This 30-credit course consists of four parts:
Liturgy and icons
The Oriental Churches and the rise of the Arab empire
The Oriental Churches in the later Ottoman empire
One of three elective subjects: Coptic Orthodox theology, Tewahedo Orthodox Theology or the Renaissance of the Syriac Orthodox Church
Students will examine the effects of the formative encounter of the Churches with Islam, and particularly the effect this had on the self-understanding of the Churches. It took several hundred years for the Oriental Orthodox Churches to adapt to the new situation and during the early Ottoman period the Oriental Churches moved into dialogue with their surrounding culture and formulated a theology based on the new situation. The late Ottoman period, which ends with the Armenian and Syrian holocaust, was crucial for understanding the Oriental Orthodox Churches in the 20th century.
The course, taught as a part-time distance course, is perfect if you want to deepen your knowledge of the Oriental Orthodox tradition in one academic year.
