This course deals with the question of philosophy: its definition, its origins, goals, approaches, history, its most prominent doctrines and the fields it deals with. It focuses on human philosophy and its development throughout history, stressing the necessity of philosophy and our urgent need for it today. This course also deals with the beginnings and development of human philosophy in Greece, beginning from the natural school (sixth century BC) to Plotinus (270 AD). In this course: - We will explain the beginning of the philosophical thinking, that is, the historical, political and social framework in which the first philosophical attempts to think about the origin of the universe appeared. - We will study the stages that the Greek philosophy went through from its beginning until Plotinus, and get acquainted with the various Greek philosophical schools. - We will learn about the most prominent Greek philosophers, such as Heraclitus, Parmenides, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, etc.

This course contributes to introducing the student to modern and contemporary philosophy, the frameworks in which they arose and the transformations that have occurred in philosophical thought since modernity. In this course: - We will introduce the student to the historical, cultural and intellectual framework of the origin of modern and contemporary philosophy. - We will explain the general characteristics that characterized the modern philosophy as well as the contemporary philosophy. - We will highlight the major lines of rationalism with its most prominent representatives: Descartes and Spinoza. - We will highlight the major lines of atheistic and Christian existentialism. - We will highlight the characteristics of the Enlightenment and its most prominent proposals. - We will introduce Kant's critical philosophy. - We will introduce the student to Phenomenology in France and the most prominent issues it raised, and its relationship to Judaism and specifically to Christianity.

This course aims at defining the research, its nature and its purpose. The student will practice choosing the subject, the research problem, the hypotheses, and the plan. He will train on documentary and field data collection, examine him to choose those that provide him with the information necessary to go on in his research process, provided that he appreciates trust in these references before relying on them. He will analyze this information and practice writing the introduction, the body and the conclusion, along with the preparation of a coherent text that is accurate and clear. He will set the design in decimal and the references by APA and footnote. He will finally prepare the cover page and present his research on Word and Power Point.

The aim of teaching this course is to introduce the student to literary and theological knowledge of the Synoptic Gospels and Acts of the Apostles Book by analyzing some texts, tools and methodologies that will enable students to read these inspiring books properly. Jesus did not write anything except once when he streaked his finger on the sand. However, his personality and what he did still stir many people's appetite for research on them. We will study the synoptic gospels, and the most important goal is the person of Jesus, whom his believers consider Christ and the Son of God. The synoptic Gospels are so similar that we can display them in three columns to read them "in one look" (sun-opsij); Hence the name “synoptic Gospels ". Despite the similarity among these gospels, there is a difference between them as each one was sensitive to a certain aspect in Jesus as a person. In our study of these gospels, we will respect this similarity and this difference among them. We will focus on the structure of each of them, its literary characteristics and its theology, and we will define the identity of the group that witnessed its birth and its author. We will read each of these Gospels, offering an approach of the specific terms of each one, its structure, the literary types it includes, and its theology. We will discover the richness of these three gospels that are considered foundational texts and a treasure to humanity.

This course is an introduction to two of the four main groups of the books of the Old Testament according to the Christian arrangement, i.e. Books of the Law and the historical books. These books provide an account of the history of salvation, from the formation of the world and mankind, passing through the history of Abraham, the friend of God, and his descendants to the history of God’s chosen people, since their departure from the land of Egypt, through their travel in the desert to the threshold of the promised land (Books of the Law). Then, their entering the land and establishing their presence in it (the monarchy period) and what follows: the exile to Babylon and the return to the land, until the Maccabees in the second century before Christ (the Historical Books). In a first stage, this course deals with the issues related to the books of the law in terms of their importance and location in the Bible, the nature of their texts and how to read each type of these texts as well as the basic problems that they poses. In a second stage, the course deals with the historical books, in their diversity, trying to stop at the most important historical stages they narrate. In addition, it shows the value of these theological texts, i.e. the role of God in conducting history events, the course also deals with narration as a major literary style in it, and it highlights its characteristics and basic rules.

This entry to the Bible aims to give the students the tools of work that allow them to study the inspired text, and to lead them to learn how to understand the biblical text. It will be necessary to get introduced to the document of the Pontifical Biblical Committee, entitled: Biblical Interpretation in the Church, in order to know the various methods of biblical studies.

