Syllabus for History of Christianity
[Institution]
[Semester]
[Class Times and Location]
[Instructor’s name, contact information, and office hours]
Course Goals
This purpose of this course is to give a broad overview of the diversity of the global Christian tradition
from its beginnings in the gospel accounts of Jesus of Nazareth to the present day. Spanning 2000 years
and every continent, impacting not just religion but also culture, the arts, philosophy, and global politics,
the history of the Christian church is an essential thing to grasp for those seeking to understand the
origins of the social forces that shape our world today.
This fifteen-week course will introduce students to the major historical moments, figures, events,
conflicts, and thought patterns that have comprised the history of Christianity throughout the centuries
in both the East and the West.
Required Texts:
In addition to the main textbook, Introduction to the History of Christianity, 2nd ed., ed. Tim Dowley
(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2013), students will engage a number of online multimedia resources to
aid their engagement with the material.
[insert other texts]
Please consult the course website regularly [insert URL].
Outline of Course Units
Unit 1: Beginnings
Goals: 1). Students will be able to describe the transition from the life of Jesus of Nazareth to the
formation of early Christian communities. 2). Students will understand the ways in which early Christian
communities did and did not mirror the norms of their cultural settings. 3). Students will gain familiarity
with the multitude of competing early Christian claims (particularly around Christology) as well as the
trajectories that led to the emergence of the categories of “orthodoxy” and “heresy.”
Unit 2: Emergence
Goals: 1). Students will grasp the complexity of church-state relationships before, during, and after the
reign of Constantine. 2). Students will be able to trace the emergence of various tiers of church
leadership and authority (bishops, councils, etc.) as the Christian movement becomes institutionalized in
the context of empire. 3). Students will understand the complex ways in which early monasticism
functioned vis-à-vis Christian institutional centers of power.
Unit 3: Christendom
Goals: 1). Students will gain broad familiarity with the wealth of intellectual and theological trends that
shaped the writings of the Christian medieval period. 2). Students will be able to describe the various
crises of authority that shaped the solidification of the papacy in the West and the fluid church/state
configurations of the East. 3). Students will gain insights into the ecclesial and political unrest that set
the stage for the sixteenth-century Reformation in the West, including the role played by the emergence
of Islam within Christendom.
Unit 4: Reformations
Goals: 1). Students will understand the multifaceted nature of the European Reformation as well as the
multitude of actors whose work instigated the division of the church in the West. 2). Students will be
able to describe the ways in which sixteenth-century ecclesial upheavals corresponded with the shifting
political landscapes of European nation-states. 3). Students will be able to describe the nature of the
Roman Catholic response to the growing challenge of Protestantism to Catholic theology, traditions, and
structures of authority.
Unit 5: Rationalism and Revival
Goals: 1). Students will understand both the rationale and the methodology behind Protestant and
Catholic global missionary work. 2). Students will gain familiarity with the broader philosophical and
cultural trends that set the stage both for the fervor of Protestant revivalism and the rationality
characteristic of the Enlightenment and its aftermath. 3). Students will be able to describe the
complexities of how the Russian Orthodox church managed its relationship with monarchy and politics
in the late medieval and early modern periods.
Unit 6: Modernity Takes Hold
Goals: 1). Students will be able to explain the impact of the Industrial Revolution upon both the
institutional church and its theology in the nineteenth century. 2). Students will be able to contextualize
contemporary debates concerning religion and science within the framework established during the
ninetheenth century especially. 3). Students will be able to describe the shifting methods and
theological underpinnings of missionary work characteristic of this period.
Unit 7: Ongoing Evolution
Goals: 1). Students will be able to describe how the upheavals of the twentieth century (two World
Wars, the Great Depression, emerging conflicts with communism, etc.) both impacted and were shaped
by Christian movements. 2). Students will gain familiarity with the beginnings of Pentecostalism and its
vitality as a global movement. 3). Students will gain insights into the emergence of theologies
constructed by and for historically marginalized individuals (racial minorities, the poor, women, Third
World theologians, etc.).
Course Schedule
Date Unit Readings
Week 1 Unit 1: Beginnings HOC Chapters 1-3
Bonus reading: On how philosophers and theologians
have understood the concept of “miracles”:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/miracles/
Bonus reading: Theologian N. T. Wright on the
resurrection of Jesus in historical and theological
perspective:
http://ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Jesus_Resurrection.htm
Week 2 Unit 1: Beginnings HOC Chapters 4-7
Bonus video: The martyrdom of Perpetua:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm1dozzn7v8
Week 3 Unit 2: Emergence HOC Chapters 8-11
Week 4 Unit 2: Emergence HOC Chapters 12-13
Bonus lecture on bishops in the early church:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BTUFjlg4KI
Bonus podcast on Augustine and the Roman Empire:
http://www.historyofphilosophy.net/augustine-city-of-
god
Week 5 Unit 2: Emergence HOC Chapters 14-15
Week 6 Unit 3: Christendom HOC Chapters 16-18
Bonus reading: John of Damascus defending icons:
https://www.christianhistoryinstitute.org/study/module/j
ohn-of-damascus/
Week 7 Unit 3: Christendom HOC Chapters 19-21
Bonus reading: Julian of Norwich:
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/julian/revelations
Week 8 Unit 4: Reformations HOC Chapters 22-24
Bonus: Check out the Reformation-era art of Lucas
Cranach:
http://www.artinthepicture.com/artists/Lucas_Cranach-
the-Elder/1
Bonus reading: Luther on the “Freedom of a Christian”:
https://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/luther-
freedomchristian.asp
Week 9 Unit 4: Reformations HOC Chapters 25-27
Bonus reading: If you’re curious about where the matter
of justification stands between Roman Catholics and
Lutherans today, check out this official 1999 document on
the subject:
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/c
hrstuni/documents/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_31101999_cath-
luth-joint-declaration_en.html
Week 10 Unit 5: Rationalism and Revival HOC Chapters 28-29
Bonus lecture: Yale’s Lammin Saneh on missions in Africa:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crrYIsmvbfQ
Week 11 Unit 5: Rationalism and Revival HOC Chapters 30-31
Bonus video on Catherine the Great:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-Anc3fakFM
Week 12 Unit 6: Modernity Takes Hold HOC Chapters 32-34
Week 13 Unit 6: Modernity Takes Hold HOC Chapters 35-36
Bonus video: Huxley vs. Wilberforce on evolution:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXq8LZ3b2YQ
Week 14 Unit 7: Ongoing Evolution HOC Chapters 37-39
Bonus reading: The Barmen Declaration:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/barmen.htm
Week 15 Unit 7: Ongoing Evolution HOC Chapters 40-43
