Course
Patristic Exegesis, Distance Education
The course offers an in-depth study of biblical interpretation in patristic times. The student learns to account for differences and similarities in primary sources, to analyze them in light of their historical contexts and functions ,and to identify the questions the material aims to answer. The course also provides theoretical tools for understanding the patristic endeavor in terms of modern hermeneutics as well as philological and literary critical methods. In addition to classical patristic sources, the student is provided with examples relating to women, the use of the bible in genres such as hagiography (i.e. rewritings), and the medieval reception of patristic texts in various Orthodox Christian languages.
At the end of the course, the student is expected to be able to:
Knowledge and understanding:
– Describe major hermeneutical theories in a thorough manner
Competence and skills:
– Idependently illustrate different interpretational stategies in patristic soures with concrete examples
– Independently employ theories and methods on a selected material
Judgement and apporach
– evaluate implications of the choice of theories and methods in scholarly approaches to the bible
– argue for an interpretation in relation to the function, genre, or audience of a text
The course literature may be subject to revision.
Harvey, Susan Ashbrook. Song and Memory: Biblical Women in Syriac Tradition. Marquette University Press, 2010 (92 pages)
Hill, Robert C. Reading the Old Testament in Antioch. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature 2010 [originally published: Leiden: Brill, 2005] (201 pages).
Young, Francis. Biblical Exegesis and the Formation of Christian Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007 [1997] (299 pages).
Scholarly Articles and excerpts: 300 pages (provided by the teacher), including:
1. John Behr (ed. and trans) Origen, On First Principles, A Reader’s Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020 (ca 50 pages)
2. Ingvild Saelid Gilhus, “Hermeneutics” The Routledge Handobok of Reserach Methods in the Study of Religion (2014), pp 275-282
3. Gabor Buzasi. 2021. “Julian the Apostate as a Biblical Literalist,” in Reinhart Ceulemans and Barbara Crostini (eds), Reception of the Bible in Byzantium (2021), pp 41-62
4. Susan Gillingham, “Jewish and Christian Approaches to Suffering in the Reception of Psalm 137,” OTE 32/2 (2019): 444-463.
5. Brennan Breed. 2015. “What Can a Text Do? Reception History as an Ethology of the Biblical Text,” in England, Emma & William, John Lyon (eds.). Reception History and Biblical Studies, Theory and Practice. Bloomsbury: T&T Clark.
Primary sources: 100 pages (provided by the teacher)
Literature last revised on December 19, 2024.
The schedule is available at the latest one month before the course starts. We do not recommend that you print the schedule as some changes may happen.
Grades
A = Excellent, B = Very good, C = Good, D = Satisfactory, E = Sufficient, Fx = Insufficient, F = InsufficientExamination Format
- Oral examination
- Take-home examination
- Written assignments
60 credits in Theology, including 30 credits from introductory courses, there among Biblical Studies 7,5 hp, Patristic Studies: Theories and Methods 7.5 hp, Interpretation, Theory and Method with Paper 7.5 hp, and on the intermediate level The Gospels and the Letters of Paul 7,5 hp, and Sacred Texts of Eastern Christianity 7,5 hp; or equivalent.
Established by Subject Representative College at Enskilda Högskolan Stockholm on February 7, 2024.
Last revised on December 19, 2024.