AAR Syllabi Project Course Syllabi

Requirements

1. Keep up with the reading, attend conference, and confer vigorously
2. 5 take-home quizzes (these should take no more than 2 hrs to complete and must be typewritten);
3. Midterm examination;
4. Final examination. The final exam will have two components: 1) a time-line of the period under consideration (ca. 25 to ca. 550 C.E.) to be presented at the last class-meeting, 2) a comprehensive take- home examination (closed book, closed notes).

Required Books

The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible;

Gregory of Nyssa, E. Ferguson & A. Malherbe, trs., The Life of Moses;

Helmut Koester, History and Literature of Early Christianity, v. II;

Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity;

H. Chadwick, The Early Church;

K. Holum, Theodosian Empresses;

Frances Young, From Nicaea to Chalcedon;

The Sourcebook (a collection of primary readings).

 

Recommended Books

For the purposes of this course, the PBS video, From Jesus to Christ, cannot be recommended too highly. The best scholars in the field, including Helmut Koester, Wayne Meeks, and Allan Callahan, have worked together to provide a generally accessible introduction to their work on Christian origins. It is available for viewing in the Instructional Media Center in the Hauser Library.

For those interested in further reading a variety of primary texts are available free on the internet, among the available one of the best is provided by the Saint Pachomius library at:

http://www.ocf.org/OrthodoxPage/reading/St.Pachomius/globalindex.html

Course Outline

Required:

Chadwick, 9-31.

Highly Recommended:

Koester 71-94.

Paul: the Jewish God for Gentiles.

Required:

The Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Romans;

Koester, 97-145.

Recommended:

Krister Stendahl, "The Apostle Paul and the Introspective Conscience of the West" in his Paul Among the Jews and Gentiles, 78-96 (reserve);

Stanley K. Stowers, Romans: a Rereading (reserve).

Required:

The Gospel According to Mark;

Koester, 45-49; 147-177.

Recommended:

Helmut Koester, "Written Gospels or Oral Tradition," Journal of Biblical Literature 113 (1994): 293-97 (reserve).

Monday 7 September,

LABOR DAY: NO CLASSES!!!

Required:

The Gospel According to John;

Koester, 178-98;

Raymond Brown, "Other Sheep Not of This Fold," Journal of Biblical Literature 97 (1978): 5-22 (reserve).

Required:

The Epistle of James;

Koester, 198-207.

The Gospel of Thomas, Sourcebook: 3-19;

Koester, 208- 218;

A.F.J. Klijn, "Christianity in Edessa and the Gospel of Thomas,” Novum Testamentum 14 (1972): 70-7 (reserve).

Recommended: Visit the Gospel of Thomas Homepage at http://www.epix.net/~miser17/Thomas.html.

Required:

The Apocalypse;

Koester, 241-261;

John G. Gager, "The End of Time and the Rise of Community," in Kingdom and Community: The Social World of Early Christianity, 20-57 (reserve).

Recommended:

P. Hanson, The Dawn of Apocalyptic (Philadelphia: 1975);

Required:

1st Timothy;

Koester, 261-279;

Recommended:

M. Dibelius & H. Conzelmann, The Pastoral Epistles

(Philadelphia: 1972).

Required:

The Didache, Sourcebook: 20-28;

Koester, 158-160.

Required:

Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Magnesians, Sourcebook 29-32;

H. Chadwick 41-53;

Max Weber, "Charismatic Authority and its Routinization," in The Theory of Social and Economic Organization (reserve): 358-372.

Recommended:

Koester, 279-287;

Required:

Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Romans, Sourcebook: 33-36;

The Martyrdom of Polycarp, Sourcebook: 37-45;

Pliny, Ep. X.96, Sourcebook: 46-47;

Chadwick 54-66.

Recommended:

G.W. Bowersock, Martyrdom and Rome (Cambridge:1995).

Required:

Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity, xi-146.

Required:

Stark, The Rise of Christianity, 147-216.

Required:

The following required articles may be found in the Journal of Early Christian Studies 6.2, summer 1998. You may reach this Journal via the Internet at

http://chaos.press.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_early_christian_studies

T. Klutz, "The Rhetoric of Science in The Rise of Christianity: A Response to Rodney Stark's Sociological Account of Christianization;"

K. Hopkins, "Christian Number and its Implications;"

E. Castelli, "Gender, Theory, and The Rise of Christianity: A Response to Rodney Stark;"

R. Stark, "E Contrario."

Required:

Athenagoras the Athenian, A Plea on Behalf of the Christians, Sourcebook: 48-94;

Chadwick, 66-73.

Recommended:

R.M. Grant, The Greek Apologists (Philadelphia: 1988).

Required:

The Apocryphon of John, Sourcebook: 95-113;

Bentley Layton, The Gnostic Scriptures 5-21 (reserve);

Chadwick 32-41.

Recommended:

Koester, 328-334;

Visit The Gnostic Society Library at http://home.sol.no/~noetic/nagham/nhlcodex.html.

Required:

Irenaeus, Against Heresies bk. I: ch. 10; 23-31, Sourcebook: 114-38;

Chadwick 80-83.

