May 21-23, 2014 GENERAL CHURCH HISTORY Dr. Bob Black, Instructor Southern Wesleyan University P. O. Box 1020 Central, South Carolina 29630-1020 Phones: 864-644-5230 (office) 864-639-4521 (home) Fax: 864-644-5902 / attn: B. Black e-mail: bblack@swu.edu Objectives This course is designed to satisfy one of the academic requirements in the study course leading to ordination in The Wesleyan Church. Our purpose will be... (1) To gain an appreciation for the importance of the study of history in understanding the modern world and the church of the 21 st century. (2) To survey the history of the Christian church from the New Testament era to the present, focusing on those persons, events, and movements which have shaped the church as we know it.
(3) To place the developing story of the church within its context in the wider history of its times. (4) To cultivate a historical perspective. Requirements Before the Seminar (1) Read the text: Church History in Plain Language, 4 th Edition, Bruce Shelley (2013). (2) Prepare answers to the study guide questions attached to this syllabus. NOTE: Answers will not be handed in; rough notes for your own use are acceptable. (3) Select a topic for an oral report which relates to our study. Submit the Oral Report Selection Sheet (which is attached to this syllabus) when you have read enough to decide on a topic that interests you. Your topic will be confirmed by return mail, and you may begin your research. (4) Prepare the oral report for presentation at FLAME. (See attached instruction sheet for details.) During the Seminar (5) Participate in all class activities and complete all class assignments. You must attend all class sessions to receive credit for the course. (6) Be ready to contribute to class discussions, based on your prior work with the study guide questions. (7) Present your oral report. (8) No extra credit work is available.
Following the Seminar (9) Read a Christian biography of at least. 300 pp. Report by means of the book reflection form attached to this syllabus. Another book on church history of similar length may be acceptable; contact the instructor. Must be postmarked no later than July 23, 2014. (10) Prepare five typed devotionals based on illustrations or quotations taken from the history of Christianity. (See the attached instruction sheet.) Must be postmarked no later than July 23, 2014. (11) Take an open-book exam. Must be postmarked no later than July 23, 2014. Grade Computation Exam......................... 20% Oral report..................... 20% Study guide preparation.......... 20% Reading of text.................10% Additional reading (#9 above)..... 10% Five devotionals................ 20% 100% Grade Scale 93 100 = A 86-92 = B 78-85 = C 70-77 = D 0-69 = F
Schedule (Tentative) Day One Introduction to course Report on reading of textbook The history of the Early Church (study guide) Oral reports: Round 1 Day Two Distribution of study guide for Day Three The Medieval and Reformation Church (study guides) Oral reports: Round 2 Day Three The Church from Wesley to the Modern Era (study guide) Oral reports: Round 3 (Bold print indicates course requirement.)
Study Guide: The Early Church Chapters 1-12 Church History in Plain Language 1. What Jewish holiday (holy-day) is the birthday of the church the day the Christian church started? Justify that claim. 2. What role did Stephen play in the story of the early church? What role did Paul play? 3. What does catholic literally mean? How about martyr? 4. Shelley lists three causes for persecution in the early church. What are they? 5. What did Ebionites believe? What did Docetists believe? Most importantly, what did Gnostics believe? 6. How long did it take for the New Testament canon to be settled? What books which ultimately made it into the canon were slow to be accepted? 7. How did bishops rise to positions of such authority in the church? 8. Christian apologists defended the faith philosophically and intellectually. In your opinion, who has done that for the faith in recent generations? 9. Why was Diocletian important? Constantine? Theodosius? Ambrose? 10. What was the major issue at the Council of Nicea? Who were... a. Arius b. Alexander c. Athanasius What was the outcome? 11. Describe in a summary sentence or two the Christological heresies of... a. Apollinarius b. Nestorius c. Eutyches 12. Contrast the hermit s life with coenobitic monasticism. What s the significance of... a. Anthony b. Pachomius c. Jerome d. Benedict of Nursia
