Course Summary

The church during its first fifteen centuries

The course is organized in three modules: (1) The First Six Centuries, (2) The Medieval Church, and (3) The Crusades and Intellectual Religious History. 3 semester hours of graduate credit.

Objectives

1. Analyze the force of significant thinkers, monastic culture, and Scholasticism

2. Explain issues faced by the church during its first fifteen centuries and the results

3. Summarize the major crusades

Credit for the course requires a score of 70% or greater on three multiple choice exams and two essays. Each graded element is valued at 20 percent of the final grade. A sample multiple choice problem is given below.

Mark the incorrect statement. (A) The words Copt and Egyptian are identical in meaning. (B) The Copts should be considered Mediterranean rather than Hamitic or Semitic. (C) The Coptic language may be defined as late Egyptian vernacular. (D) No Coptic manuscript of the Bible has been found dating before 500 C.E.

Textbooks

Ferguson, Everett. Church History. Vol. 1: From Christ to Pre-Reformation: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context.  Zondervan, 2005. 544 pages. $36.32 ISBN--978-0310205807

Leclercq, Jean. Love of Learning and the Desire for God: A Study of Monastic Culture, Fordham University Press, 1982. 296 pages. $35 ISBN: 978-0823204076

Ozment, Steven E. The Age of Reform 1250-1550: An Intellectual and Religious History of Late Medieval and Reformation Europe. Reprint ed. Yale University Press, 1986. 458 pages. $26.10 ISBN: 978-0300027600

Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The Crusades: A History. 2nd ed. Yale University Press, 2005. 400 pages. $15.68 ISBN: 978-0300101287

Ware, Timothy. The Orthodox Church. 3rd rev. ed. Penguin Books, 2015. 368 pages. $14.86. ISBN: 978-0141980038