CAT 730 Philosophy for Catechetics
The course examines the relationship between philosophy and catechetics. It is in two parts. The first part reviews the teaching of the magisterium on this relationship, in particular in Aeterni Patris and Fides et Ratio, and then goes on to treat of questions of truth and rhetoric in the transmission of doctrine, studying the role of the catechist as witness and communicator. The second part of the course is an examination of the thought of St Thomas Aquinas and the relation of this thought to themes in the Deposit of Faith. Thus this part of the course enables students to engage with a single figure in some depth, a figure who is philosopher, theologian and preacher of the faith and who is consistently presented by the magisterium as worthy of special study.