A Short Course for Those Interested in Joining the Episcopal Church

Trinity Episcopal Church
Hattiesburg, Mississippi
A Short Course for Those
Interested In Joining the Episcopal Church
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A Short Course for People Interested in
Christianity and Joining the Episcopal Church
By The Rev. Bill Stroop, Ph.D.
March - April, 2009
(This page updated 30 March 2009)

Introduction

This course of study is designed to provide persons with little or no exposure to Christianity or to the Episcopal tradition the basic knowledge and understanding of the Christian faith and the history and tradition of the Episcopal Church.

This is a shorter version of my inquirer's course and is designed to accomodate a more typical adult educational hour on Sunday mornings.

The course will not be comprehensive; not every topic or issue within Christianity will be covered or discussed in depth. The course is meant to provide a basic framework about Christianity onto which future learning can be placed.

Schedule of Classes

The schedule of topics is as follows. Click on any of the topics to be routed to that class session.

On a technical note, each class session will be accompanied by visual aids (slide projections). At Trinity Episcopal Church, these will be projected from a computer using a digital projector. For the on-line sessions, the same slide shows will be linked to the individual lessons. Periodically in the text there will be a button like this one: . If you left double click on the button you will be taken to the slide show for that class session. You can look at the slide(s), and then use the "Back" button on your browser to bring you back to th appropriate page. Try it now on the slide show button above.

Class	Date	Topic	Notes
1	Mar. 1	Introduction to Christianity and the History of Early Israel	This class will begin the discussion of the person of Jesus and the development of the Christ. The history of Israel to the Second Temple period will be presented in order to begin to understand the Jewish world in which Jesus lived.
2	Mar. 8	The History of Israel to 135 C.E. and the Development of Early Christianity Including the Trinity	This class will look at the Second Temple period, the history of Israel at the time of Jesus' birth, and the end of the Jewish state in 135 C.E. Christianity as an outgrowth of Judaism will be emphasized. The development of the Trinity in the early church will also be presented.
3	Mar. 15	The Rise of the Church, the Middle Ages, and the European Reformation	This class will look at the papacy during the middle ages, to set the stage for the issues that many reformers wished to address. The reformation took different shapes in Europe and England, and this class will look in depth at the reformation in Europe. We will examine the work of Luther and the other major reformers.
4	Mar. 22	The English Reformation and the Development of the Prayer Book	We will discuss Christianity in England, beginning with a brief look at how Christianity got to England, Scotland, and Wales, and the distinctive shape that Christianity took in those places. We will discuss the theology of the English reformation and the development of the prayer book. We will discuss the 16th and 17th centuries because these are the two centuries in which the church gave birth to the Anglican perspective and the via media. We will follow discussion of the English reformation with the history and development of the prayer book, tracing their development and the evolution of the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer used today in the United States.
5	Mar. 29	Development of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States; the Episcopal Prayer Book and Hymnal	This class period is devoted to the development of the Episcopal Church in America and an examination of the Episcopal BCP and Hymnal.
6	Apr. 5	Spirituality and the Sacraments; The Church Calendar; and, Anglican Polity and Politics	In this class period we will discuss three different topics: (1) Spirituality and the sacraments of the church and the canons that govern them; (2) The church calendar; (3) The world wide Anglican communion and the position of the Episcopal Church within it.

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