Syllabus
Welcome
Welcome to St. Paul’s House of Formation: The Apostolic Fathers! This course is an extension of our overview of each of these writings presented in our “Intro to the Church Fathers” episode of the Core Curriculum. The Apostolic Fathers are the earliest Christian writings we have outside of the New Testament, and form a key link between the biblical and patristic eras. We are thrilled to have you join us for an in-depth study of these vital texts.
The St. Paul’s Team
We are excited to introduce you to our creative team for St Paul’s House of Formation. Please reach out to us with questions or feedback.
Director of Formation: Fr. Stephen Gauthier is the Canon Theologian of the Diocese of the Upper Midwest and the man who will be teaching you through the video lectures.
Program Director: Fr. Alex Wilgus oversees recruiting and video production. He can answer any questions around the entry process or video quality and formatting. Reach out to him at awilgus@saintpaulshouseofformation.com.
Program Coordinator: Danny Linton provides website and payment support. He can answer any questions around technical issues, classroom content, or the purchase process. Reach out to him at dlinton@saintpaulshouseofformation.com.
The St. Paul’s Classroom
Once you enroll in the Apostolic Fathers, you’ll receive access to your own unique online classroom, where you can find everything you need for the course. Unlike the core St. Paul’s program, which proceeds along a fixed semester schedule, the AF content is all available immediately at purchase and is yours for as long as you want to keep it. Feel free to pace yourself as slowly or quickly as you like.
The St. Paul’s Content
In the Apostolic Fathers series, there are 3 types of integrated content in each lesson: the video teaching, content outline, and guide to locating the full text.
The core content is the video lecture and associated outline. Each teaching will walk you through a particular text from the Apostolic Fathers paragraph by paragraph. To help keep you in sync with the portion of the text being addressed, the video will show the paragraph (or broader section) references in the bottom right corner. As you scroll, the video will shrink and float over the outline so you can view them simultaneously. If you wish to enlarge the video, you can open the lesson in two separate windows in your browser.
As the lecture proceeds, you will notice that Fr. Stephen does not read the full text, which you can engage with in a variety of ways. For instance, you might want to read them in full beforehand; or, you may find yourself wanting to pause and read through the relevant sections as you go. For those unfamiliar with the texts, it may work best to watch the teaching first and read the text in full afterwards.
We encourage you to process at your own speed. However, whenever possible, we do recommend students complete the full video teaching in one sitting.
We also want to help you identify the best format and translation for you to use when reading the texts themselves. There are numerous editions of the Apostolic Fathers available, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. If you’re not sure what to get, you can find a comparison of the different options on our Apostolic Fathers: Text Options page. And to help you locate the correct passage more easily, we’ll have a quick reference guide at the bottom of each lesson.
Purchasing the Course
Payment Process
- New students will need to fill out the purchase form to create an account. After doing so, they will be redirected to checkout.
- Returning students who already have a St. Paul’s account may use the link at the bottom of the page (below the purchase form) to go straight to checkout.
- Core Curriculum graduates will follow the same process as other returning students, but should reach out to us directly first by emailing Danny for a $20 off coupon code to use during checkout.
| Status | Cost |
|---|---|
| one household | $50 |
|
| $30 |