The first section of this course deals with the history, number, role and dynamism of the Ecumenical Councils within the framework of communion between the first Christian groups and with the Holy Trinity at the same time. It specifically addresses the peculiarities of the Council of Trent (1545-1563) and the First Vatican Council (1869-1870) and their influence on the Second Vatican Council. Later, the research focuses on the most prominent historical stages of this synod and the texts that have had profound consequences on the liturgy, the Bible, the ecumenical dialogue, the Church’s relationship with the contemporary world, religious freedom, art, and other prominent issues that have formed extremely important stages in the Church’s history in the last century until now. The second part of the course focuses on the Second Vatican Council, for it is the council that gave the nature, vocation, and mission of the Church the first place in its researches and documents by returning to the roots, that is, to the origin of the Church and its closest time to Christ (who is himself the origin). Since this synod, the Catholic Church, in its theological interest and pastoral endeavor, has greatly focused on ecclesiology, for there is no way to proclaim the Good News and to live the mystery of salvation except in the light of our correct understanding of the Church’s nature, its mission and the goal of its establishment and continuity. The aim, of this part of the course, is to demonstrate the development of ecclesiological theology and its reflection on our living of the mystery of the Church since the Second Vatican Council first in the Catholic Church and second in the converging and advanced ecumenical research in this field. This study relies on reading the ecclesiastical documents issued by the educational authority, the World Council of Churches or the various Christian churches, and the common theological committees, and on analyzing its content, and researching how to achieve its best representation in the life of contemporary Christian groups. All of this is to attain more faithfulness to the Gospel and to the will of the Lord.

This course aims, at a first stage, to review the circumstances of the origin of one of the Eastern Churches (Maronite, Melkite Catholic, Syrian Catholic, etc.), according to the known tradition, and their connection to Antioch, Rome and other Apostolic Churches; then their progress through history. In a second stage, the course deals with the process of interaction between the great and wealthy Latin Church, and the small, poor Eastern Churches. It also discusses the results of this mutual openness, which is what belongs specifically to the Maronite Church: the founding of the Maronite School, the path of modernity (schools and presses), and the science of Orientalism. It also reviews the famous figures of this church, and their role in launching the Arab Renaissance: in Aleppo, in Mount of Lebanon; the foundation of congregations, human rights, and property development. As for the second part, the course focuses on studying the texts of this major theological church, especially the liturgical ones. After a quick review of the special liturgical heritage and the division of the liturgical year according to this ecclesiastical tradition, the course turns to reading and analyzing selected liturgical texts in an attempt to enable the student to derive the most important theological ideas, dogmatic, Biblical, as well as moral ones.

Throughout the ages, there have been many ways and methods for reading Biblical texts, especially the Old Testament texts. Some of the readings were either false, incomplete or superficial. Therefore, the Church deliberately developed precise “scientific methods” for biblical analysis, and issued a document entitled “Interpretation of the Bible in the Church,” issued in 1993 by the Pontifical Biblical Commission in Rome. Since then, we can talk about "the Science of the Bible". This course aims to introduce the student to these scientific methods and the latest theories on how to handle and explain the texts of the Old Testament, especially the texts of the Torah and the books of the prophets. These texts are the most prolific theologically the most influential and closely related to the New Testament. We will select standard texts and follow one or two scientific patterns in Biblical explanation. After the professor explains the approved method and after doing some exercises on selected texts, the student will have to work on explaining one of the texts, under the supervision of the professor. Then each student displays his/her work in the classroom, and the professor and the rest of the students discuss it with him/her, so that he/she can practice giving lectures and handling scientific discussion sessions.

This course presents basic topics in the New Testament and it has two goals: interpretation of texts from the New Testament, and extraction of theological and spiritual ideas from them. In an advanced stage, the student acquires a methodology that studies the basic Biblical topics, and he practices on dealing with difficult and problematic texts. The analytical reading of the texts of the New Testament theologically deals with fundamental topics such as the cross, the church, salvation and the blessings of Christian time that has been initiated since the incarnation of Christ, his death and his resurrection. Ignorance of the Holy Scriptures is ignorance of Christ himself, as Saint Jerome says, so this course attempts to explain the texts of the New Testament in order to explain the mystery of Christ's salvation.

