Spring 2026 Christian Studies Course Guide

This list represents courses with substantial content in Christian history, theology, culture, the Bible, and the relationships between Christianity and other religions. These are courses that have been recommended by past Beatrice Institute Christian Studies Fellows and Faculty Fellows. By including courses on this list, Beatrice Institute does not endorse them or take responsibility for their content.

Interested in taking a course at a different university? Through the Pittsburgh Council on Higher Education, you can cross-register for one course per semester for credit! Learn more about how this works for University of Pittsburgh students and Carnegie Mellon students.

University of Pittsburgh

NUR 1012: HEALTH POLICY AND HUMAN FLOURISHING

TR TBD
Dr. Grant Martsolf

The nation is facing a health crisis. For the first time since the early 20th century, we are experiencing a reduction in life expectancy overall and especially in vulnerable communities. Moreover, Americans face even broader and more existential threats to personal and community health as evidenced by growing rates of loneliness, depression, social isolation, civic unrest, and polarization. The government has an important role to play in promoting a health of the nation through development of public policy that promotes conditions that make health possible. In this class, we explore different conceptions of health and work to develop a capacious definition of health as “human flourishing” that incorporates threats to personal and community health beyond the physical and psychological. We then discuss ways in which the government in combination with rich civil society might promote human flourishing. We conclude the course exploring challenges and opportunities facing American liberal democracy in promoting human flourishing.

Duquesne University

Phil 229: Love & Friendship

MWF 11–11:50 am
Dr. Thérèse Bonin

We will engage in a sustained, and philosophical consideration of love and friendship, topics we often assume to be too obscure or even sub-rational to allow for such discussion. What exactly is love? What are its kinds? What causes love, and what does love cause? Do opposites attract? Why do we incline more toward one person than another? Is it wrong to love some persons more than others? Is love a divine and life-giving influence or a dangerous illness whose remedies we should know? Where is love found, and what are its signs and symptoms? What of love among animals? Does love extend even beyond the realm of human and animal life? How are love and friendship related? What are the kinds of friendship? Do we need friends? If so, how many do we need? Are there aspects of love and friendship which resist rational analysis? Is love stronger than hatred?

To stimulate our reflection, we will read selected fragments of Empedocles, Plato’s Lysis and Symposium, books 8 & 9 of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Etics, and the questions on love & hatred from the treatise on the passions in St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica.