Senior Patristics Seminar

OVERARCHING OBJECTIVES FOR SENIOR PATRISTIC READING SEMINAR
A familiarizing of the student with major patristic authors from all periods of Church History.

SENIOR PATRISTIC READING SEMINAR
This is a year-long reading seminar for seniors in the field of patristic literature. Patristic literature is the writings of the Saints that is not a part of the New Testament. Modern Scholars limit the age of patristic literature from the 1st century to the 8th century AD. In this course we will not limit ourselves to works written before the 8th century but we will look at significant works from all the centuries from apostolic era until now. Authors we will cover, but not limited too, are Ss. Athanasius, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, Gregory of Nyssa, John Chrysostom, Dorotheos of Gaza, Maximus the Confessor, John of Damascus, Theodore the Studite, Gregory Palamas, Tikhon of Zadonsk, Silouan the Athonite and Nikolai of Serbia. Students will read and summarize a different text each week. They will write brief essays periodically on specific themes drawn from the texts read. A paper will be the final assignment of each semester.

Syllabus

Fr. Meyers Syllabus

Required Course Materials:

PDFs provided by instructor

*Required materials are not included in the purchase of the course.

Father Nikolai Meyers is a native of Southern California. He holds a bachelor of arts in Bible and cross-cultural ministry from Manhattan Christian College, Manhattan, Kansas. He earned his master of divinity from St. Tikhon Orthodox Theological Seminary, in South Cannon, Pennsylvania. He was ordained Deacon in September of 2007 by His Eminence Metropolitan Joseph of the Antiochain Archdiocese at St. Tikhon Monastery in South Cannon, Pennsylvania, and to the holy Priesthood in July of 2008 by His Eminence at St. Andrew Orthodox Church in Riverside, California. He served 6 years as assistant pastor of St. John Orthodox Church in Memphis, Tennessee, and concurrently was the priest in charge of the St. Paul Orthodox Mission in Tupelo, Mississippi. From October of 2014 to July of 2019 he was the pastor of St. George Orthodox Church in New Hartford, New York, where he was also the spiritual adviser for Teen SOYO in the Antiochian Orthodox Diocese of Ottawa, Eastern Canada, and Upstate New York. He now serves as the pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Orthodox Church in Topeka, Kansas. He is married and has 5 children. E-mail: frnikolai.raphaelschool@gmail.com

Computer: You will need a stable, reliable computer, running with processor with a speed of 1 Ghz or better on one of the following operating systems: Mac OS X with MacOS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or later; Windows 8, 7, Vista (with SP1 or later), or XP (with SP3 or later). We do NOT recommending using an iPad or other tablet for joining classes. An inexpensive laptop or netbook would be much better solutions, as they enable you to plug an Ethernet cable directly into your computer. Please note that Chromebooks are allowed but not preferred, as they do not support certain features of the Zoom video conference software such as breakout sessions and annotation, which may be used by our teachers for class activities.

High-Speed Internet Connection: You will also need access to high-speed Internet, preferably accessible via Ethernet cable right into your computer. Using Wi-Fi may work, but will not guarantee you the optimal use of your bandwidth. The faster your Internet, the better. We recommend using a connection with an download/upload speed of 5/1Mbps or better. You can test your Internet connection here.

WebCam: You may use an external webcam or one that is built in to the computer.
WebCam Recommendations: Good (PC only) | Best (Mac and PC)

Headset: We recommend using a headset rather than a built-in microphone and speakers. Using a headset reduces the level of background noise heard by the entire class.
Headset Recommendations: USB | 3.5mm

Zoom: We use a web conferencing software called Zoom for our classes, which enables students and teachers to gather from around the globe face to face in real time. Zoom is free to download and easy to use.

To download Zoom:

Visit zoom.us/download.
Click to download the first option listed, Zoom Client for Meetings.
Open and run the installer on your computer.
In August, students will be provided with instructions and a link for joining their particular class.

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