Theology is the primary mission of the Church, and therefore it must always be at her service. It focuses on two facts: the eternal truth and the human history. In fact, theology is not just an intellectual work that is based on presenting a table of the most important topics of Christian faith and its dogmas, and on emphasizing its foundations or defending it. Rather, it is a critical thinking and a serious research centered on understanding the facts of the Christian faith and revealing their essence and relation to the divine revelation to deal with the life of man and humanity as well, for they have their impact on the fate of all humanity. The primary job of theology is to lead the human being through the "alert thinking" to come closer and closer to the truth and its manifestations in human history.

The fact that the Church cannot be without sacraments, or sacraments without a Church, this course aims to discuss the sacramental relation between the Church on one hand and the sacraments on the other hand. Thus, we discuss the truth of the Church's mystery throughout its long history regarding its beliefs and formal education as well as the documents of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), particularly the Dogmatic Constitution in the Church. After a quick introduction of the issue and talking about the Biblical and patristic foundations, the first part of the study is about two main titles, the first is the Trinitarian foundations, where the Church appears at the same time as God's people, the body of Christ, and the temple of the Holy Spirit. As for the second, it deals with the four signs or characteristics of the Church as mentioned in the Constantinople Faith Law, that is, unity, holiness, universality and apostolicism, without neglecting the ecumenical dimension and the issue of the Christian church presence in Lebanon and the Middle East. As for the second section, we refer to the concept of sacramentalism. Since the fifth century, the principle that says: “The rule of prayer is the basis of faith” has become popular. In sacraments, the truth of faith is prepared, for faith is a decision related to the history of salvation and to the mystery of Christ and His Church on one hand, and on the other hand, to the believer’s commitment to the inspired truths, freely convinced. While the Bible introduces the salvation plan in its various stages, the sacraments celebrate it actually and live it mysteriously; While faith provides us with the salvation economy as a subject for our faith, it is celebrated in liturgy, proclaimed and explained, taught and granted and as effective and sensory signs. Thus, the sacraments become a source of faith and an expression of it, celebrating it and living it. At that time, faith becomes an act of worship and gratitude, and the believer becomes a Eucharist. Therefore, we proceed from Christ, the mystery of the sacraments, to the mystery of the Church, and how she lives the sacraments through the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, the teaching of the Catholic Church and the characteristics of our Eastern Churches.

This course is divided into two parts, the first forms an introduction to moral theology and the second is about the theology of spiritual life. The first part, of this course, presents some theological principles that help focus the moral life on the "life in Christ". It includes the specific characteristic of Christian moral behavior, the relationship of faith to moral way of living, the meaning of human dignity, human happiness, freedom and responsibility, destiny and Christian faith, virtues, gifts of the Holy Spirit, moral conscience, moral values, moral distinction, the commandments, the church and the moral education, sin, repentance. All of these life issues are presented in the light of the Church's teachings and instructions in order to answer the following double question: "What must I do and what should I not do, in order to become" more humane "? Who should I be to attain the whole measure of the fullness of Christ?" This course is the second part of moral theology, and it is concerned with studying the personal spiritual experience and its effect on the moral behavior of the believer and his daily life, starting from the Bible and the teachings of the Fathers of the Church, in order to define the ways that help him / her in his / her path towards holiness (according to the definition of the contemporary French theologian Cardinal Chenu). Accordingly, this part of the course aims to clarify this definition and deeply explain all of its components. First, we will learn what spiritual theology is along with its relationship to other theological courses. Then, we will discuss the concept of the spiritual life as found in the sources of Christian theology (the Bible, the Fathers of the church, the Church's teaching). After that, we will proceed to get acquainted with the educational foundations and review the methods provided by the humanities to activate the spiritual life and to develop the gift of distinction necessary to serve the spiritual guidance. Finally, we will look at the role of the sacraments (baptism - repentance - the Eucharist) in developing the spiritual life of the believer.

After defining the meaning and definitions of the word liturgy throughout history up to the second Vatican Council, the students get acquainted with the liturgical place (ecclesiastical engineering), the liturgical time (Sunday, the liturgical year, and the feasts of the saints), and celebrating personalities (the visible and invisible groups), (sacred degrees and liturgical services), Celebration materials: (Ritual Words: Amen, Alleluia, Kirillison, Maranata, Stumen Kalos. The Ritual Movements: Sign of the Cross, Standing, Sitting, Prostrating (worshipping) in all its Kinds, the rites used in Lighting and burning incense, ritual clothing, colours, and icons. The student gets to know the purpose of the liturgy as an expression of faith, and the separation between the ritual act and pious deed that paves the way to the liturgy without taking its place. This is done by comparing between the various eastern liturgies and the western liturgy.

This course presents the most important historical and intellectual stages that psychology has passed through and the scientific and social developments that have led to define its identity as a peculiar and independent science that has its methods and field of testing. Later, the course deals with the most important psychological currents and schools, displaying the basic characteristics of each of them. The most important objectives of this course are the study of the human behavior in all its dimensions and its impact on our daily and social life, and how to use it to analyze and understand many of the problems that each of us suffers and to eventually find some ways to get out of them.

This course aims to give the students a general idea about sociology, its interests, theories, fields and connections to other sciences, and to identify the pioneering founders of this science and some concepts related to sociology. The course also seeks to introduce the concept of human social communities and their forms, and to introduce the students to the most important processes and systems of society that constitute the structure of society, and to define the concept of socialization, culture, personality and others.

The Science of Man or anthropology is an important stage in the course of the development of human sciences, hence the need to study the acquisitions of this science while specializing in theological sciences. This course includes two parts: The first begins with defining anthropology and its historical roots, it also deals with the concept of man in the Greek thought and then in the modern and contemporary thought, along with studying the humanization current and its impact on the history of modern and contemporary thought. This section reviews the most prominent schools and theories that have approached the human phenomenon in society and the most important results it produced in many cultural fields. - Then, we will stop at the most prominent branches of anthropology, namely: - Natural Anthropology - Cultural Anthropology - Social Anthropology The second section deals with the religious anthropology, what it calls the “religious phenomenon”, and how it manifests itself in several religions and not only in one religion. It is about an anthropological rather than theological approach to the phenomenon of sanctification and its results: religious groups, scriptures, a particular system of belief and disbelief, and specific concepts for each group separately. The most important issues the religious anthropology deals with are: the relationship between religion and society, between religion and politics and between religion and language, it also examines religious narration and its role in forming a mythical awareness of the religious community. It also studies the role of imagination and metaphor in the production of knowledge and their impact on the human behavior. One of the most important issues of our research is the dialectic that exists within the anthropological triangle: violence, sanctification, and truth.

This course includes a study of the concepts of reason and religion in their anthropological and functional dimensions. It also provides an overview of the development of theological and philosophical thought on the issue of the relationship between faith and religion. It also includes a philosophical approach on the issue of God, the issue of the being and the issue of the soul, as an introduction to the theological approach in this field.

This course deals with the most prominent and common issues that were dealt with by philosophy and religion at the same time and it stops at the critical direction in approaching these issues. It is divided into two parts: The first part includes a presentation and an explanation of the most prominent verbal, philosophical and mystical issues based on the Arab thought and its Greek roots, according to the dialectical method. We mention for example: the creation of the Qur’an, reason and transmission, freedom and obligation, divine attributes, cause of perceptible things, mental knowledge and illuminating knowledge, doubt and certainty, gratitude and annihilation in God, asceticism, unity of existence. The second part deals with the philosophy of religion: its definition, its most prominent pioneers, and its most prominent issues. It highlights critical philosophical approaches regarding the religious thought propositions. It also deeply deals with some of the deconstructive models of the theological mind and how it works. Its main topics: Defining religion from a modern and contemporary philosophical perspective, the concept of truth, the concept of revelation, faith reading and critical reading of the text, a critical review of the previous thought, rational religiosity, religion and society, and the interaction between what is spiritual and what is temporal, what is sacred and what is violent.

