This is a foundational course, in terms of teaching the imagery that is central to the chosen people as they are set apart by God, and as they come to understand the will of God and learn to be conformed to him through covenant, through sacrifice and through seeing and drawing near to the holy things of heaven and to the Holy One who reveals himself to them. The Old Testament is also seen as the Scriptures that are opened by the Christ for the Church, before there is a written “New Testament.”

This is the foundations seminar. It deals with the great teachers of the ascetic life, in historical sequence. The students read primary texts that deal with the scriptural imagery and the description of the human constitution and challenges to the human being from the passions and from the demonic. Students will gain a greater knowledge of the traditional ways the human struggles to conform to divine grace and likeness. Primary texts are emphasized over modern synthesis.