About the Latin Certificate
Coordinator: Professor Alexander C. Loney
The Certificate in Latin for Classical Christian Education will provide you with a specialized education in the texts, methods, and theory for teaching Latin in a classical Christian environment. The program is rigorous and integrative. It proceeds from the belief that the best preparation to be a teacher of Latin in a Christian school is the intensive reading and analyzing of the monumental works of Latin literature with an eye to how they communicate the great ideas of the past to us today.
One unique feature of Wheaton's program is that it seeks to integrate Christian faith and classical learning, to ask whether and how Christ and the Christian virtues might be found in the (pre-Christian) classical world. This model of education has existed in one form or another for thousands of years: great medieval thinkers like Thomas Aquinas believed the best education was found in a synthesis of classical learning and Christianity. This certificate will prepare you to continue in that tradition. Upon completing this program, you will have broad training to prepare you to be a teacher of Latin and the classical tradition in primary and secondary schools.
The Certificate in Latin for Classical Christian Education is an interdisciplinary program housed in the Classical Languages section of the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, with courses also offered through other academic departments, including History, Biblical and Theological Studies, Philosophy, English, Art History, Christian Formation and Ministry, and Education.
Students majoring in Classical Languages or in Education are particularly encouraged to consider the 24- hour certificate, but students in all majors are eligible. The program includes 2 courses (8 hours) of upper- division Latin, 4 hours in theory and practice, 4 hours in contexts of the classical world, and 8 further hours of electives in addition to classical language courses, context courses, or theory courses.
Total Required Credit Hours: 24
Group 1: 8 hours in Latin (advanced) literature courses.
- LATN at 300 level or above (excluding LATN 492)
Group 2: 4 hours in Theory and Practice.
- LATN 492 Independent Study in the Theory and Practice of Latin Pedagogy for Classical Schools.
Group 3: 4 hours in History, Literature, Philosophy, Rhetoric, Art, or Theology of the Classical World
- PHIL 245 Logic (Or the quad courses in logic, PHIL 243 and 244)
- PHIL 311 History of Philosophy: Ancient & Medieval
- COMM 302 Rhetorical Theory
- PSCI 345 Between Athens and Jerusalem: Classical and Medieval Political Thought
- HIST 341 Ancient History: The Rise and Fall of Empires
- Any course above 300 in Archaeology (ARCH)
- ENGL 215 Classical and Early British Literature
- BITH 317 or 318 (Part of Wheaton in the Holy Lands)
- BITH 371 Early Christianity: From Rome to Byzantium
- ART 352 Medieval and Byzantine Art
Group 4: 8 hours of Electives
- Any course above 300 in Latin (in addition to the 8 above), Greek or Hebrew
- Any additional course from Group 3 above
- EDUC 135 School and Society (2 credits)
- EDUC 497 Philosophy of Education
- Any course above 300 in Christian Education (CE)