Course Description

This seminar explores the initiatives of ordinary Christians throughout the history of the global church who organized themselves to practice and spread their faith independently of clerical leadership and formal ecclesiastical structures. Some of the greatest achievements of the church (such as monastic, missionary, social reform, and artistic movements) originated from the devotional and missional commitment of lay people and were sustained by their voluntary labour and resources. Empowered by the Reformation’s recovery of the priesthood of all believers, the embrace of lay spirituality and activism in the Evangelical Awakenings, and more recent Catholic teachings on the lay apostolate, the twentieth century has witnessed a flourishing of lay Christian engagement that have antecedents worth exploring.


This course has a maximum enrollment of 12 students.
To get into a priority enrollment course, you must register by the early registration deadline (see Important Dates ); during the registration process, REGIS will prompt you to fill out a Priority Enrollment Course Request form online. Class lists will be determined within a week after the early registration deadline, and you will be notified by email shortly thereafter. First priority will be given to students who need a course for the program to which they have been admitted, and who have registered by the early registration deadline.