The goal of writing the fourth gospel is "to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God," and you will have "life in His name." Faith and life are, therefore, the two points in which this gospel expands. This can be illustrated by several testimonies in it and the declaration of faith, such as: the testimonies of the Baptist, Andrew and Nathaniel, and the faith of the disciples after turning water into wine in Qana's wedding, Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, and the royal officer And the deposed, the apostles after Jesus' words on the bread of life, the blind man, the revival of Lazarus, etc…. Thus, John’s gospel is the gospel of faith that Jesus himself is life. When John wanted to write his first letter, he started it with a testimony of his own gospel; this is how the mission begins with witnessing the appearance of the divine life in the person of Jesus Christ, that is, God gave us eternal life in his Son. The book of Revelation comes to emphasize the role of Christ Jesus in giving life: “To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life” (Rev 21: 5-6). As at the beginning of John’s gospel, here also “In him was life; and life was the light of men” (John 1: 4). The Fathers of the Church read the fourth gospel to live from it, they especially highlighted its wonderful symbolism, and they knew its primary goal, that is, faith and life (Jer. 20:23). In the nineteenth century, the issue of the historical content in the New Testament was dealt with. Then, the Hellenistic influence, the Gnostic, Philon of Alexandria, who highlighted the importance of logos, etc... were discussed. Later on, the discovery of the Qumran manuscripts played an important role in understanding the Jewish and Christian worlds in the first century, as well as the Gnostic library in Nag Hammadi, along with the papyrus manuscripts and the ruins of some sites mentioned in the fourth gospel. All of which contributed to a deeper and closer understanding from a historical point of view. Among the topics that will be studied through the texts are: the Jewish background and the Qumran group, the literary structure in the fourth gospel, “the word has become human”, “I am the bread of life”, John’s Christology, the Advocate, the signs, the deeds and symbols, the disciple, mother of Jesus, washing the legs, the hour Passion, Resurrection, Salvation, and the Testimonies, etc.

This course is an introduction to study the Psalms, the book that contains the largest number of the prayers of God’s people, as well as to a main part of the four parts of the Old Testament - according to the Christian tradition - namely the wisdom books. The purpose of this course, in its first part, is to teach the students the religious language of God’s people, the one they used and are still using to talk to God individually and collectively, in good and bad times, and even in all their individual and social conditions. As for the approach adopted to achieve this goal, it is to start addressing the general issues related to the book i.e. its text studying, its composition, its structure and parts arrangement, ending with a presentation of the most important explanatory currents that dealt with it and the results of their studies. In the second stage, the course focuses on studying a selected number of psalms, which represents a sample of all the literary types constituting the book, adopting some of the modern methods in reading this type of text. As for the second part, the course deals with the six remaining books of wisdom: Job proverbs, Al-Jami'a, the Song of Songs (Canticle), the wisdom and Joshua Bin Sirakh. The course begins with a general introduction to the wisdom literature in Israel and its connection to the common wisdom heritage of the peoples and civilizations of the ancient East. Then it reviews each of the books mentioned above, identifying it: (the author, the composition of the book, and its content) and stopping at the most prominent texts.

This course aims to deepen the following concept: "the unity of the mystery in the diversity of sacramental worship", through an applied study of the book of Father Jean Corbon “The Wellspring of Worship". Therefore, we dive with him into the celebration, that is, "the present time" or "the hour", and we refute the recollection and the unity of energies and then we study the summons in details. During the follow-up and progression, each student is asked do a research regarding a practical point, applying the scientific theological methodology, and practicing more and more on concluding. Main reference: Jean Corbon, The Wellspring of Worship, Al-Noor Publications, 1993.

"The Fathers of the Church" is a course that aims to get acquainted to the origin and life of the early Church, its faith and spirituality, its theological, ecumenical and ascetic thought. The aim of studying the science of "Patrology" is to reveal the thought of the fathers in terms of their beliefs, teachings and writings. The "Fathers of the Church" period extends from the second century to the seventh-eighth century AD, in which the lives of the Fathers are studied by identifying their personalities and the circumstances surrounding them. They wrote their writings for us, as well as their works, whether words, poetry, prose or epistles ... which are an integral part of the history of their lives. The "Fathers of the Church" course allows the students to enter into the core of the Church's historical and doctrinal events and crises, and their development in all the theological areas, along with the identification of the heresies and the dogmatic obstacles that surrounded the Church, and which led to successive divisions in its communities.

This course is the task of ecclesiastical management (governance), and it reviews the systems of the church establishments of all kinds, especially public and common systems among the twenty-one Eastern Catholic Churches, compared with the laws and regulations of the Latin Church when necessary. In the first part, there will be a historical summary of the church legislation progression, and the general principles that guided the writers of the laws; followed by a review of the most prominent rules of secrets, the state of consecrated life, the management of temporal goods, and the origins of trials, as well as a review of the rights and duties of the faithful. In the second part, we will explain the concept of the church authority, dioceses and bishops, and the system of both the seminarians and the lay faithful, and then we will define the origins of marital cases, stopping at the right of defense, the concept of church punishments and the procedures of their imposition. In both parts, we will deal with the most prominent legal texts found in the set of laws of the Eastern Churches issued in 1990, which have been in effect since the first of October 1991.

