Course Description

This course is designed to help students refresh their biblical Greek in the company of others. More than that, however, it will invite students to develop practices of praying with the Greek New Testament—practices that will not only support a lifelong habit of reading Greek but also provide nourishment for their souls.

This course aims to hold together language learning, prayer, and personal transformation. Drawing on the desert tradition (including the more developed monastic practices of lectio divina), Ignatian practices of praying with Scripture, and insights from Dallas Willard and Eugene Peterson, students will combine a review of basic Greek grammar and syntax with prayerful meditation, memorization, and personal reflection on their translations. As the twentieth-century monk Matthew the Poor has said, “What the ear hears, the mind forgets. But what the heart hears, time can never erase” (Orthodox Prayer Life, 10).