Wilson, Christian History I, Madison, Fall 2018, p. 2

Transcription

1 North Park Theological Seminary Madison Extension Fall Term 2018 Dr. Jonathan M. Wilson Syllabus HSTY 5210 Christian History I: From the Early Church to the Early Reformation INSTRUCTOR Jonathan M. Wilson, (text or phone) Office hours: Immediately before or after class by appointment. COURSE DESCRIPTION This course offers a survey of Christian history and theology from the apostolic times through the early Reformation. Course material pays balanced attention to Christianity s intellectual and social history, with sustained consideration of the church s evolving relationship to political and social structures and the contested category of orthodoxy. (Catalog) PURPOSE Through readings and lecture, students will gain knowledge of and appreciation for a variety of historical, social and theological developments over the centuries. Assignments will encourage reflections on the relevance of Christian history for contemporary Christian ministry. Students will be equipped by this course: To be conversant in the broad streams of Christian theological tradition that find their headwaters in the early centuries of the Church; To identify how the pendulum of worldly power, as it swings between marginalization and privilege, has an impact on the practices and priorities of the Church; To trace the broad institutional developments that have lent themselves to the shape of Christian orthodoxy and the organized Church today. OBJECTIVES The overall objective of Christian History I is to help students achieve the following M.Div. learning outcomes: (1) Interpret the Christian historical and theological tradition for appropriation in the life and mission of the church; (2) engage diversity and exhibit growth towards inter-cultural competence for ministry reflective of God s global redemptive work. Toward this overall objective, these corollary objectives will be pursued: To survey the Church s unfolding theological and institutional diversity in the ancient and medieval worlds, by focusing on key historical events and the personalities that shaped them, on institutional transformations, and on approaches to theology, liturgy, community, and mission; To equip students to analyze and interpret historical data, and to evaluate the use of historical data by others; To equip students to explore and gauge the impact of the past on contemporary Christian ministry and faithfulness, with tools to: (1) locate their faith tradition and ministry in their global, historical contexts; (2) interpret contemporary events, discussions, and assumptions in light of the complexity of the Christian past; (3) apply historical lessons within Christian ministry.

2 Wilson, Christian History I, Madison, Fall 2018, p. 2 REQUIRED TEXTS Justo Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, Volume 1 (second ed.) The Story of Christianity, Volume 2 (second ed.) Mark Noll, Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity (third ed.) Other assigned readings as posted online via Canvas. One of the Following: Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, free e-book available at OR Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ; free e-book available at ASSESSMENTS Three Reading Forum reflections (4-6 pages each) 10% each = 30% Two of Six Flexible Assignments: 10% each = 20% 1. A biographical sketch (5 pages) 2. a book review (5 pages) 3. a multi-media lesson plan for adult lay-people minute lecture for the class 5. objective mid-term exam. 6. objective final exam. One final project (10-15 pages) 40% Open Forum Participation 10% SCHEDULE OF CLASSROOM MEETINGS: SEPTEMBER 7, 8; OCTOBER 12, 13; NOV. 30, DEC. 1. Unit I: One in the Spirit? Pentecost and Procession (September 7, 8) Friday Night A. Theology: Resurrection, Spirit, 3-in-1 but 2 Natures, Filioque Saturday Morning B. i. Reading Forum on Witness, Mission, Justice: Monasticism ii. Open Forum on the Trinity: Two Natures of Christ, Procession Saturday Afternoon C. Developments: From Persecution to Privilege, From Spiritual Power to Institutional Order, from Apostolic unity to regional distinctives Reading: Gonzalez vol. 1, 1-5, 42-81, , ; Noll, Kim and Kim, 1-22 (on Canvas) Norris, 1-31; 49-60; ; (on Canvas) Friday Night Saturday Morning Saturday Afternoon Unit II: The Church Militant (October 12, 13) A. Theology: Icons, Two-Wills, Apologetics B. i. Reading Forum on Witness, Mission, Justice: Crowns and Martyrs ii. Open Forum on Evangelism, Apologetics, and Polemics C. Developments: Spread of Islam, Holy Roman Empire, Monastic Reform, East-West Excommunication Reading: Gonzalez vol. 1, ; Noll,

3 Wilson, Christian History I, Madison, Fall 2018, p. 3 Unit III: Crusaders, Mystics and Reformers (November 30, Dec. 1) Friday Night A. Theology: The anthropology of sin, the object of the atonement, communion in both kinds Saturday Morning B. i. Reading Forum on links/tensions between Medieval Mysticism and Grace Alone. ii. Open Forum on Witness, Mission, Justice: Crusades, Inquisitions, Conscience Saturday Afternoon C. Developments: Scholasticism, Sentences, Universities, Printing; Early Reformers Luther, Zwingli; Grebel and Anabaptism Reading: Gonzalez vol. 1, ; Noll, , Gonzalez vol. 2, 7-76; Either Norwich or Kempis (online books) RUBRICS FOR THE READING FORUM Each week students will be asked to submit a reflection on a theme that is taken from the reading. The point of the reading response is to demonstrate ongoing conversance with the topics of Christian History I by putting that conversance into practice. The reading responses will be assessed based on the student s specific engagement of that week s reading, on clarity of expression, and on the ability to interact with the specific question. This response becomes the substance of the student s participation in that week s Reading Forum conversation. Students may respond in a variety of media according to their learning strengths. Written prose: If the response is a written essay it should be between words. The requirements of the Chicago Manual of Style for a full-blown research paper do not apply to the Reading Forum responses: inline citation with author and page number or website address will be sufficient. Lengthy block quotes cannot be included in the word count. The writing need not be as formal as a research paper, but it should be polished enough to meet the criteria of clarity specified above. It will be the basis for you to take 10-to-15 minutes of each Saturday morning to present your discussion of the Reading Forum questions. Other media, general criteria: At times the reading for the Reading Forum may inspire in you a response that a prosaic essay cannot capture. When other media is chosen for a more artistic response, the student must be able to give a ten-to-fifteen minute verbal explanation at the Round Table which demonstrates conversance with the reading and the thematic connection between the response and the questions posed. These media may include: Poetry, lyric; visual; three-dimensional; movement study; music. Obviously the scale of artistic ambition needs to fit the scale of the assignment. Painting a ceiling mosaic at your church or scoring a symphony would be overkill. A detailed charcoal sketch of a visualized piece on the theme of the question would be sufficient; a melody line/chord progression with a cogent 15 minute explanation on why the rift over the Procession of the Holy Spirit gives you the blues would fit the bill. Dance or movement that is 2-3 minutes in length must be accompanied by at least ten minutes of cogent explanation. Please speak with the instructor if you need further clarification on efforts commensurate with the effort of a 1200-word essay.

4 Wilson, Christian History I, Madison, Fall 2018, p. 4 Week I Reading Forum Question (also posted on Canvas) Copy due to instructor, September 7 Reading Forum Presentation September 8, AM Theme: As the church began to ascend from marginalization to privilege, Christians flourished and prospered in worldly vocations and were promoted in government. An early form of social protest and renunciation took shape in desert monasticism, in which persons sought to withdraw themselves from society. What were the various motivations that brought spiritual pilgrims to the solitude of the desert? Of these motivations, what resonates with the spiritual experience and hunger of today? What is the connection between ascetic living and celibate singleness, and why did that become normative for monastic living? Is the choice to withdraw from worldly society a legitimate movement of God s Spirit? Why or why not? Week II Reading Forum Question (also posted on Canvas) Copy due to instructor, October 13 Reading Forum Presentation October 14, AM Theme: Although Tertullian in the third century exulted that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church, centuries of experience from the Arab Peninsula through North Africa demonstrates that an ongoing environment that is punitive and/or marginalizing of Christians has a deleterious effect on Church growth, vitality and creativity. Conversely, where Christian faith was forced onto populations, the institutional legacy has persisted for thousands of years. Yet, it is a broad consensus among modern scholars ( modern = c.1700 present) that the Church s increasing resort to the sword throughout the early Middle Ages is a highly lamentable development and a departure from the ethics of Christ. Those scholars who have rendered that verdict were part of cultures where the church was prosperous and free of persecution. Twenty-first century developments in western society seem to have some Christians reconsidering a resort to arms for the protection of themselves or their communities. What are the obligations that Christians have to protect our own communities? Do western Christians have an obligation to persecuted Christians in other countries, such as Syria? What tactics are permissible in acting on our obligations? Political gamesmanship? Defensive violence? Protective violence? Pre-emptive violence? In an environment of domestic terrorism and psychotic gunmen, should churches in the United States resort to armed security? Are these issues similar in ethical dynamics and application to those facing the Church in the early Middle Ages? Why or why not? Week III Reading Forum Question (also posted on Canvas) Copy due to instructor November 30. Reading Forum presentation December 1. Theme: One way to understand Martin Luther is that he had mystical experiences of God (and, famously, encounters with the Devil as well) yet he disparaged the pathways of rigorous discipleship that monastic lifestyles made available. Recently, since the mid-twentieth century, evangelicals have started to overcome Luther s prejudice against his own monastic background to recover spiritual disciplines and the importance of connection to God in regular prayer, spiritual direction, solitude, and other disciplines. So it is that Moody Press printed an edition of the meditations and life rules of a medieval monk, Thomas a Kempis. What are the continuities and discontinuities, the similarities and contrasts, between the mystical experiences of medieval believers, and charismatic or Pentecostal manifestations of

5 Wilson, Christian History I, Madison, Fall 2018, p. 5 spiritual power that many experience today? Is one form of direct encounter with God, rooted in personal rigor, more legitimate than another, rooted in emotional enthusiasm? Is there assurance of salvation apart from the mystical or charismatic experience? What can be the dangers of reliance on either mystical or charismatic experiences? What are the dangers of reliance on external disciplines for spiritual development? If there were no charismatic or mystical dimension to the Church s witness and theology, would the Christian faith be incomplete? Why or why not? If external spiritual disciplines are absent from the Christian s life, is one s devotion to God incomplete? Why or why not? DETAILS FOR THE SIX FLEXIBLE ASSIGNMENTS (Must Choose 2) First flex assignment is due October 12. Second flex assignment is due November 30. Option 1: Biographical Sketch Choose a key figure from within the scope of Christian History 1, research their life, and summarize in five to seven pages that person s impact on the theology, institutional development, and overall witness of the Church. Connect the person s impact to their context in terms of key dates and geographical details. Some questions to consider while framing the sketch: To what extent was this person controversial in their own time? What current streams in theology, institutional practice or witness to righteous justice owe a debt to this person s influence? What verdict has historical hindsight rendered on the character and/or contribution of this person, and to what extent has that verdict been challenged or revised? What connection, if any, allows this person to speak into your own ministry context? Here follows a short, non-exhaustive list of suggestions for historical figures: Irenaeus, Lucy of Syracuse, Athanasius, Nicholas of Myra, Ambrose, any Cappadocian Father, Pope Leo I, Patrick of Ireland, Isidore of Seville, Benedict, Pope Gregory I, Maximus the Confessor, Charlemagne, Ansgar, Pope Gregory VII, Francis of Assisi, Peter Valdes, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, Abelard, Thomas Wycliffe, John Hus, Teresa of Avila, Martin Luther. Option 2: Book Review In consultation with the instructor the student will choose a peer-reviewed, first edition historical narrative from a Christian perspective on a topic covered in the course, published no earlier than 2015, and compose a review with word count and formats specified in the guidelines of the Covenant Quarterly. (This is not an offer of publication.) Required: The class reading commensurate to the topic of the book must be completed before the review is undertaken. Options 3 and 4: Exams Midterm (October 14, due October 21 at 11:59:59 PM) The Midterm will be take home, closed book, with T/F, multiple choice, matching, and short answer, distributed at the end of Saturday, October 14 and due complete in 7 days. For those who are missing a Reading Forum reflection by October 14, the Midterm may be required as a makeup, and another flexible assignment will need to be chosen. Final (December 1, due December 8 at 11:59:59 PM)) The final will be take home, closed book, with T/F, multiple choice, matching, and short answer, distributed at the end of Saturday, December 1 and due complete in 7 days. For those who are missing a Reading Forum reflection by November 30, the final may be required as a make-up, and another flexible assignment will need to be chosen. Note: One or both exams may also be used to shore up the student s over-all performance.

