The Antiochian House of Studies (AHOS) was established on December 29, 1980—with the blessing of the late Metropolitan Philip (Saliba) and under the aegis of the ancient and unbroken tradition of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch—with the express purpose of AHOS offering a distance theological education to as broad a public as possible.

The original three-year directed-reading program of the Antiochian House of Studies was placed under the patronage of Saint Stephen the Protodeacon and Protomartyr, and was entitled the St. Stephen’s Diploma Program in Orthodox Theology. In 1988, an additional year was added for students interested in pursuing a Master of Theology in Applied Orthodox Theology. This fourth year of study culminated in a forty-page research paper with full scholarly apparatus, researched and written under the guidance of a faculty member. In 2019, the curriculum was streamlined to allow Master’s students to complete all requirements in three years, with the final semester being dedicated to thesis construction and supervision. In 2022, during the process of applying for accreditation by the Association of Theological Schools (ATS), and upon the recommendation of ATS, the MTh degree was renamed the Master of Theological Studies (MTS).

The most recent additions to the academic offerings of the Antiochian House of Studies are the Master of Divinity program, which accepted its first cohort of students in 2021, and the PhD in Orthodox Studies, which was introduced in 2016 and is the first program of its kind to be established within an English-speaking format in North America.