This course aims to introduce the student to modern Biblical curricula, in terms of their philosophical substructures and the rules that govern them, and enable him to adopt them in his reading of the written texts. This course takes the form of a "roundtable" that starts from presenting and evaluating multiple interpretative readings as found in the Vatican document "The Biblical Interpretation in the Church" (12 reading or approach), focusing on the historical development of these interpretative approaches. In a second stage, the student is asked to study a specific text according to one of these approaches and to present it in class, based on a study that deals with the text itself and adopts the same methodology. As for a second part, the student will be introduced to and trained on a specific main approach; (such as narrative, historical, critical, or rhetorical). This definition, in terms of methodology, is based on pairing both theoretical and practical issues in studying each step in the chosen approach. The student, thus, becomes informed, in parallel, of the new expressions related to the mentioned approach and the cognitive foundations that direct them on the one hand, and how they are applied to Biblical texts through studying some models, on the other hand. Then, the student selects a text from the Biblical texts that are inherently compatible with the approved approach (ex: a narrative text for the narrative approach) and then he presents it in front of the class for discussion and analysis.

The research methodology course is devoted for the students who long to profoundly complete their studies in theology. It helps them write scientific theses to take the Master's Degree. It deals with the identification of the problem (issue), the proper selection of the supervisor, the selection of appropriate sources and references, the authorship, and how to develop indexes, footnotes, etc. This course also discusses how different sciences approach their methodologies in scientific research.

The issue of education and dealing with cultural diversity in the world today occupies a large area of the interests of people in general, and specialists in all fields of science and knowledge in particular. Add to this that our youth today face both opportunities and great challenges to interact in societies. This course attempts to deal with the specificity of Christian formation and its impact on building man at his four dimensions: spiritual, social, emotional and intellectual. Among the topics discussed in this part of the course, we mention the following: the relationship between the church and the kingdom and education, training to reach either self-attainment or association, the role of the trainer, discipleship, conveying knowledge from the expert to the student, skills, team work, learning about educational systems, training on cultural interaction, the distinction between religious education and religious culture, the mechanism of addressing prejudices and previous ideas. As for the second part, the course deals with the issue of Christian education specifically, as a path of education in faith or an educational methodology on the Christian faith objectively and rationally. It is an educational path that stems from faith and flows into it. It revolves around three axes: the content that is the person of Jesus Christ; the recipient, who is the student; the manner that is the methods and the means to support them. The methodology of catechism, whatever its form is, is the way to communicate to the recipient the message of God that is Jesus Christ. The criterion of validity and accuracy of a method or methodology is its ability to communicate this message, its ability to echo this message in the entity of the hearer (recipient) so that the message becomes good news. This course aims to train the student on this method called "active methodology" which starts from a philosophy that considers the recipient to be the axis of the educational process, the axis of this axis is the person of Jesus Christ, and the axis of this last axis is the Paschal mystery. The active methodology, as its name indicates, is what makes the student active, effective and positive. It activates his senses and his thought, stimulates his abilities and uses his energies.