This course is a tour in the world of art, in all its forms. It begins by defining art as a variety of expressions that tell about the external and internal world through the creative person to cross with him to the person who tastes art, or to the believers to help them progress in prayer and meditation. This tour passes through the primitive world in its rituals, metaphors, drawings, and symbols, which make concurrent that which is metaphysical as the novels that go beyond the sensory, temporal world. This tour refers to the pages of the Bible to take an uplifting, inspiring art, through pictures painted in words. It also visits Dora of Orissa and the Catacomes of Rome to taste pagan, Jewish and Christian art that is connected with a human civilized development factor. It also tries to study a painting depicted by a divine hand on a burial cloth, carefully preserved in the Italian city of Turin. It also studies the icon, whether it was mosaic, or a painting made of materials taken from nature, and mixed with prayer and meditation, to convey heaven to us, or an icon that illustrates human beings found in the Bible or in the Church, who have already become saints. This tour highlights a violent war that wiped out a large number of important icons that were lost from the History Gallery for cultural and religious reasons. It tries to understand the shapes, geometrical symbols, and colors in Byzantine and Russian icons, which tell Bible stories, or display gloriously the face of Christ, and the utmost Blessed Virgin Mary. Add to this the wonderful art of churches’ architecture, as well as in the paintings that are still preserved on their walls, whether in Cappadocia, or in some of the Lebanese villages.

This course aims to develop verbal and non-verbal communication skills (phonology and body language) and to show and refine the character of the convincing, influential and attractive performer, as well as to identify the effective communication methods with the public. It depends on learning through action and application, through using various theatrical exercises and techniques, exercises in verbal and nonverbal communication and exercises to enhance self-confidence, attendance, persuasion, and overcoming the barriers of fear and tension.

Christian eschatology, based on its being the theology that looks at the hope and glory we have in Christ Jesus and in his eternal inheritance, constitutes a faith and dogmatic awareness of the absolute future that God has prepared for us since before the creation of the world. It is the duty of eschatology, as a theological science based on the very foundations of revelation, to crown the ultimate meaning of every path of theological and spiritual reasoning. Accordingly, this course firstly approaches the eschatological issues from a philosophical-theological existential perspective; it then deals with the theology of death and the issue of the soul’s fate after death according to the teachings of the Old and the New Testaments. It also presents the Catholic Church's doctrine of Purgatory, Hell, Heaven, The Second Coming of Christ, Resurrection, Personal and Public Judgment and Eternal Life. The course concludes with a brief overview on the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and its pastoral and spiritual directives regarding the eschatological dimension of the life of the faithful and the Church of God itself.

Mariology, or “doctrine of Mary”, is a fruit and a dimension of Christological theology, dealing with the person, the vocation, and the mission of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, as well as with her relationship with the Church and the faithful, based on the holy revelation, especially in the New Testament. The Church's teaching and doctrines form the basis for Mariology in order to clarify Mary's image, role and mission in the history of salvation and the Church, along with her final destiny that precedes the fate of the believers in her son Jesus and reveals the truth of their salvation.

The Church Social Education course aims to get the students acquainted to the basic principles of social church education, and to introduce to them the concepts and methods needed in the society and the church today, in the light of the problems and the challenges found in all the social fields. This course is part of the moral theology and it reflects the values of the Gospel to serve people for the sake of the growth of man in his wholeness. This education is in continuous dialogue with other sciences such as philosophy, anthropology, political science, law, economics, personal affairs and others. It lies in the salvation of man and the preservation of his / her rights and dignity.

