Window into the Christian Tradition: The Nature and Enduring Value of Lombard's Sentences
Today’s Church is in great need of reimagining the nature of theological education; a reassessment of its purpose, not as merely the pursuit of a degree, but as education in the classical sense of formation. This view of education, measured by our understanding of the questions we should be asking rather than our grasp of what the answers are, will invariably influence the role that classic texts of the Christian Tradition have in the context of that educational formation. Our interest in Lombard’s Sentences, therefore, goes well beyond the content and context of that work as an important and formative publication. Rather, it touches deeply on a matter of great overarching importance for Greystone and the Church in our day. That is, the nature and goal of a properly understood theological education. In particular, how might Lombard’s famous Sentences help us in the pursuit of reimagining theological education?
To discuss this and more, Dr. Mark A. Garcia, President and Fellow in Scripture and Theology at Greystone Theological Institute, sits down with Dr. Atria Larson, Greystone's Academic Dean, Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Fellow in Medieval Church History and Canon Law. Dr. Larson is Associate Professor of Medieval Christianity in the Theology Department at Saint Louis University, and winner of the 2015 Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise from the University of Heidelberg, and author of many studies in penitential theory and canon law, including Master of Penance: Gratian and the Development of Penitential Thought and Law in the Twelfth Century (Washington DC: CUA Press, 2014).
Dr. Larson’s directed reading course module on Lombard’s Sentences will be available this fall for credit, and her multiple lectures, including those on Penance in the Patristic, Medieval, and Reformation Church, are available now for all Greystone Members. Become a member today for unlimited access to the growing Greystone Connect library.
