for the Leadership certificate and a general elective for all other certificates and programs.

This course provides an overview of the field of family psychology. The four primary areas of study include: 1) several family theory frameworks from which to understand families, 2) the family life cycle, and 3) interventions to improve behavioral, developmental and emotional health among individuals and between family members across the lifespan. Students will also 4) apply these concepts to their own family of origin, for in order to help others, a counselor must first know oneself (Matthew 7:4). This course fulfills a general elective requirement for all programs.

This course surveys the history of the Coptic Orthodox Church and community from the seventh through the twentieth centuries. Several themes are privileged throughout the course: Christian Muslim interactions, shifting communal identities, liturgical developments, and the importance of Coptic-Arabic literature. While the emphasis is on the history and historiography of the Coptic Church (the See of Alexandria), the course will also discuss the major political and theological developments and personalities of the Christian east in general. This course fulfills a Church History elective for all programs.

This course introduces students to the literature of Christian monasticism in the late antique Mediterranean. While the primary focus will be on Egypt and the social setting in which the early monastic movement rose, necessary detours will also be taken into other intellectual and geographical areas. Texts will be read in translation alongside important secondary works of scholarship. The survey will include classics such as the alphabetic and systematic collections of the Sayings of the Fathers, the life and letters of Antony, the Pachomian dossier, and Shenoute of Atripe, along with lives of other monastic men and women such as Daniel of Scetis and Longinus, works by Evagrius, John Cassian, and Theodoret of Kyr. Students will be immersed into the texts that remain at the heart and memory of Coptic Orthodox Christianity. This course fulfills a Church History elective for MTS and certificates.