Northern Baptist Theological Seminary CH 301 EARLY AND MEDIEVAL CHRISTIANITY Fall 2014 Thursdays, 4:00-6:40 p.m. Dr. Sam Hamstra, Jr. shamstra@faculty.seminary.edu or 630-705-8367 1 rev. 7/29/14 Course Description This course is an introduction to the history of early and medieval Christianity, exploring the environment, movements and significant personalities in the development of the Christian Church. It is hoped that this course will promote a faithful love for and personal engagement with today s Church through developing a familiarity with the issues and practices of the early and medieval Church. Goals: To help students appreciate the history of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church of which they are a part. To acquaint students with major events and personalities in early and medieval Christianity. To help students understand the organic development of the church as a result of the interaction of church and culture as well as intra-church movements. To encourage students to appreciate and critique their own traditions, beliefs, and practices in light of the experiences, errors and wisdom of the early and medieval church, and allow the past to question and inform our present. Required Reading: Gonzalez, Justo. The Story of Christianity. Vol. 1. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 2010. (ISBN: 9780061855887) $25.99; 448 pages Tucker, Ruth A. Parade of Faith: A Biographical History of the Christian Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011. (ISBN-10: 0310206383) $39.99; 507 pages Course Requirements for Master of Divinity or MA Students: Class Attendance and Participation 20% of grade On-Line Quizzes on Reading Assignments 20% The course schedule includes ten on-line quizzes one each week. These quizzes will be administered by Moodle. They are designed solely for the purpose of encouraging students to complete a thorough reading of their assignments. They are open book but timed. Each quiz must be completed by the beginning of each class. Two Writing Assignments - Students shall prepare two documents for their congregations. Each assignment is weighted at 10% of your course grade. The due dates are posted on the Course Schedule. They shall be submitted through Turnitin on the course Moodle site. These documents may be written as a newsletter article or a blog. They shall be on the following subjects:
o Where did we get our Bible? In this piece you shall explain the development of the canon. (10%) o Did the Apostles write a creed? In this piece you shall explain the origin and role of the Apostles Creed. (10%) Complete Two Lesson Plans for an Adult Class of Christ-followers. 1. Each lecture shall include a detailed outline or lesson plan, as well as a Power Point Presentation. 2. Your lesson plan should include footnotes, but need not include a bibliography. 3. Your document shall be submitted through Turnitin on the course Moodle site. 4. The lessons are due by the beginning of the class designated in the Course Schedule. 5. The two projects shall be on: a. Introduction to Eastern Orthodoxy (20%) b. The Pre-Reformers (20%) Writing Assignments & Lesson Plans: Here is the rubric by which assignments are graded: Focus: Is the writing unified around a central, significant idea? Argument: Given the audience, are the arguments persuasive? Clarity: Is the writing clearly organized? Is the central idea or thesis developed with clear progression? Contents: Are the ideas of others correctly understood or superficially engaged? Style: Do grammar, sentence structure, paragraphing, and transitions contribute to the clarity of the writing? Late Work: Students are encouraged to submit their work in a timely manner. Written assignments, but not on-line quizzes, will be accepted after their due dates but will be subject to a full-grade reduction. Grading Scale: A = 100-95 A- = 94-90 B+ = 89-87 B = 86-83 B- = 82-80 C+ = 79-77 C = 76-73 C- = 72-70 D+ = 69-67 D = 66-63 D- = 62-60 F = 59 and below 2
Reading Schedule: Week 1 Gonzalez Chapters 1-7 Tucker Chapter 1 Week 2 Gonzalez Chapters 8-12 Tucker Chapter 2 Week 3 Gonzalez Chapters 13-16 Tucker Chapter 4 Where did the Bible Come From? Due Week 4 Gonzalez Chapters 17-20 Tucker Chapter 3 Week 5 Gonzalez Chapters 21-23 Tucker Chapter 5 Did the Apostles Write a Creed? Due Week 6 Gonzalez Chapters 24-26 Tucker Chapter 6 Week 7 Gonzalez Chapters 27-29 Tucker Chapter 7 Lesson Plan on Eastern Orthodoxy Due Week 8 Gonzalez Chapters 30-32 Tucker Chapter 8 Week 9 Gonzalez Chapters 33-35 Tucker Chapter 9 Lesson Plan on Pre-Reformers Due Thanksgiving Break Week 10 Gonzalez Chapters 36-38 Tucker Chapter 10 Supplemental Reading List Anderson, Bonnie S. and Judith P. Zinsser, eds. A History of Their Own: Women in Europe from Prehistory to the Present, vol 1. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Bainton, Roland. Christendom: A Short History of Christianity and its Impact on Western Civilization. New York, NY: Harper & Row Publishers, 1966. 3
. The Medieval Church. Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Co., 1962. Baker, Derek and Rosalind Hill, eds. Medieval Women. Oxford: Blackwell, 1978. Bell, David N. Many Mansions: An Introduction to the Development and Diversity of Medieval Theology. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1996. Bettenson, Henry and Chris Maunder. Documents of the Christian Church. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. (ISBN: 9780192880710) $29.95 Brown, Peter. Augustine of Hippo: A Biography. Berkeley: University of Chicago Press, 2000. Bynum, Caroline. The Resurrection of the Body in Early Christianity. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995.. Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1987. Cantor, Norman F. Medieval History. New York: Macmillan, 1969. Chadwick, H. The Early Church, Revised Edition. The Penguin History of the Church. New York: Penguin Books, 1993. Clark, Elizabeth A. Women and the Early Church. Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1983. Church, F. Forrester and Terrence J. Mulry, eds. The Macmillan Book of Earliest Christian Meditations. New York: Macmillan, 1989. Cunningham, Lawrence S. A Brief History of Saints. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. Diefendorf, Barbara. Beneath the Cross: Catholics and Huguenots in Sixteenth Century Paris. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. Driver, Lisa D. Christ at the Center: The Early Christian Era. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009. Ehrman, Bart. Christianity in Late Antiquity: A Reader. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Elshtain, Jean Bethke. Augustine and the Limits of Politics. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1995. Eusebius. Ecclesiastical History. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1955. Evans, G. R. A Brief History of Heresy. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003. 4
