Modules

St. Cyril of Alexandria Orthodox Society is delighted to announce its online Orthodox Mission Modules.
With the growing desire to fulfill the Great Commission of Christ (Matthew 28:16), the Orthodox Mission modules aim to provide a foundational understanding of mission in the Orthodox ethos. Providing access via online teaching, the faithful will be equipped to more effectively share the Orthodox experience of Christ around the world for years to come.

“Mission is the organic need and task of the Church in the world, the real meaning of Church’s presence in history between the first and the second advents of her Lord, or, in other terms, the meaning of Christian history.”

Church, World, Mission: Reflections on Orthodoxy in the West – Fr. Alexander Schmemann.

Start Date: February 11, 2013.

Time of Classes: Each week there is a recorded lesson, reading materials, and a Discussion Forum which can be accessed at the pace of the student. However, each week’s work needs to be finished by the end of that same week. For chats, a common convenient time will be determined as agreed by the students. For office hours please contact the instructor of the module.

Duration: 15 weeks

Modules
 Lecturer
Course Title: Faith, Reason & Diversity: A Patristic Inquiry

Course Description: To raise the question of Orthodox mission is to examine the relationship between Christianity and modern culture. The dynamics of Christianity with modern culture is the inquiry, among other things, about the relationship between theology and philosophy, faith and reason, and religion and a diverse society. Do these pairings represent separate spheres that have little or nothing to do with one another? What is the relationship between reason and faith? Can one be committed to both a scientific view of the world and religious belief? How does Orthodoxy affect the way we live and interact with others in society? Such issues are of more than academic interest, as they go to the heart of what it might mean to be Orthodox in a contemporary society. This course considers these kinds of questions through an approach based upon the principles of dialogue, development, and community which are essential in the life of any missionary.

 Emmanuel Gergis
Course Title: Church History: A Missionary Overview

Course Description: Open the back of most Bibles today and one can find maps detailing Paul’s missionary journeys, but what about the other Apostles and their successors? How did Christianity reach the borders of contemporary China, and the heart of Africa before the Christianization of Northern Europe? This 15-week online course provides an overview of Christian mission in its historical context over the past 2000 years. Students will become acquainted with a general survey of missions in the history of the Church and be able to identify major factors (historical, social, and political) contributing to Orthodox Christian missionary activity over the past 2000 years.

 Michael Wingert