Theology Class
PEAK Theology will focus on the story of Christ and the Rich Young Man, studying it through Scripture, the Church Fathers, Thomas Aquinas, and the Magisterium.
The story of Christ’s encounter with the rich young man who desires eternal life is in all three Synoptic Gospels, and it has captured the attention of Christians throughout history. Heroic saints like Antony of the Desert, Augustine of Hippo, and Francis of Assisi were inspired by the story to seek Christian perfection as radically as possible. St. Basil of Caesarea and St. Thomas Aquinas (to name only two Doctors of the Church) saw the story as giving us fundamental insights into how to live out the Christian life, and St. John Paul II took the story as providing a framework for all moral theology, and also offered it to the youth of the world as the model through which to understand vocational discernment.
Texts:
1. The Scriptural perciope in Matthew, Mark & Luke, and extracts from Life of Antony (by St. Athanasius), Confessions (by St. Augustine), and Life of Francis (by St. Bonaventure).
2. St. Basil of Caesarea, Sermon on the Rich Young Man
3. St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Matthew, 1508-1609.
4. St. John Paul II, Veritatis Splendour, ch. 1
5. St. John Paul II, Letter to Youth