This course aims at discussing the most important issues that occupy a wide space in the contemporary public debate by reviewing the most important opinions about it, dealing with the attitudes of religions, especially Christianity. One of the most important relatively recent issues, which threaten the foundations and conditions of life on this small and fragile planet, and the human race itself, is the "environmental issue". So what is this issue? What are its roots? Which is the new philosophy that launched and produced it? Does the environmental issue in the world call for a change in the dominant human civilization and in the economic, political and social systems? Does it need new ethics? What is the role of science and technology in creating solutions? Is betting on them (science and technology) in saving the world still possible? What about accusing them to be the main causes of the problem?! What are the foundations and the principles of the "ecological" ecclesiastical discourse? Another issue, that raises controversy and causes enthusiasm in our present world, is the political violence in contemporary Islamic movements regarding the principle of the absolute link, between the religious and the secular in the founding texts of the Islamic faith, for Islam is considered a religion and a state, and its decrees are the source of authority. This course attempts to approach the topic of political violence in contemporary Islamic movements according to the following design and description: - A brief overview of the historical roots of political violence in Islam (from the killing of Caliph Othman bin Affan to the Islamic revolution in Iran and the overthrow of the Shah) - The causes of political violence (failure to give religion its right to legislate - political tyranny - social injustice - the neglect of national rights - the oppression of authority ...) - Philosophy of political violence 1 (the attitude of Sunni jurists - the attitude of the Mu'tazila - the attitude of the Khawarej - the attitude of Shia) - The Philosophy of Political Violence 2 (From Hakimiyah to Wilayat al-Faqih) (From the Muslim Brothers to Hezbollah) - Conclusion: a critical attitude.

This course aims to study the attitude of the Catholic Church towards media innovations as divine gifts and a blessing from God. Therefore, and always according to the Church, the role of the media should not be restricted to distributing ideas, but rather to contributing in building a more just and more united world, a world with a new quality of existence. Consequently, the Church rejects the stereotype that wants it to be a guardian of morals in media, or a wrestler of the "electronic space devils". Rather, the church asks Christians to fully engage in this space and contribute to the creation of a new culture. This course deals with the issue of the presence and interaction of the Church, "an expert in humanity", in the new media world. It tries to display the most important stages through which its attitude towards this world has taken shape in the past two centuries. As for the methodology followed, it is based on studying the official documents that dealt with this issue, and on observing the development in the church’s attitude, from negativity and condemnation to benediction, encouragement and positive engagement in this world, which is very powerful in purifying ideas and consciences.

This course aims to study the texts of the vocation in the Bible, in the Old and New Testaments. In a first stage, we review some contemporary analytical studies that have devised a special literary kind, which they called "the prophetic vocation" by observing the most important literary elements common in most of the texts that narrate divine interference in the life of a person who is selected by the Lord and assigned to a special mission (Moses, Gideon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others)). Later, we study each of these texts within its literary framework, showing how each of these narrations is specific. Then, we analyze Elijah's vocation to his disciple Elisha (1kings / 19), and its relationship with the narrations of Jesus' vocation to his disciples in the New Testament. Finally, we conclude with presenting and explaining Paul's vocation and its importance in understanding the vocation today.

Since the early centuries of Christianity, the consecrated life has been a fundamental axis in the Church's history, and its various types and spirituality have rapidly flourished, starting from Egypt until the Byzantine Empire and the Western world. Therefore, convents have spread throughout the world, enriched with monks and hermits who have given their entire lives for the service of God and man. The content of the course is not limited to merely describing the "reality of life" of a group of people. Rather, it is concerned with indicating the meaning and the direction of the search for God. This process constantly yearns to the permanent imitation of Christ and to constantly realize life in him, which is expressed by the Apostle Paul when he says, "For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain." (Phil 1:21). Our study depends on a comprehensive reading of the consecrated life’s history in its stages of development, growth and spreading, in addition to the teaching of the councils, church instructions and writings of the Church Fathers and their contemplation of their topics and their development, highlighting the fruitful wisdom of divine love.

In this course, the student will learn the following issues: The church’s view, as a teacher, regarding the formation on the consecrated life; The foundations to construct a "formation guide"; How to prepare programs of formation on the consecrated life in its various stages: Postulance, Novitiate , First Profession till Perpetual Profession, priesthood and ongoing formation. In addition, the student will learn about the content and the objectives of the formation programs in its various stages, the vow of chastity: what it is, and how to educate on it; the vow of poverty: what it is and how to educate on it; the vow of obedience: what it is and how to educate on it, formation programs on the fraternal life and formation programs on the apostolic life.