"Comparative Religions" course is based on an open study of the multiplicity of approaches in approaching the religious phenomenon in society and throughout history. It studies and compares heavenly religions, the ancient eastern religions in general, and the other religions in particular. It mainly refers to anthropology, sociology and language in its approach to religion. It highlights the most important discoveries of "comparative religions" regarding the study of religions: their foundations, books, teachings, beliefs, rituals, and laws. Thus, this course will offer to think about the following concepts and to compare them between one religion and another: - God and divinity - Self and eternal life - Repentance and salvation - Man and human freedom - Worship: prayer, fasting, and sacrifice - The body - Marriage and personal status - Religion and Politics - Religion and Ethics - Religion and Science - Sufism - Legend and religious narration - Holy violence - Interfaith dialogue This course also focuses on the most prominent pioneers of comparative religions, and the founders of its methodological foundations, in Europe as well as in the Arab Islamic thought, most notably Frederick Max Muller, Max Weber, Marcel Moss, Marcia Eliad, Michel Meslan, Muhammad Arkoun, Khazal Al-Majidi, Firas Al-Sawah and Ahmed Al-Khatib. This course deals with the methodological approaches adopted by "comparative religion" in its research, such as: - Comparative Analytical Approach - The critical Approach - The Anthropological Approach - The Social Approach - Phenomenological Approach - Psychological Approach - Historical Approach

This course includes an overview on ethics. It presents the foundations of moral discrimination that allows making human and professional relationships based on respecting the others, their intellectual, moral and human rights. It studies the values, principles, and rules (laws) along with their impact on the decisions and the human behavior. This course also includes a study of the concept of conscience and its continuous education. It introduces the definition of ethics’ issues and conditions in order to protect researches and intellectual property.

In this course, students get introduced to the principles and the values of citizenship, and to the citizen’s work as a means of active commitment in society. The objectives of this course are: - To deeply study the principles of citizenship in Lebanon and other countries, and to understand the associated problems; - To acquire critical thinking skills and the ability to dialogue, while respecting the right to be different; - To learn the basic mechanisms for managing diversity and pluralism; - To learn about the areas of active involvement in society and its strategies.

This course aims to introduce the student to the books of the prophets, according to the Jewish use of this designation, i.e. the collection of books extending from the book of Joshua to the prophecy of Malachi. It is the largest of the three groups that make up the Bible, (the other two are the Torah and the books of wisdom). It consists of two parts, the first is the first prophets (the largest part of the historical books according to the Christian designation), and the second is the subsequent prophets (the prophets according to the Christian designation). In the first part, the course deals with the books of the first prophets (from the book of Joshua Bin Nun to the Second Book of the Kings), stopping at the most prominent theological topics that it includes: the occupation of the land through the holy wars that the Babylonian captivity contradicts, the issue of the king in his divine choice and his betrayal of the Lord, and the appearance of the movement of the first prophets, especially the prophet Elijah. As for the methodology of this presentation, it is based on reading the most important texts related to it, and devising the features of divine intervention in the history of the people of Israel to transform it into a sacred history and into a saving educational plan for man. Later, the course studies the biography of some righteous people such as Raot and Esther, the Maccabees and others whom the book provides as a vivid example for the believers, especially that these short texts constitute a special literary element that oscillates between history and wisdom. As for the second part, namely ‘ The following prophets’ (from the Book of Isaiah to the Book of Malachi), the course firstly studies the prophetic phenomenon in the history of God's people by studying the literature that this movement has produced over decades, since the establishment of the kingship to the post-captivity stage to Babylon. Therefore, and based on specific texts, the course will explore the role of the Prophet and to devise the means and the channels that enabled him to communicate with God first and then with the people. After that, the course deals with the prophetic books as written texts (their structure - stages of writing, etc.), as well as their content, that is, the message it expresses, including the attitudes regarding all aspects of people's lives.

This course aims to achieve three main objectives: 1. Understanding Paul's life background that was at the basis of his theology; 2. Acquisition of an explanatory methodology of the epistles; 3. Concluding the headlines of Paul's theology. As a beginning, we survey the most prominent stages and dates in the life of the Apostle Paul by referring to the Book of the Acts of the Apostles and Paul’s Great Epistles. In a second stage, we constantly dive into reading the epistles in order to give explanatory keys in missionary art and to highlight the basic theological concepts in each epistle. The third stage is to conclude Paul's general theology: his doctrinal, moral, ecclesial, and pastoral theology.

The Holy Trinity is the basic doctrine of the hierarchy of the truths of the Christian faith. It is a mystery in the exclusive sense, and it can only be known on the basis of the sacred revelation which is linked to the history of salvation in the Old and the New Testament, where it revealed the fullness of the Trinity mystery in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who incarnated to save the world. Starting from the study of the entity of God as one and trinity, the realization of what is unrecognizable and worshipping it, from the Christian perspective, becomes a practical fact that fundamentally carries the truth of God and his endless love for the world.

