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| Christendom College Bulletin Contents Bulletin
in Printable Adobe PDF Format Click HERE for a PDF version of the Introduction to the Academic Program Brochure An Overview
Christendom College is a coeducational liberal arts college, institutionally committed to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church in conformity with the Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae. The College was founded in 1977 in response to the Second Vatican Council's Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, with the vision of providing a liberal arts education that would fully integrate natural and revealed truth. The purpose of a liberal arts college is "to educate for life"—to lead the whole man to wisdom, and not just to train a worker for a job. The liberal arts develop a human being's personal abilities to reason, to discover the truth, and to judge rightly. As John Henry Cardinal Newman so accurately observed,
The idea of forming a revitalized laity and clergy, who would re-Christianize the temporal order, each contributing in his or her own way to the building of a Christian society on these shores, gave Christendom College its name. "Christendom" means a Christianized social order. Along with the name came the motto which the College has had since its foundation: Instaurare omnia in Christo, "to restore all things in Christ." The "omnia" covers public things as well as private ones; it covers heads as well as hearts. To turn this vision into the reality which became Christendom College, a rigorous program of studies was designed, with careful consideration for its scope and order. Today, Christendom offers an exceptionally strong, integrated core curriculum in Catholic theology, philosophy, history, literature, political science, economics, the classical and modern languages, mathematics, and science. This core curriculum is required of all students. Only when a student has completed the Core does he or she focus on major concentrations begun in the Core. To potential enrollees, Christendom offers two programs. The three-year program consists of the entire core curriculum and leads to the Associate of Arts degree. The four-year program adds a major and leads to the Bachelor of Arts degree. Required of each major at the baccalaureate level is a senior thesis, a scholarly piece of writing which culminates the student's four-year immersion in those arts that are called liberales (free) because they equip a person for the kind of life that is worthy of a free human being. The curriculum at Christendom is special in another way, too. It embodies a Thomistic educational policy; that is, it gives an essential role to the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. When a student is graduated with a Christendom B.A. in Philosophy or Theology, he or she will have been helped to read more of St. Thomas's massive Summa Theologiae than any other Bachelor of Arts in America. To assure the proper relationship between the College and the Church, Christendom requests all faculty members to affirm their loyalty to the official teaching of the Catholic Church. Faculty contracts state that public rejection of, or dissent from, the teachings of the Catholic Church as interpreted by the Holy Father, or a rejection of the authority of the Pope as head of the Catholic Church, is grounds for the termination of that contract. Since the merger of the Notre Dame Institute with Christendom in 1997 as the Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College, the College has also been able to offer graduate programs in theological and catechetical studies. These, too, are taught in full accord with the Magisterium of the Church. Please see the Catalog of the Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College for further information. Christendom for the Third Millennium
top
of page The College is located
within the Diocese of Arlington and is submissive to the authority of
the Bishop of Arlington regarding the orthodoxy of Catholic doctrine taught
at the College. top
of page Christendom College is located at 134 Christendom Drive along Shenandoah Shores Road just a mile north of Front Royal, Virginia. The campus's 100 acres of gently rolling land near the Blue Ridge Mountains include both woods and open fields and are bounded on the western side by scenic cliffs overlooking the graceful Shenandoah River. The quiet rural setting and the spacious grounds are well-suited to academic pursuits and provide a variety of athletic and recreational activities. At the heart of the campus is the Chapel of Christ the King where the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered daily. The St. Lawrence Commons, a gathering place for the whole Christendom community, contains the student dining hall and, on the lower level, classrooms and the campus book store. The 40,000 square-foot St. John the Evangelist Library, overlooking the Shenandoah River, architecturally conveys the ultimate unity of faith and reason as it serves as the primary educational center of the College. Regina Coeli Hall houses the College administrative offices, and it still maintains the welcoming atmosphere from original College days when it was the main building of a four building campus! Dedicated on the first anniversary of the death of the beloved Pope whose inspiration and moral support were so influential in the growth of Christendom College, the Pope John Paul the Great Student Center is home to comfortable St. Killian's Café, a student game room, and student services offices. It has immediately become the central student and faculty gathering place for the joyful Christian society distinctive of Christendom College. Recreation facilities include the St. Louis the Crusader Gymnasium, outdoor tennis and volleyball courts, and playing field. The Crusader Gymnasium, with its imposing classical facade, contains a college-size basketball court adaptable for full-court volleyball and which also is able to function as two half courts or as two indoor volleyball courts for the intramural program. In addition there is a full-size weight room and an aerobic exercise room, along with two racquetball/handball courts for intramural play. The gymnasium also features locker rooms, table tennis and a second floor viewing area. A swimming pool is open during the warmer months, and the playing fields provide for such sports as soccer, football, volleyball, and baseball, among others. Christendom College also offers intercollegiate sports in men's and women's soccer, men's and women's basketball, and men's baseball. A music practice room with a Boston 7' 10" grand piano is regularly used by student musicians. Furthermore, the woods and grounds of the campus are delightful for hiking and jogging, and the Shenandoah River is a favorite site for boating and fishing. The Christendom Trail, a system of walking and jogging paths through forty acres of woodland on campus, leads to picnic areas, the Grotto of Our Lady, scenic river overlooks and the eastern bank of the Shenandoah River. The trail and woods provide opportunities for the quiet enjoyment of nature, outdoor exercise, prayer, study, and meditation. top
of page Downtown Front Royal, four miles from campus, and Winchester, twenty miles distant, provide students with needed commercial and entertainment opportunities, including shopping centers, malls, banks, cinemas, restaurants, tennis courts, fitness centers, and full medical services. The international headquarters of both Human Life International and Seton Home Study School are just a mile from campus, as is The Rivendell Club, a fitness center. Shenandoah National Park, George Washington National Forest, and Skyline Drive are close to Front Royal, and contain hiking trails, camping grounds, and boating and fishing areas. The famous Appalachian Trail lies five miles to the east of campus. The Shenandoah River is a popular site for canoeing and white-water rafting; there are several commercial ski slopes in the area and numerous systems of extensive natural caverns open to the public. The nation's capital, Washington, D.C., is only 70 miles from Christendom College, and its museums, monuments, libraries, and cultural events offer students a wide variety of entertainment and educational opportunities, as do the historic cities of Northern Virginia, such as Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, and Manassas. Charming and historic Harpers Ferry, at the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers where Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland meet, is just a forty-five-minutes drive from Front Royal. The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., and the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Basilican Shrine in Emmitsburg, Maryland, are both within 90 minutes of campus. top
of page The area around the Christendom College campus is as rich in history as it is rich in natural beauty. Front Royal is located close to the outlet end of the historic Shenandoah Valley. The Valley was settled well before the War for American Independence. The origin of the town's unique name is uncertain. One story, probably apocryphal, says that during that war an officer trying to teach march and drill commands to untrained militia; frustrated in his efforts to assemble them in the center of town by proper military commands, he finally gave up and simply directed them to "Front the Royal Oak!" More likely is that the name derives from colonial times when the Shenandoah Valley was known as "the Royal Frontier" of the King's domain, and the French on the eastern side of the Alleghenies referred to the area as "Le Front Royal." Not far to the north, the little town of Harper's Ferry where the Shenandoah River joins the Potomac was the scene of one of the most famous episodes in American history, when in 1859 John Brown and his band of revolutionaries were attacked and captured by Robert E. Lee. Despite his bloodthirsty intentions, Brown's admirers in the North made him into a hero, and men marched to the Civil War singing "John Brown's body lies a-mould'ring in the grave; but his soul goes marching on!" During the Civil War, the Shenandoah Valley was the scene of the prodigious marches of "Stonewall" Jackson, whose campaign, which was conducted almost entirely in the Valley, is still studied in military academies all over the world. The Shenandoah Valley was a route for surprise Confederate efforts to invade the North, outflanking the Union Army of the Potomac that fought in northern Virginia. One of the most dramatic Civil War battles was the Battle of Cedar Creek, near Front Royal, in 1864. Confederate General Robert E. Lee had sent a substantial part of his Army of Northern Virginia secretly to the Valley to catch by surprise the Union army then sweeping down the Valley from the north under the command of General Phil Sheridan. The Confederates attacked at dawn and drove the Union army back in near-rout. But General Sheridan had been on a journey in the rear; riding south that morning, he saw the fleeing Union troops coming toward him, apparently decisively defeated. He called on them to turn around and counterattack. Among the knots and groups of retreating men the word flashed: "Phil Sheridan's here, boys! We're going back!" They did turn back, attacked the Confederates, and won the battle. Driving to Front Royal from Washington, D.C., via Interstate 66, one passes through Thoroughfare Gap where, in happier times for the Confederates, Robert E. Lee outmarched the Union army under General John Pope and joined "Stonewall" Jackson at Manassas to win the Second Battle of Manassas (or Bull Run) in 1862, now memorialized in Manassas National Battlefield Park. |
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