Tertullian, Against Praxeas, Sourcebook: 139-69;

Chadwick 84-93;

James L. Ash, "The Decline of Ecstatic Prophecy in the Early Church," Theological Studies 37 (1976):227-52 (reserve).

Concerning the Origin of His Body, Sourcebook: 170-201;

Kurt Rudolph, Gnosis: The Nature and History of Gnosticism 326- 342 (reserve).

Recommended:

Jason Beduhn, "The Battle for the Body in Manichaean

Asceticism" in V. Wimbush and R. Valantassis, eds.,  Asceticism, 513-519 (reserve).

Mid-Term Examination.

The examination may cover Koester, Stark, Chadwick, and Weber, in addition to the primary readings we have read.

Eusebius, Church (a.k.a. Ecclesiastical) History , selections from book 6; Sourcebook: 202-269;

Origen, selections from On First Principles, Sourcebook: 202-269;

Peter Brown, The Body and Society, 160-177 (reserve).

Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors, Sourcebook: 270-312;

Eusebius, Church History book 10, Sourcebook: 313-37;

Chadwick 116-128.

Socrates, Church History, 1.5-1.9.26, Sourcebook: 338-62;

Sozomen, Church History, 1.15-21, Sourcebook: 363-72;

Theodoret, Church History, 1.4-7, Sourcebook: 373-82;

Chadwick 129-136.

Frances Young, From Nicaea to Chalcedon 57-91.

Recommended:

Athanasius, apologia contra Arianos 59-71, Sourcebook: 383-84.

 

Athanasius, The Life of Antony, Sourcebook: 385-430;

Chadwick 174-183;

James E. Goehring, "The Encroaching Desert: Literary Production

and Ascetic Space in Early Christian Egypt," Journal of

Early Christian Studies (1993): 281-96 (reserve).

Antony the Great, "Letters Six and Seven," (reserve);

Samuel Rubenson, "Christian Asceticism and the Emergence of the Monastic Tradition" in V. Wimbush and R. Valantassis, eds., Asceticism, 149-57 (reserve).

The Life of Pachomius (reserve);

Susanna Elm, "Pachomius and Shenoute: the Other Classic Model," in Virgins of God: The Making of Asceticism in Late Antiquity, 283-310 (reserve).

 

Shenoute of Atripe, I Am Amazed, Sourcebook: 431-463.

Theodoret, The Life of Simeon Stylites, Sourcebook: 464-81;

Susan Ashbrook Harvey, "The Sense of a Stylite" VC 42(1988): 376- 94 (reserve);

David Frankfurter, "Stylites and Phallobates: Pillar Religions in Late Antique Syria;" VC 44(1990):168-198 (reserve).

Recommended:

F. Young, "Theodoret of Cyrrhus" in From Nicaea to Chalcedon, 265-289.

Basil the Great, "Selected Letters," Sourcebook: 481-21;

F. Young, 92-122.

Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Moses, 55-138;

Chadwick 184-191.

Ascetic Practice 8: Augustine and the recovery of the mediocre in the West.

Required:

Augustine, Confessions, bk. 9, Sourcebook: 522-43;

Chadwick 214-236.

Recommended:

P. Brown, Augustine of Hippo (Berkeley: 1967).

Holum 6-78;

Gregory of Nyssa, A Homily of Consolation Concerning Pulcheria Sourcebook: 544-50.

Required:

Socrates, Church History, VII.29-35, Sourcebook: 551-58;

Stevenson, Creeds, Councils and Controversies, 295-309 (reserve);

F. Young, 213-265.

Holum 79-174.

The Tome of Leo, Sourcebook: 559-67;

Chadwick 209-234.

Holum 175-228.

The Papacy and Leo I

Required:

Leo I, "Sermon III on his elevation to the pontificate," Sourcebook: 568-70;

"Selected Correspondence," Sourcebook: 571-98;

Chadwick 237-257.

Ps. Dionysius the Areopagite, The Mystical Theology (reserve);

John Jones, "Sculpting God." (reserve).

Recommended:

John Jones, "Trinitarian Rhetoric in Dionysian Thought." (reserve).

Wednesday 9 December,

Presentation of time-lines;

Take-home final exam distributed.

Pedagogical Reflections

The goal of the course, now in its third year, is to introduce first and second year students to the history of ancient Christianity and to various methods the historian might use to both understand and articulate that history. The time-line and final examination (5 hrs.) have of course been very useful as indicators of student comprehension. More importantly, they almost invariably provoke a synthesis of the material. The PBS video, From Jesus to Christ provided a very helpful introduction to the early material for those students who chose to view it. I anticipate requiring it the next time I offer the course. Weaker students do have some difficulty comprehending all of the primary material (which runs about 1300 pp.), however the conference method allows the participants to address misunderstandings when they arise. Despite their near universal initial difficulty with the text, my students have become very attached to Helmut Koester’s History and Literature of Early Christianity, v. II.

http://www.wlu.ca/~wwwaar/syllabi/introduction_to_the_worlds_of_ancient_christianity-foat.html

Latest update: August 02, 2002
Number of accesses since January 16, 1999: