CH001-712 - Christianity in History to 1550

  • 2,784 Standard Tuition Fee
  • 12
    Credit Points
  • 0.125 EFT 
  • 7
    AQF level
  • Category foundational unit
    A
  • church historyUnit Discipline

Exclusions

Prior to 2020, this unit content was delivered under the unit code CH501. Unit exclusions: CH040-512

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will

A. Know and understand

Demonstrate Functional knowledge and understanding of Christianity in history.

B. Be able to

1. Explain the major phases and developments in the history of Christianity down to 1550 in their political and social contexts

2. Evaluate the contribution of selected people to the development of Christianity to 1550

3. Synhtesise data from selected primary and secondary sources to formulate Critical historical viewpoints on the period down to 1550

4. Present Critical evidence-based perspectives on the history of Christianity to 1550

C. Be in a position to

1. Applying perspectives from the  ‘Christianity in History to 1550’ to inform ministry practice as a reflective practitioner

Content

Section A: The Church in Imperial Rome
1. Christians in society: the context and spread of Christianity to 312.
Justin Martyr OR Tertullian
2. The challenge of other religions and ideologies, especially Judaism and Gnosticism.
Irenaeus OR Athenagoras
3. Caesar: enemy or friend? Decius, Diocletian, Constantine.
Pliny and Trajan OR Perpetua and Felicitas OR Cyprian
4. Wrestling with the faith: Trinity, Christology and Eschatology.
Origen OR Athanasius
5. Worship and popular religion in late antiquity: asceticism, pilgrimage, liturgy, saints, icons.
Augustine of Hippo
 
Section B: The Church as Christendom
6. The conversion of Europe 600–900. The Holy Roman Empire.
Gregory the Great OR Boniface of Crediton OR Alcuin of York
7. Christendom triumphant: the Western church in the 13th and 14th centuries. The development of scholasticism.
Innocent III OR Thomas Aquinas
8. Byzantium, Islam and the Crusades.
Anna Comnena
9. Christendom challenged; protest and spiritual renewal mysticism. The conciliar movement.
Francis of Assisi OR Thomas à Kempis OR Julian of Norwich.
 
Section C: The Continental Churches and Reform
10. Reform precursors; renaissance and new learning.
Wycliffe OR Hus OR Erasmus
11. Reformation as massive change:
a. in Germany (1517–1530)
b. in Switzerland (1519–1564)
c. Anabaptist groups
Martin Luther AND Zwingli OR John Calvin AND Menno Simons
12. The Catholic Reformation: Trent; the Jesuits; the papacy reformed.
Ignatius of Loyola OR Teresa of Avila
 
Notes
a. Colleges are required to teach at least 10 out of the 12 topics above.
b. Lecturers may substitute a major figure in the place of those named, and, since history at this level requires the use of primary sources, all major figures should be studied wherever possible through their own writings.

Set Readings

The Church in Imperial Rome:

Anatolios, K., Retrieving Nicaea: The Development and Meaning of Trinitarian Doctrine (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2011).

Bingham, D. J. (ed), The Routledge Companion to Early Christian Thought (London: Routledge, 2010).

Bryan, C., Render to Caesar: Jesus, the Early Church, and the Roman Superpower (Oxford: OUP, 2005).

Cohick, L. H. and A. Brown Hughes, Christian Women in the Patristic World: Their Influence, Authority, and Legacy in the Second Through Fifth Centuries (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2017).

Davidson, I. J., The Birth of the Church: From Jesus to Constantine AD 30-312 (Baker History of the Church, Vol 1; Grand Rapids/ Oxford: Baker/Monarch, 2004).

Doerfler, M. E., ed. Church and Empire (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2016).

González, J. L., A History of Early Christian Literature (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2019).

Grant, R. M., Augustus to Constantine: the Rise and Triumph of Christianity in the Roman World (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2004).

Tabbernee, W (ed), Early Christianity in Contexts (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2014).

Wilhite, D., The Gospel according to Heretics: Discovering Orthodoxy through Early Christological Conflicts (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2015).

 

The Church as Christendom:

Bassett, P., The Medieval Church (Baker History of the Church, Vol 3; Grand Rapids/Oxford: Baker/Monarch, 2006).

Brown, P., The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, AD200-1000. 10th Anniversary Rev. edition (Oxford: Blackwell, 2013).

Davidson, I. J., A Public Faith: From Constantine to the Medieval World: AD 312-600 (Baker History of the Church, Vol 2; Grand Rapids/ Oxford: Baker/Monarch, 2005).

Dickens, A. J., The Female Mystic: Great Women Thinkers of the Middle Ages (London: Tauris, 2009).

Lawrence, C.H., Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages. 4th edition. (London: Routledge, 2015).

Logan, F.D., A History of the Church in the Middle Ages. 2nd edition. (Abingdon: Routledge, 2013)

Riley-Smith, J., The Crusades: A History. 3rd edition. (London: Bloomsbury, 2014).

Wood, I. N., The Missionary Life: Saints and the Evangelisation of Europe, 400-1050 (New York: Longman, 2001).

 

The Continental Churches and Reform:

Cottret, B., Calvin: A Biography (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000).

Estep, W. R., The Anabaptist Story : An Introduction to Sixteenth-Century Anabaptism. 3rd edition. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996).

Evans, G. R. The Roots of the Reformation: Tradition, Emergence and Rupture. 2nd edition. (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2012)

Heinze, R. W., Reform and Conflict: From the Medieval World to the Wars of Religion AD 1350-1648 (Baker History of the Church, Vol 4; Grand Rapids/ Oxford: Baker/Monarch, 2005).

Hendrix, S. H., Martin Luther: A Visionary Reformer (New Haven, Yale University Press, 2015).

Lindberg, C., The European Reformations. 2nd edition. (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010).

Methuen, C., Luther and Calvin: Religious Revolutionaries (Oxford: Lion Hudson, 2011)

Stjerna, K., Women and the Reformation (Oxford: Blackwell, 2009).