Frend, W. H. C. The Rise of Christianity. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984.. Orthodoxy, Paganism, and Dissent in the Early Christian Centuries. Hampshire, England and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2002. Ferguson, Everett. Church History: From Christ to the Pre-Reformation. Second Edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2013. Gies, Frances and Joseph. Marriage and Family in the Middle Ages. New York: Harper, 1987. Gonzalez, Justo L. A Concise History of Christian Doctrine. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2005. Green, Bradley G., editor. Shapers of Christian Orthodoxy: Engaging with Early and Medieval Theologians. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2010. Hall, Stuart G. Doctrine and Practice in the Early Church. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992 Hastings, Adrian, ed. A World History of Christianity. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999. Kelly, Joseph F. The Ecumenical Councils of the Catholic Church. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2009. Latourette, Kenneth Scott. A History of Christianity, vol 1. New York: Harper, 1953. Leff, Gordon A. Medieval Thought. Chicago: Quadrangle, 1959. Leithart, Peter J. Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2010. Lossky, Vladimir. The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church. New York: St. Vladimir s Seminary Press, 1978. MacMullen, Ramsay. Christianizing the Roman Empire. New Haven: Yale, 1984. Madden, Thomas F. The New Concise History of the Crusades. New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2006. McGrath, Alister. Heresy: A History of Defending the Truth. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2009. Mendels, Doron. The Media Revolution of Early Christianity. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999. Noll, Mark. Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997. 5
Olsen, Ted. Christianity and the Celts. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2003. O Malley, John W. A History of the Popes: From Peter to the Present. New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2010. Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977.. The Spirit of Eastern Christendom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974. Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The First Crusaders, 1095-1131. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Sayers, Jane. Innocent III, Leader of Europe 1198-1216. New York: Longman, 1994. Schaff, Philip, editor. Creeds and Confessions of Christendomm, 1876. (available on line at www.ccel.org) Schaff, Philip. History of the Christian Church, 1882. (available on line at www.ccel.org) Sheppard, J.A. Christendom at the Crossroads: The Medieval Era. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005. Sittser, Gerald L. Water from a Deep Well: Christian Spiritual From Early Martyrs to Modern Missionaries. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007. Sterk, Andrea. Renouncing the World Yet Leading the Church: The Monk-Bishop in Late Antiquity. Cambridge: Harvard, 2004. Tucker, Ruth A. and Walter Leifeld. Daughters of the Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing, 1987. Urban, Linwood. A Short History of Christian Thought. New York: Oxford, 1995. Ware, Timothy and Bishop Kallestos. The Orthodox Church. New York: Penguin, 1997. Wilken, Robert Louis. The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012.. The Spirit of Early Christian Thought. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003. Williams, Roan. Christian Spirituality. Wills, Garry. St. Augustine. London: Phoenix, 2000. 6
Woodward, Kenneth. Making Saints: How the Catholic Church Determines Who Becomes a Saint, Who Doesn t, and Why. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. POLICIES FOR ALL MASTERS CLASSES NOTE: All communications from the seminary will go to your seminary email account. Contact ithelpdesk@seminary.edu if you need help forwarding your seminary email address to your personal email address. As a seminary community we hold integrity/hospitality as core values. Individuals are able to do their best work and thinking when their peers are fully present and engaged. We expect each person to both participate in class and carefully listen to others with the belief that everyone s contribution is equally important. Therefore, the following policies have been established in order to provide clarity in regard to attendance expectations and relationships in the classroom. Diploma/Certificate Student Course Requirements The amount of work required of Diploma/Certificate students will be at the discretion of the professor. Students will be responsible for contacting the professor about what assignments are required. Class Attendance Policy It is expected that students will attend and participate in all class sessions. Failure to attend at least 80% of class sessions is grounds for automatic failure. A professor may set other attendance expectations. Students are always expected to communicate with a professor in advance if they will be absent. Attendance expectations are higher for online and intensive courses (see syllabus for specific requirements). Class Tardiness Policy The third time a student is late to the start of class, it will be counted as a class absence. It is also expected that students will return from a break by the time specified by the professor. Late Work Policy If a student cannot complete the work for a course by the due date listed on the syllabus, they must submit a Request for a Grade of Incomplete form to the Registrar by 4:30 of the last day of the term. The form must be signed by the instructor and Dean of Students. The professor may set stipulations and grade reductions. In the absence of a formal request form, the student will receive a grade based upon work completed by the last day of the term. Turabian Format All papers, including footnotes and bibliography, must be submitted in the correct format according to Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 8 th ed., 2013. Plagiarism Plagiarism is the act of passing off as one s own the words or ideas of someone else without providing proper acknowledgement or documentation. See the Academic Honesty Policy in the Seminary Catalog for more information on plagiarism and how to avoid it. 7
Electronic Format Unless otherwise specified by the professor, all work submitted electronically must be in a Word document format (.doc,.docx). Technology Use in the Classroom Unless it is directly tied to note-taking or research for the class, students are expected to refrain from using cell phones, laptops, or other electronic devices during class. Course Evaluation in Moodle Students must complete an online course evaluation using the seminary Moodle system at http://moodle.seminary.edu in order to receive a final grade for the course. The evaluation will be open for one week starting the last day of the term. If you need assistance connecting to Moodle or accessing the evaluation, please send an email to moodlehelp@seminary.edu. 8