Study Guide: The Medieval Church Chapters 13-23 Church History in Plain Language 13. Augustine of Hippo is scheduled to preach the spring revival at your church. Write a paragraph about him for your local paper as part of your advertising for the revival. 14. What role did these bishops of Rome play in the rise of the papacy? a. Damasus b. Leo the Great c. Gregory the Great (see Chapter 17) What does the word pope mean, literally? 15. Identify... a. Eastern Orthodoxy b. Icons and iconoclasm c. A.D. 1054 16. Identify these leaders in church expansion and/or missions during this period. a. Ulfilas b. Patrick c. Clovis d. Augustine of Canterbury e. Boniface 17. Why is Charlemagne important? 18. What was the goal of the Crusades? How long did they last? What were the results? 19. Identify... a. Thomas Aquinas b. Scholasticism c. Peter Waldo d. Inquisition e. Mendicants f. Friars g. Francis of Assisi 20. What was the Babylonian Captivity of the papacy? 21. Trace the early stirrings of the soon-coming Reformation in the work of... a. John Wyclif b. John Hus
Study Guide: The Reformation Church Chapters 24-31 Church History in Plain Language 22. What role did the following play in the story of Martin Luther? a. An electrical storm b. The Book of Romans c. Indulgences d. The Ninety-Five Theses e. Excommunication f. The Diet of Worms g. Katherine von Bora h. Philip Melancthon 23. What contributions did Luther make to theology and worship? 24. What does Anabaptist mean? Why were Anabaptists called the Radical Reformation? Name four Anabaptist principles. 25. Who was Menno Simons, and how does his name survive still today? 26. What is Reformed Christianity? Identify... a. Ulrich Zwingli b. John Calvin c. Geneva d. Institutes of the Christian Religion e. John Knox 27. How did Protestantism evolve in England? 28. Identify... a. William Tyndale b. John Foxe 29. What was the Catholic Counter-Reformation? 30. In Chapter 30, what s significant about... a. The name Puritan b. The King James Version c. Plymouth Colony d. Oliver Cromwell e. The English Commonwealth
Study Guide: From Wesley to the Modern Church Chapters 32-48 Church History in Plain Language 31. What did Deists believe? Name several important Deists. 32. What was Pietism? Who led it? 33. Who were the Moravians, and how do they impact the story of the Wesleys? 34. Identify... a. A brand plucked from the burning b. Charles Wesley c. The Holy Club d. James Oglethorpe e. Sophy Hopkey f. May 24, 1738 g. Molly Vazeille h. The Christmas Conference, 1784 i. Francis Asbury 35. What was the Great Awakening, and what role did the following play in it? a. Theodore Frelinghuysen b. William Tennant c. Jonathan Edwards d. George Whitefield 36. Pius IX shaped the Roman Catholic Church for generations to come. Identify and briefly describe the significance of... a. The Immaculate Conception of Mary b. The Syllabus of Errors c. Vatican I d. Papal infallibility 37. What was William Wilberforce s greatest achievement? 38. What was the Oxford Movement? 39. Why is William Carey significant in the modern missionary movement? David Livingstone?
40. Identify... a. Gasper River b. Harriet Beecher Stowe c. Charles Finney 41. Describe Liberal Christianity. 42. What was the Social Gospel? What impact has the Social Gospel had on America? 43. How did the Confessing Church stand up to Adolf Hitler? 44. How has Christianity in Russia fared historically since the Communist Revolution of 1917? 45. What were The Fundamentals, and who were the Fundamentalists? 46. Profile Billy Graham. 47. What are the roots of Pentecostalism? What s Neo-Pentecostalism? 48. What is ecumenism? Describe evangelical efforts at inter-denominational cooperation. 49. How was Roman Catholicism changed by Vatican II? 50. What s the condition of Christianity at present in... a. Asia b. Latin America c. Africa 51. Our textbook suggests that evangelical Christianity has made three responses to hostility toward the faith in modern culture: End Times speculation, mobilizing political clout, and creating megachurches. Agree or disagree? Why? 52. How significant is the threat from modern Islam? 53. Discuss the spectacular growth of Christianity in the Global South and parts of the Far East. What role has been played by the Charismatic Movement?
