This core course module describes and commends confessional Reformed catholicity as a (1) historical reality at work in the period of Reformed confessionlization, (2) biblical requirement, (3) theological foundation, and (4) fraternal mode of church life and practice, including theology. Topics covered include catholicity within Reformed confessional history and practice, the eucharistic origins and context for speech of the Church’s catholicity from Ignatius forward, the Trinity in relation to catholicity, catholicity and eschatology, and catholicity in Reformed worship. Students are trained in the twin virtues of Christian forbearance and courage, and in the wisdom of knowing when each is called for. Students will also learn the practice of sympathetic yet critical discernment in the handling of ideas and proposals outside the bounds of confessional Reformed orthodoxy. Confessional Reformed catholicity is distinguished from historical and contemporary models of “catholicity” that potentially weaken an otherwise robust confessional Reformed identity, theology, and ministry. N.B. This module is the introductory module to material covered at a more advanced level in CD 750/950: Reformed Catholicity.

This core course module orients the entire Greystone curriculum as well as matters of life and ministry in terms of a biblical and theological vision of reality. Prompted by the structure of Leviticus in relation to the Pentateuch and the canon of Holy Scripture as a whole, this module considers the real biblical world along the lines of time, space, and vocation and in conversation with various competing metaphysical systems, particularly ancient Near Eastern (especially Babylonian), traditional African, Platonism (traditional and modified), Aristotelian-Thomistic, idealism, and postmodernism. Exploring ordered relations in the biblical world, students will thus learn in detail the nature and importance for the individual, family, and Church of the structural effect of the Sabbath and of Israel’s Levitical festal calendar (time); the various sanctuary realties in Scripture and the biblical teaching on the relationship of the Church to other spatial realities (space); and the special importance of the human person as male or female, alongside the nature and content of human callings in the Church and in the world (vocation). Special attention will be given throughout to the way this biblical framework helps in the interpretation of Scripture and provides perspective on common theological and ecclesiological questions. N.B. This module is the introductory module to material covered at a more advanced level in CD 754/954: The Order of Reality: Time, Space, and Vocation.

This course module consists of three parts. The first part examines the way Holy Scripture functions morally, including the nature and proper uses(s) of law (general and special), the Torah as law “collection,” and the ways non-legal biblical genres (historical narrative, poetry, and wisdom) serve as Torah. The second part explores the history, nature, and continued importance of Reformed casuistic pastoral theology against the backdrop of mid- and late-medieval penitential theory and practice, including discussion of the principles and practices of theological reasoning in pastoral contexts in light of biblical examples. The third part carries forward these studies to investigate the uses and abuses of church power, especially in disciplinary contexts, and includes case-study examinations of covenantal apostasy, domestic violence/abuse, and church/home/state relations. N.B. This module is the introductory module to material covered at a more advanced level in CT 740/940: Reformed Casuistry and Moral Theology.

This course module provides an overview of the nature, history, principles, and practices of Christian and especially Reformed worship. Topics include the biblical roots and postbiblical history of the Sabbath and Lord’s day; the daily office (prayers); alms and offerings; the centrality of the oral (proclaimed) and visible (sacramental) Word; the regulative, doxological, and dialogical principles of worship; the Trinity in relation to worship; unity and diversity in worship practices; elements and circumstances; the place of song and prayer; and the theological rationale for matters of order and cadence of public worship. Students will gain familiarity with early and medieval Church sample liturgies and the development of Reformation liturgies, the Book of Common Prayer, the Westminster Assembly’s Directory for Public Worship, and select contemporary works on Reformed worship. A special focus throughout is the importance of liturgy in relation to human life and identity, the eschatology of the Church at worship, the witness of the Church to Christ before the world, and as the most regular and ordinary form of pastoral care. N.B. This module is the introductory module to material covered at a more advanced level in CD 769/969: Reformed Liturgics.

This course module focuses on the theoretical dimensions of faithful preaching. It thus examines the nature and importance of preaching in Scripture, Church history, the confessional Reformed tradition, and the present context of Church ministry. Special interest will be shown in understanding the Reformed conviction that preaching is a “form” of the Word of God by which God the Father in the Son by the Spirit calls and forms his people for his glory. This module will explore with special interest the relationship of preaching to (1) biblical hermeneutics and to (2) worship. Additional themes include the nature of application and relevance, the preacher himself as a kind of sermon, congregational shepherding through preaching, the conversion and ongoing sanctification of the Christian, and the relationship of the Church to the world, among other topics. Training in preparing and preaching a sermon is included, the exercise of which belongs to Greystone Learning Communities and the oversight of the Directors.

This course examines the biblical and historical nature of confession in relation to creeds and the doctrine of the Church, and provides an introduction to and survey of the Westminster Standards (Westminster Confession of Faith; Westminster Larger Catechism; and Westminster Shorter Catechism) and the “Three Forms of Unity” (Belgic Confession; Canons of Dort; and Heidelberg Catechism) in the context of traditional Christian and particularly Reformed symbols.

This content of this course depends upon the Reformed denominational relationship that applies to each student and upon that communion’s requirements for ministerial training. Content includes the history, distinctives, or special topics related to that communion. In the event this does not apply to a student, this course may be substituted with an approved elective from other GTI course offerings.

God represents himself in his Word as Master Farmer, Gardener, Builder, and the like, and he has called us, as his image bearers, to adopt the mindset of such crafts in relation not only to the material world but to one another. This is especially important for ministers, who are to exhibit faithfulness by drawing upon all the providential sources of wisdom, both “professional” and ordinary. The title “Mechanical Arts” draws directly from Hugh of St. Victor and his proposal for theological pedagogy in his famous Didascalicon (1120s). The “mechanical arts” or artes mechanicae were identified as seven arts (fabric making, armament, commerce, agriculture, hunting, medicine, and theatrics), and positioned as a parallel to the seven liberal arts. It was Hugh who pushed back against the monastic tradition of ignoring the ordinary “mechanical arts” in theological and ministerial formation. Greystone agrees with Hugh, and our efforts reflect that.

Following in the steps of Hugh, Greystone seeks to recover the theological and formative significance of highly skilled ordinary laborers whose work bears a particularly valuable relation to creation and providence and, on those grounds, may provide a source of wisdom to those called to the Church’s ministry today. In Scripture and especially in Proverbs, we are directed to the ordinary skilled laborer and the mundane beauties of creation and providence as sources of wisdom. In our own hurried and harried cultural moment however, this vision exists in unresolvable tension with the inattentive pace of life and the professionalization of knowledge. Today, celebrity figures and their platforms tend to overshadow or even displace the ordinary sources of wisdom with which God in his loving providence has surrounded his people: particular churches, families, friendships, and communities.

Key to all Greystone programs is the development of skill, depth, and breadth of reading across the Christian tradition. The Greystone Reading Room is a regular series of micro-course events in which a Greystone Fellow leads a close reading, with explanation and commentary, of an important text of the Christian tradition or of contemporary scholarship. The texts vary widely and change often, but examples of books read include John Swinton, Becoming Friends of Time: Disability, Timefulness, and Gentle Discipleship; Maximos the Confessor, Ambigua; Origen, On First Principles, Athanasius, On the Incarnation, Gregory of Nazianzus, The Five Theological Orations; Augustine, On the Trinity; Geerhardus Vos, The Pauline Eschatology; Basil, Letters; Ephraim Radner, A Time to Keep: Theology, Mortality, and the Shape of a Human Life; the anonymous medieval poem, Pearl; and more.