In this course, students will explore the historical debates and the doctrinal formulations of the seven ecumenical councils (325-787 CE). This course will address the development of fundamental themes in Trinity, Christology, Ecclesiology, sacramental theology, and the theology of iconography. Students will be introduced to the historical context of these debates and attend to the relationship between the early church and its relationship to secular authority. The course will further examine the theological method of early and late antique Christian thinkers that gave rise to these doctrines as well as explore the enduring contribution of these conciliar debates for ecumenical dialogue. We will further examine conciliar reception in contemporary theology in mainline Christian traditions.
The Seven Ecumenical Councils
- Instructor: Rev. Andrew J. Summerson
- Day: Thursday
- Time: 17:00-19:00
- Location: Windle House

Rev. Andrew J. Summerson
Assistant Professor of Greek Patristics
Rev. Andrew Summerson, S.Th.D. is Assistant Professor of Greek Patristics at the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies in the Faculty of Theology. His primary area of research concerns interpreting the major works of Maximus the Confessor. A hinge figure in the Christian tradition, Maximus is both the synthesizer of the Greek patristic period and an architect for later Byzantine theology. Summerson’s recent book, Divine Scripture and Human Emotion in Maximus the Confessor, offers a close reading of the Confessor’s second-largest work, Quaestiones ad Thalassium, and shows how Maximus revises Stoic and Platonic-inspired monastic accounts of emotion according to biblical categories. Summerson’s next book project concerns Maximus’s reception of Gregory Nazianzen’s theological legacy, found primarily in the Confessor’s largest work, Ambigua ad Iohannem,
Summerson is currently under contract edit a volume entitled Eastern Catholic Theology in Action (CUA Press). This book brings together an international group of Eastern Catholic, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox scholars to offer a critical introduction to themes in Eastern Catholic theology. He is also the co-editor of the upcoming volume, The Pastoral Theology of the Early Church (CUA Press), a survey of patristic figures and their approaches to pastoral ministry. Summerson is also working currently on a translation Manlio Simonetti’s The Arian Crisis in the Fourth Century. The work will also include essays on developments in scholarship since its original publication. He also publishes in the area of liturgy and Eastern Christian Studies more broadly. Summerson is a member of the North American Patristics Society, the Society of Biblical Literature, The American Academy of Religion, and the Academy of Catholic Theology.
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SMH 3614H
The Seven Ecumenical Councils
Winter 2023- Instructor: Rev. Andrew J. Summerson
- Day: Thursday
- Time: 17:00-19:00
- Location: Windle House
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Fall 2022
- Instructor: Rev. Andrew J. Summerson
- Day: Thursday
- Time: 19:00-21:00
- Location:
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SMT2210HS L0101
Christ the Saviour: Eastern Christian Perspectives
Winter 2023- Instructor: Rev. Andrew J. Summerson
- Day: Monday
- Time: 21:00
- Location: Windle House
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SMH1010HF
History of Christianity I (to AD 843)
Fall 2022- Instructor: Rev. Andrew J. Summerson
- Day: Monday
- Time: 19:00-21:00
- Location: TBA
- “The Church on Parker’s Back: A Primer in Theologia Prima for the ‘Nones.’” Worship, forthcoming, 2022.
- “Interpreting Human Experience: Body, Soul, and Apatheia in Maximus the Confessor.” Eastern Theological Journal 5, no. 2 (2019): 237-257
- “St. Joseph is a prophet in the Byzantine tradition. What can we learn from their devotion?” (https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2021/03/19/st-joseph-byzantine-tradition-devotion-240278) America Magazine, March 19, 2021.
- “Coronavirus Quarantine Prepares us for Pentecost” (https://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/coronavirus-quarantine-prepares-us-for-pentecost) National Catholic Register, May 30, 2020.
- Divine Scripture and Human Emotion in Maximus the Confessor: Exegesis of the Human Heart (https://brill.com/view/title/59407), The Bible in Early Christianity Series 15. Leiden: Brill, 2021.
- “The Virgin of Guadalupe in Byzantine Vesture: An Analysis of the Byzantine Catholic Office for Our Lady of Guadalupe.” Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies, 60, no. 1-4 (2019): 131-147.
- “Jonah the Crowd Surfer: Becoming an Exegete of the Byzantine Tradition.” By Strange Ways: Theologians Explain their Conversion to Catholicism. Edited by Daniel Strudwick and Jonathan Fuqua. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, forthcoming 2022.
- “Christ: The Healer of Human Passibility in Quaestiones ad Thalassium.” The Unity of Body and Soul in Patristic and Byzantine Thought. Edited by A. Anna Usacheva, Jörg Ulrich, and Siam Bhayro, Leiden: Brill, 2021, 229-244.