Portraits of Christ

About the Professor

Rev. Vincent Pizzuto, Ph.D. is Associate Professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Francisco. He has a Masters of Education in Religious Education from Boston College (1995), as well as a Masters (STL, 1999) and Doctorate (STD, 2003) in New Testament exegesis from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Louvain) in Belgium. Currently in publication is his first book entitled, A Cosmic Leap of Faith: An Authorial, Structural, and Theological Investigation of the Cosmic Christology in Col 1:15-20, and his most recent journal publication entitled, God Has Made it Plain to Them: An Indictment of Rome’s Hermeneutic of Homophobia (BTB 38: Winter 2008). He is currently working on a book project which will serve as a contemplative commentary on Matthew’s gospel. Ordained to the priesthood in the Celtic Christian Church in 2006, he has founded and ministers to a local contemplative Christian community, New Skellig (www.newskellig.org).

About the Course

This on-line course will serve as a basic introduction to the four gospels. It is designed for the non-specialist and will be presenting the building blocks of biblical studies and Christian spirituality in a straightforward and easy to understand manner. Rooted in historical-critical methods of interpretation, we will emphasize the relationship between the Scriptures and Christian Spirituality. Thus, the tasks we will set out to accomplish in this course will be three-fold:

(1) to survey the history of the early church in order to come to an understanding of the events and experiences which gave rise to the four canonical gospels;

(2) to examine various samplings from the NT texts themselves in order to demonstrate the modern interpretive methods used in the exegetical analysis of biblical literature;

(3) to illuminate the significance of the gospels for Christian spirituality today.

Structure and Duration of the Course

The course is scheduled to run for 8 months, from September 2010 through April 2011, at a pace designed to accommodate busy schedules.

Registered students will be given a password (periodically updated) in order to access our once-monthly audio or video interactive live-stream presentations. Students who occasionally miss a lecture will be able to view it by logging on to the course website. In between presentations, students can study the provided reading material at their own pace.

All Power Point presentations and reading materials for the course (with the exception of the Bible), will be provided as downloads inclusive of the cost of tuition.

Finally, through the course website, students will be able to enter chat rooms to dialogue about the material among themselves and with the professor. A simple syllabus will be provided at the start of the course to help students prepare their reading material in advance of each presentation. No final paper will be required.

Times and dates of the online presentations will be determined once the registration period has been closed.

Tuition

All time and resources are being donated by the professor in order to help raise funds for outreach programs of the Celtic Christian Church. The cost of tuition is $250.00 which may be paid in two increments of $125.00 each. Those concerned with genuine financial hardship are invited to discuss personal tuition options. Please contact Vincent Pizzuto (newskellig@mac.com).

Registration

Registration for this class is open through August 15, 2010 and is a two-step process:

1) Please email the requested information (below) to Vincent Pizzuto at newskellig@mac.com.

All information provided will all be kept confidential:

Name

Email Address (required for access to online material)

Mailing address

Phone Number

Tuition option (please indicate one in your email):

v Single payment of $250.00

v Two payments of $125.00

2) Please mail a tax-deductible tuition payment to

“The Celtic Christian Church” by August 15, 2010:

Mail to:

Celtic Christian Church

Rev. Joseph Grenier, Ph.D.

P.O. Box 283

Canadensis, PA 18325

Or Use PayPal !

Payments