Historically, classical studies, that is, learning Latin and Greek and reading, commenting upon, editing, and transmitting a canon of traditional texts, was the mother and perpetual handmaiden of other disciplines in the monastic schools of early Christendom, as well as in medieval universities. It is fitting, therefore, that the mater atque ancilla studiorum continue to form those who will dedicate their lives to the transmission and interpretation of Christian and Classical literature, a patrimony that includes Homer and the Pentateuch, Aristotle and Chrysostom, Cicero and Jerome. In answer, then, to the wishes of recent Roman Pontiffs, the Classical and Early Christian Studies program at Christendom College is designed to promote the study of Latin and Greek at all levels, and Hebrew to a lesser extent, so as to read Sacred Scripture and the works of the Fathers of the Church in their original languages, a worthy and ultimately necessary preparation for those engaged in the defense of the Faith. To lack knowledge of Greek and Latin is, to borrow the language of Veterum Sapientia, to risk losing the true, the positive, the noble, the beautiful that past ages produced and that has been a part of the patrimony of Christendom. To be unlettered in Latin or Greek impoverishes a Christian scholar, since the accident of what has been translated would determine what he knows of our sacred or secular heritage. Requirements for the Classical and Early Christian Studies Major and Minor Thirty (30) semester hours of advanced courses (300-level and above) are required for the major; they include the Senior Thesis (CECS 512, 3 credits) and a minimum of twenty-one (21) upper-division hours of Latin and Greek language. Of these twenty-one hours a minimum of six (6) must be in upper-division Latin and six (6) hours in Greek. Up to six (6) hours of Biblical Hebrew may also be credited toward the major. Students who complete a major in the CECS department will 1. write research papers according to the standards of the discipline. 2. interpret canonical authors according to the standards of the discipline 3. write Latin or Greek correctly. 4. recognize rhetorical devices. A student may apply to his major up to nine (9) hours of coursework under rubrics other than LATN, GREK, and HEBR that explore significant aspects of Graeco-Roman or early Christian civilization. Six (6) of these nine hours should be selected from courses under the CECS rubric. Such courses may include, but are not limited to
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