Catechesis Institute

Knowledge, Faith, and Early Christian Initiation: Featuring Alex Fogleman, with David Lyle Jeffrey

Link to Podcast SummaryFor St. Augustine, Christ was not only the goal of learning but also the way there: “See how Christ crucified is taught and learned,” he wrote, “and know that it relates to his cross that in his body we too are crucified to the world.”In this evening lecture and conversation, Catechesis Institute director Alex Fogleman presents material from his new book, Knowledge, Faith, and Early Christian Initiation (Cambridge University Press, 2023), which explores the history and theology of catechesis in the early church. What was the central focus of teaching new believers? And how did catechesis train Christians to know God? As a prelude to the discussion, Dr. David Lyle Jeffrey, distinguished senior fellow and Professor Emeritus of Literature and Humanities at Baylor University, spoke about the urgent need for catechesis in the church today, brought to light comparisons with other movements of catechesis in the medieval and modern eras. EVENT DETAILSThis event was hosted at Christ Church Waco on Thursday, January 18, and was co-sponsored by Brazos Fellows. For more about the book, you can download a sample chapter or read about it on our blog. Photos by Eric Guel Photography.ABOUT THE SPEAKERSAlex Fogleman is the Director of the Catechesis Institute, as well as an Assistant Research Professor of Theology at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion. He holds a PhD in Patristics and Historical Theology from Baylor University and an MDiv from Regent College. He studies Latin and Greek patristics, the history of catechesis, and theological accounts of human flourishing. He is the author of Knowledge, Faith, and Early Christian Initiation (Cambridge University Press, 2023), and several articles appearing in such journals  International Journal of Systematic Theology, Scottish Journal of Theology, Church History, Journal of Early Christian Studies, Pro Ecclesia, and Augustinian Studies, among others. He is currently writing a book on the history, theology, and practice of catechesis (Eerdmans Press, 2025). He is married to Molly, and they live with their four sons in Waco, TX, where they attend Christ Church Waco.David Lyle Jeffrey is Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University. He was a Distinguished Professor of Literature and Humanities at Baylor University from 2000 until 2019, Professor Emeritus of English Literature at the University of Ottawa, and Guest Professor at Peking University (Beijing) and Honorary Professor at the University of International Business and Economics (Beijing). He has taught for many Universities in the US, Canada, and China. Among his many books include A Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature (1992), The Early English Lyric and Franciscan Spirituality (1975); Chaucer and Scriptural Tradition (1984); English Spirituality in the Age of Wesley (1987; 1994; 2000); The Law of Love: English Spirituality in the Age of Wyclif (1988; 2001); People of the Book: Christian Identity and Literary Culture (1996); Houses of the Interpreter: Reading Scripture, Reading Culture (2003); In the Beauty of Holiness: Art and the Bible in Western Culture (2017); Scripture and the English Poetic Imagination (2019).

Sensing the Sacred: A Conversation with Hanna Lucas, Simon Oliver, and Ephraim Radner

In this virtual book launch, theologian and Catechesis Institute fellow Hanna Lucas presents her new book, Sensing the Sacred: Recovering a Mystagogical Vision of Knowledge and Salvation (Wipf & Stock, 2023), with responses and discussion from Simon Oliver (Van Mildert Professor of Theology at Durham University) and Ephraim Radner (Professor Emeritus of Historical Theology at Wycliffe College, University of Toronto). Order a copy of the book here, with discount code CATECHESIS to get 40% off.

Humility as the Crux of Christian Teaching: Insights from St. Augustine

For Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Christian teachers who surrender self in loving humility for the sake of their hearers capture a core dimension of the faith that they teach. The same humility that Christ models, that Scripture communicates, and that seekers germinate as they come to be taught, teachers also share in. In this public lecture, renowned Augustine scholar Dr. Michael Cameron explores the pedagogical dynamics of humility in Augustine’s great treatise, De catechizandis rudibus (On the Instruction of Beginners), showing it to be the treatise’s hidden crux, in two senses: both as a central theme of Christian teaching, and, paradoxically and counterintuitively, as the mainspring of the teaching act. This lecture was co-hosted with the Religion and Philosophy Department at Hillsdale College on October 9, 2023.

Attaining to the Full Stature of Christ, with Rev. Prof. John Behr, Dr. Natalie Carnes, and Dr. Thomas Breedlove

On his way to Rome to be martyred, Ignatius of Antioch urges the Christians there not to interfere with his impending fate: “Don’t hinder me from living,” he wrote. “Let me attain the pure light; then I will be a human being.” Drawing on early Christian sources, especially the newly edited and translated volume, On the Human Image of God, by the fourth-century theologian St. Gregory of Nyssa, this workshop features John Behr, Natalie Carnes, and Thomas Breedlove exploring what it means for human beings to be made in the image of God. What does it look for human beings, as “images of the Image,” to be a work in progress—growing in Christ until we attain the “full measure of Christ.”The Very Rev. Dr. John Behr is Regius Professor of Humanity at the University of Aberdeen. He previously taught at St. Vladimir’s Seminary, where he served as Dean from 2007-2017. He is a leading expert on the early church and has translated many seminal texts from the patristic era. His doctoral work focused on issues of asceticism and anthropology in St. Irenaeus of Lyons and Clement of Alexandria, and was published by Oxford University Press in 2000. Fr. John then began the publication of a series on the Formation of Christian Theology: The Way to Nicaea (SVS Press, 2001), and The Nicene Faith (SVS Press, 2003). Synthesizing these studies is the book The Mystery of Christ: Life in Death (SVS Press, 2003). Fr. John also edited and translated the fragments of Diodore of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia, setting them in their historical and theological context (OUP, 2011). Next, Fr. John published a more poetic and meditative work entitled Becoming Human: Theological Anthropology in Word and Image (SVS Press, 2013) and a full study of St. Irenaeus: St. Irenaeus of Lyons: Identifying Christianity (OUP, 2013). He then completed a new critical edition and translation of Origen’s On First Principles, together with an extensive introduction (OUP, 2017), and John the Theologian and His Paschal Gospel: A Prologue to Theology (OUP, 2019). Most recently, he is the editor and translator of Gregory of Nyssa’s On the Human Image of God (often titled, “On the Making of Humankind” or “De Hominis Opificio”) (OUP, 2023).Dr. Natalie Carnes is Professor of Theology at Baylor University. She holds a Ph.D. from Duke University, an M.A. in Religion from University of Chicago, and a B.A. from Harvard University in Comparative Religious Studies. A constructive theologian who reflects on traditional theological topics through somewhat less traditional themes, like images, iconoclasm, beauty, gender, and childhood, Natalie draws on literary and visual works as sites of theological reflection to explore questions of religious knowledge and authority. In addition to authoring articles in Modern Theology, Journal of Religion, and Scottish Journal of Theology, among other journals, she is the author of Beauty: A Theological Engagement with Gregory of Nyssa (Cascade, 2014), Image and Presence: A Christological Reflection on Iconoclasm and Iconophilia (Stanford University Press, 2017), and Motherhood: A Confession (Stanford University Press, 2020). For more information on events, blogposts, and other writings, you can visit her website: nataliecarnes.com.Dr. Thomas Breedlove is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies. He holds a Ph.D. in Theology from Baylor University, an M.Div. from Duke Divinity School, and a B.A. from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. His primary research topics include issues of human nature, embodiment, and divine image in the fourth-century theology of Gregory of Nyssa and contemporary French phenomenology. He has published on these topics and theology and the arts in Modern Theology, St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly, Religion and Literature, Literature and Theology, Political Theology, Anglican Theological Review, Heythrop Journal, and a forthcoming volume on phenomenology and art with Bloomsbury Press.

Curtis Freeman: Making Christians

Before leaving this earth, Jesus commissioned his apostles: “Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you” (Matt 28:19-20). As one pastor has put it, “We are doing a pretty good job of baptizing people, but we are falling short in our obligation for teaching them to obey everything that the Lord commanded.” Catechesis is the ancient practice of instruction in “the basic teaching of Christ” (Heb 6:1-2). It has historic roots in the claim by Tertullian of Carthage that Christians “are made, not born.” Instruction in these elemental matters is critical to ensuring that the faith is faithfully handed on to faithful followers of Christ (2 Tim 2:2). In this workshop, participants will learn how for centuries Christians passed on the basic teaching of Christ, and explore how retrieving the lost practice of catechesis might equip the church to be more faithful and effective in following the call to make disciples. Pastors, teachers, catechists, parents and others interested in learning more about catechesis are especially welcome. Resource: Curtis W. Freeman, Pilgrim Letters: Instruction in the Basic Teaching of Christ. Fortress Press, 2021. ABOUT THE SPEAKER:Dr. Curtis Freeman (Duke Divinity School)Dr. Curtis W. Freeman is Research Professor of Theology and Baptist Studies and Director of the Baptist House of Studies at Duke Divinity School in Durham, NC, and a Research Fellow with the IRCC. His research and teaching explores areas of Free Church theology.His most recent book, Pilgrim Letters: Instruction in the Basic Teachings of Christ (Fortress, 2021) is a work of catechetical instruction written as a series of letters providing instruction in the basic teaching of Christ (read an IRCC review here). He is also the author of Undomesticated Dissent: Democracy and the Public Virtue of Religious Noncomformity (Baylor University Press, 2017), Contesting Catholicity: Theology for Other Baptists (Baylor University Press, 2014), A Company of Women Preachers: Baptist Prophetesses in Seventeenth-Century England (Baylor University Press, 2011), and Baptist Roots: A Reader in the Theology of a Christian People (Judson Press, 1999). He is an ordained Baptist minister and serves as editor of the American Baptist Quarterly and serves on the Baptist World Alliance Commission on Doctrine and Christian Unity.