The Christian faith as a whole is based on the person, life, deeds and teachings of Christ. Christology, "the science of Christ", seeks to define the identity of Jesus Christ, his relationship with God, and his role in the salvation of the world. The Biblical preparation of the issue and the mission of Christ in the Old Testament reaches its fullness through the mysteries of Incarnation and Redemption, where the truth of Christ appears in its completeness and declares the perfection of his humanity and his divinity alike.

This course presents the most important historical events known by the Church in the first millennium after Jesus Christ, and it lists them under three headings. The first one deals with the establishing and spreading of the church in the Roman Empire and outside, including the stage of persecutions and the most prominent church men known at this stage (Origen, Pace, Tertullian, Cyprian and the Church of North Africa) in addition to its Christian literature. The second title includes the stage of the first four ecumenical councils, which also witnessed the beginning of the patriarchs and the appearance of the monastic life. As for the third title, it is devoted to church relations between the East and the West. The latter includes an observation of the growing divergence between Rome and Constantinople since the fourth century till the great division in the eleventh century, passing through the last three councils, the War on Icons and the problem of Phocius and Ignatius

This course deals with the period from the sixteenth century to the twenty first century. This stage in the church history begins with the great crisis caused by the teachings of Martin Luther and his followers, which prompted the church to take a reaction that would bring it back to its roots, so it felt the need for ‘real" reform’. This explains the existence of the Council of Trent and the monastic reform that translated the Tridentine reform in the world, and spread it all over the world including the east by the Latin missionaries. The Church went on in its struggle in the following centuries through its conflict with Frommson and the French Revolution up to the first Vatican Council. The most important events, of this era, were undoubtedly the period from the First Vatican Council to the first and the second World War, the rise of the Communist revolution in Russia, the second Vatican Council and its reforms that affected the whole Church and opened the doors of hope to the ecumenical dialogue and the dialogue with the rest of the communities.

A guide for the application of the principles and the rules of the Ecumenical Movement, issued by the Catholic Church in 1993 (D79-81), proposes an ecumenical formation for students of theology, seminarians and pastoral activists by introducing an ecumenical swab for each course in addition to an ecumenical work methodology. The guide also clearly requests the assignment of an ecumenical course, provided that this formation fits the country and the region. Ecumenism is a main component to attain "true ecumenism." (D 70). Hence, it is not surprising that students learn about the Orthodox and Protestant traditions depending on the characteristics and features of the Orthodox theology. Neglecting the comparisons with Catholic theology or Protestant beliefs, the main points in the history of the Orthodox thought are highlighted. At a second stage, the course introduces the basic evangelical and theological teachings, beliefs and concepts, through a brief study of the history and theology of the Evangelists as originated in the sixteenth century and then developed till this day. Knowing about these two traditions, the history of divisions, reconciliation efforts and men, and the dogmatic attitudes of the churches, taking into account the results and clarifications resulted from the theological dialogues, is an essential step on the path to unity.

This course aims to go deep into the roots of the Christian Eucharist, to determine its authenticity on the one hand, and on the other hand, to highlight the nature of the Christian Eucharist, as an ecclesial communion that is ever offered to God the Father, through Jesus Christ the Son of God and our Lord, with the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. Practically, we proceed from "blessing" or "recalling" to the power of "summoning", concluding with an applied study comparing the liturgical anaphora.

Pastoral theology, as defined by the theologian Groppo, is the science of principles and foundations through which the Church seeks to fulfill its mission and spread the Gospel. The field of work of this branch of theology is primarily determined in the world and its relationship to the Church. At a first stage, it analyzes the daily reality experienced by the believer, and in particular, it identifies the difficulties that hinder evangelization. In its second stage, the course seeks to create a practical program through which it can display the message of the Gospel in a renewed manner that is compatible with the developments and instabilities of time. This is presented through the main points dealt with in this course. Firstly, it defines what pastoral theology is and explains what distinguishes it from other theological courses. Secondly, it evaluates the pastoral work that the Church undertakes positively as well as negatively. In addition, it defines the scientific methodology adopted in studying the reality of the pastoral work after defining the concept of pastoral work itself. Finally, it presents the possible solutions and determines practical pastoral plans in order to activate the missionary work.