Instruction Sheet ORAL REPORT General Church History (1) When you receive confirmation of your assigned topic, begin your research. Possible sources: A dictionary of church history Encyclopedias Books on the topic Our text Other texts in general church history The Internet (if the website is reliable) NOTE: Use at least three sources. (2) The report should be approximately 5-6 minutes in length. (Reports which run considerably longer will lose points. Take us to the heart of the subject quickly, and make every sentence count which, by the way, is good advice for preaching, too!) (3) Compile and organize the information gained in research. Don t read your entire report from a single source. (4) Be creative. Incredible as it may sound, some people find history boring, and you don t want to lose them. (5) Good reports generally make use of a handout or a PowerPoint presentation so that students can see as well as hear the information. (6) At the close of your report, hand in your notes and a list of your sources. (The notes do not need to be typed. It s not even necessary for them to be neat, as long as they are legible. After all, this is an oral report.)
Instruction Sheet DEVOTIONALS FROM CHURCH HISTORY General Church History (1) Keep your eyes and ears open for illustrations or striking quotations from church history which could serve as the heart of brief devotionals... five of them. (These may come from your reading, from your knowledge of church history, from newspapers and magazines, etc.) (2) Make a spiritual point by applying the illustration to life, and write it out in full. (Stay on the subject. A devotional is by definition short and needs only one point.) (3) Close it with a gripping, memorable sentence. (4) Give it a title. (5) No cover sheet, footnotes, or bibliography will be necessary. (6) Devotionals must be typed. (7) Word limit: 200 words. (8) Only one devotional per page, please. (9) The assignment calls for five (5) of these. Must be postmarked no later than July 23, 2014. SUGGESTION: Use these devotionals in your local church from the pulpit, in your Sunday School class or small group, with your student ministry, etc. (See next page for a sample devotional.)
Sample Devotional A Call for Maps Every village in eighteenth-century England had its cobbler s shop, and Hackleton was no exception. In fact, Hackleton s one claim to fame is centered around that shop. In most respects it was no different from other cobbler s shops. The same simple tools were there, the same wooden benches, the same smell of leather. But on the wall hung a homemade map of the world, with all of the known nations drawn in and facts about them filling every available space. Scattered on tables and benches were books, and information from those books soon found its way onto that unusual map. This was William Carey s shop. Within a few years he would leave his cobbling and his school teaching to become a pioneer Protestant missionary to India and open the floodgates of the modern missionary movement. Carey did more than study a map; he entered it. We need maps, too maps of our neighborhoods, our towns and cities, our districts, and beyond maps hanging in our hearts if not on our walls. We need an awareness that this world is lost unless it knows the Savior. We need to glance up occasionally from our involvement with the immediate to catch a glimpse of our investment in the eternal. And somehow, in some way, we need to enter our maps as William Carey entered his. Bob Black
(Remove and send to instructor) ORAL REPORT SELECTION SHEET Possible topics are listed below. Write 1, 2, and 3 beside your first, second, and third choices. Emperor Constantine Henry VIII of England The Council of Nicea Menno Simons Athanasius James Arminius Ambrose John Knox Augustine (of Hippo) Susanna Wesley St. Patrick John Wesley The Crusades Charles Wesley Francis of Assisi George Whitefield Thomas Aquinas Jonathan Edwards John Wyclif (or Wycliffe) William Penn John Hus (or Huss) Nikolaus von Zinzendorf Martin Luther Puritans in America John Calvin The First Great Awakening Student s name E-mail bblack@swu.edu with your selection(s). If you prefer, send this sheet to the instructor by mail or fax. Please include your return address. Do not begin research until you receive confirmation of your assignment.
BOOK REFLECTION FORM General Church History FLAME Title of book Author I read: ( ) All ( ) Not all, but % In the space below and on the back of this form, discuss briefly five (5) spiritual lessons from this book which could be applied to your own life or the lives of the people in your church.