Patristic Catechesis, Then and Now: Alex Fogleman, with David Lyle Jeffrey Catechesis Institute
-
- Christianity
For St. Augustine, Christ was not only the goal of learning but also the way there: “See how Christ crucified is taught and learned,” he wrote, “and know that it relates to his cross that in his body we too are crucified to the world.”
In this public presentation, Catechesis Institute director Alex Fogleman introduces his new book, Knowledge, Faith, and Early Christian Initiation (Cambridge University Press, 2023), with comments from David Lyle Jeffrey and Q&A.
Hosted a Christ Church Waco on January 18, 2024.
About the Book:
Knowledge, Faith, and Early Christian Initiation presents a new history of the rise of catechesis in the early church. What was its central focus? How did new believers learn to know the God revealed in Jesus Christ? By attending to the earliest writings about catechesis in the second century and third century, to its prominent champions in the fourth and fifth centuries, Fogleman reveals the central role that catechesis played in early Christian devotion, ethics, and theology.
Patristic catechesis also sheds new light on central questions about faith and education. How does Christianity teach wisdom and virtue to those just starting out? And what difference do Christian commitments to understanding Jesus Christ as both divine and human make for Christian modes of knowing? By listening to the voices of the ancient past, we gain new insight and imagination for building communities of faithful witness in the present.
For St. Augustine, Christ was not only the goal of learning but also the way there: “See how Christ crucified is taught and learned,” he wrote, “and know that it relates to his cross that in his body we too are crucified to the world.”
In this public presentation, Catechesis Institute director Alex Fogleman introduces his new book, Knowledge, Faith, and Early Christian Initiation (Cambridge University Press, 2023), with comments from David Lyle Jeffrey and Q&A.
Hosted a Christ Church Waco on January 18, 2024.
About the Book:
Knowledge, Faith, and Early Christian Initiation presents a new history of the rise of catechesis in the early church. What was its central focus? How did new believers learn to know the God revealed in Jesus Christ? By attending to the earliest writings about catechesis in the second century and third century, to its prominent champions in the fourth and fifth centuries, Fogleman reveals the central role that catechesis played in early Christian devotion, ethics, and theology.
Patristic catechesis also sheds new light on central questions about faith and education. How does Christianity teach wisdom and virtue to those just starting out? And what difference do Christian commitments to understanding Jesus Christ as both divine and human make for Christian modes of knowing? By listening to the voices of the ancient past, we gain new insight and imagination for building communities of faithful witness in the present.