Ad Fontes
Ad Fontes is a cohort-based continuing education opportunity that helps clergy and lay leaders grow in lifelong theological and spiritual formation for the sake of their souls and ministries.
If you want to enrich your faith through deeper study of key texts in the Christian tradition and critical topics in theology and ministry, but you need a more affordable and flexible model than traditional for-credit degree programs, consider Ad Fontes. “Ad Fontes” means “to the sources,” and in this program, you get to return to the sources of learning, delighting in the joy of study with an expert guide and like-hearted fellow pilgrims.
Alex Fogleman is Associate Dean of Special Programs and Director of the Robert Webber Center at Trinity. The author of Making Disciples: Catechesis in History, Theology, and Practice (Eerdmans, 2025), Alex is passionate about helping Christians grow deeper in the faith through recovering the wisdom of classical Christian catechesis.
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Thomas Breedlove holds a Ph.D. in Theology from Baylor University, where he wrote on theological anthropology in Gregory of Nyssa in conversation with contemporary continental philosophy. He is the author of A Phenomenology of the Divine Image: Greogry of Nyssa and the Veil of Flesh (Bloomsbury, 2026). He loves to help others grapple with the challenges and promises of theological texts in ways that lead to wonder and awe.
Each Ad Fontes seminar begins with a two-day retreat at Trinity Anglican Seminary. Afterwards, students participate in a series of six to eight online learning sessions. Cohorts are made up of approximately 10 students, led by an expert course facilitator, emphasizing tutorial-style discussion.
Our programs do not presume any prior knowledge of the particular subject matter, though they do assume graduate-level training in theology or ministry (usually the M.A. or M.Div. degree). The main goal is to afford clergy and lay leaders more opportunities to grow deeper in their faith through diligent study, and to do so in the company of other clergy and lay leaders.
The first series in Ad Fontes is called Theology Anew: Foundational Texts and Traditions of the Church, which focuses on the writings of the Church Fathers. A pilot course is being offered in the spring of 2026 on the writings of the fourth-century theologian, Gregory of Nyssa. A new series called “Faithful Foundations: Key Issues in Ministry” will begin in the fall of 2026.
Ad Fontes, a journey back to the sources, has been a joy. The readings challenge and reward, the fellowship with other clergy is rich, and the ‘ancient' take is refreshingly timely. This is a tremendous opportunity for continuing education!
The cost of Ad Fontes courses is designed to be as affordable as possible, while also supporting the time and expertise of the course facilitator. The cost also includes two nights of lodging and meals for the in-person retreat. It does not include the price of books or travel. A limited number of scholarships are available on a need basis.
Ad Fontes is ultimately about a new approach to theological education that meets the challenges of pastoral leadership in the church today. Our goal is to help theological education become an ongoing and essential part of church life, not merely a one-step process in seminary. Ad Fontes seminars offer rigorous but accessible seminars on a range of subjects, from the writings of the church fathers and Anglican divines to particular topics in theology, Scripture, and mission.
There is a need not simply for ongoing theological training for clergy but for an approach to pastoral formation that prizes lifelong learning, along with the virtues of charity and humility that make such formation possible.
In working toward such formation, Ad Fontes seeks to deploy methodologies that are fundamentally personal and collaborative, enabling and sustaining networks of friendship and support among clergy that can provide bulwarks against the crisis of isolation that plagues the pastoral vocation.
Through friendship and formation around common texts, Ad Fontes offers a distinctively Anglican approach to the traditions of Christian theology, both to contribute to a unity of friendship and discourse amongst participating diocese, but also so that through those who participate, parishioners across the Anglican world might come to benefit by growing into a deep Anglican identity rooted in the richness of Christian thought.
Finally, Ad Fontes seeks to lay a bridge between the institutions that train pastors and the churches that depend on that training by re-imagining ongoing theological education in ways the truly depend on the collaboration and integration of church and seminary. With Ad Fontes, we hope and pray for as yet unseen possibilities of growth and creativity that might continue to weave together the mission of learning with the mission of the church.
Trinity is to be an evangelical seminary in the Anglican tradition. To this end we develop Christian leaders who can plant, renew, and grow churches that make disciples of Jesus Christ.
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