6 Wilson, Christian History I, Madison, Fall 2018, p. 6 Caveats: Exams taken for extra credit to shore up performance, or to make up for missing work, cannot double-count as flexible assignments. If both exams become required in lieu of missing Reading Forum reflections, the student will not be able to receive better than a B for the course. Option 5: Adult Learning Lesson, 25 Minutes Prepare a 25-minute multi-media lesson-plan on some feature an event or person or the emergence of a pre-reformation theological distinctive -- that you find would connect with and inspire the interests and engagement of adult lay-people in your church. Alternatively: Prepare a 25 minute sermon on a historical doctrine, such as the Two Natures of Jesus Christ, the eternal begottenness of the Son, the two-fold Procession of the Holy Spirit, etc. Along with all the necessary components of exegesis (both of scripture and congregation), homiletical strategy (expository, narrative, etc.), and exhortative or prophetic focus, trace how evangelicals have inherited our orthodoxy concerning the doctrine, by giving attention to the disputes about the doctrine that developed long before a Protestant movement took shape. Option 6: Prepare a 25-minute lecture/multi-media presentation for your fellow graduate students on one of these lecture topics, for presentation in session either Friday evening or Saturday afternoon. The instructor must be consulted in advance and approval given. THE FINAL RESEARCH PROJECT (due last day of term, one second before midnight) In consultation with the instructor, choose a topic from the field of North American Christian History, research it, and present it from a cogent, critically-informed point-of-view in a page (double-space, Times New Roman 12 pt. font, Chicago Manual) paper or equivalent effort. In no case is any form of plagiarism acceptable. At least ten scholarly resources need to be consulted, including 3 journal articles. Students are not to quote, cite or list in their bibliographies the following types of resources: language dictionary or thesaurus, or general-audience encyclopedias, whether such resources are print volumes or online. Bibles are not counted in the bibliography total. In no case is any form of plagiarism acceptable. Written Papers: Graduate students are encouraged to trust their functioning vocabulary to communicate ideas clearly. Unless English is a second language, students should not make use of a thesaurus. A ten page paper will mean a submission of 11 or 12 pages. A title page is optional and cannot count against the 10 page minimum. A bibliography must begin on a separate page at the end of the paper and cannot count against the ten page minimum. The ten pages minimum of text must conform to standard fonts and margins as specified. A bleed over of a couple of lines onto a tenth page does not count as a ten-page paper; it is short by about 250 words and that will be reflected in the grade. There is no penalty for a length that exceeds the 15-page guideline. Equivalent Effort Projects: Filmed Lecture Students may choose instead to record themselves presenting their topic orally and send me the file. The presentation must last at least 40 minutes (approx. the length of time it takes to read a 12 page double-spaced paper), and may include creative multi-media. Should this option be chosen, a bibliography of ten sources according to the guidelines above must be submitted.

7 Wilson, Christian History I, Madison, Fall 2018, p. 7 The filmed lecture will demonstrate the command and conversance with the research that is otherwise expected of a written paper. Digital Visual Presentation Students may choose instead to present their research and argument in a slide show in Publisher, PowerPoint or other program that allows them to excel at their visual or tactile style of learning and communication. By whatever means it is executed, command and conversance with the research must be demonstrated in clear and cogent explanations of what is displayed. The specified bibliography must be submitted. Open Forum Participation 10% of the final grade will depend on students actively engaging the instructor and one another in the Open Forums of Saturday morning. The Open Forum will follow the Reading Forum. Students will not have a prepared paper as for the Reading Forum, but will ask questions concerning course content that they have read, heard lectured, and heard from one another. The Open Forum will at least begin by being focused on a particular aspect or theme from that week s content. Within the bounds of professional propriety students will be encouraged to own their reactions to those details of Christian History that may be shocking, disappointing and difficult to integrate into one s notions of Church, Spirit, and unity. This may include pushing the instructor on certain points of instruction that are troubling the student. The discussion will be moderated so that dominant speakers will be required to give way to less assertive voices. Nevertheless, students who hide under the conversation and do not contribute will not get credit for participating. While this is not the Reading Forum, full points will be awarded to those who are able to cite the assigned reading in their questions and comments. ACADEMIC HONESTY In keeping with our Christian heritage and commitment, North Park University is committed to the highest possible ethical and moral standards. Just as we will constantly strive to live up to these high standards, we expect our students to do the same. To that end, cheating of any sort will not be tolerated. Students who are discovered cheating are subject to discipline up to and including failure of a course and expulsion. Our definition of cheating includes but is not limited to: 1. Plagiarism the use of another s work as one s own without giving credit to the individual. This includes using materials from the internet. 2. Copying another s answers on an examination. 3. Deliberately allowing another to copy one s answers or work. 4. Signing an attendance roster for another who is not present. For more information: ACCOMMODATIONS Students with disabilities who believe that they may need accommodations in this class are encouraged to contact the program's office as soon as possible to ensure accommodations are implemented in a timely manner. For further information, see Seminary Catalog, p. 17 and review the following website: