Courses

Under the direction of the student's approved thesis advisor, a course of reading and study which leads to the development of both a significant bibliographical essay (or annotated bibliography) and a thesis proposal. The latter includes at least the following: major question(s) to be addressed; significance of the issue(s); methodologies to be used; theories to be addressed and primary sources to be examined.

Under the direction of a supervisor, students who do not do a thesis, research and write a major paper of approximately 10,000-15,000 words in length.

Students examine, through readings, discussion, and student presentations, the way that men and women in Europe circa 1300 to 1700 embraced alternative religious beliefs, some of which were accepted and domesticated by the Catholic or protestant institutional churches, while others were rejected and persecuted as heresy and/ or witchcraft by both. Students also evaluate different historiographical and methodological approaches to the study of heterodoxy.

This course examines the period of transition and turmoil in European history, from approximately 1360 to 1550, known as the Renaissance. As the cultural synthesis of the high middle ages was crumbling, poets, philosophers, artists, architects, theologians, and statesmen in search of a fresh model for society rejected the late medieval scholastic worldview and embraced a new educational program, the studia humanitatis, based on a re-evaluation and revival of classical culture. This transition affected not only literature, the arts, the sciences, religion, and government, but virtually every other sphere of human activity. Therefore, this course, while providing an indepth, interdisciplinary introduction to the key topics of humanism, religion, political theory, and changes in high culture, also investigates the issues of gender, economic development, and social history during this period. It also assesses different methodological approaches to the study of the Renaissance.

During the twentieth century, it became clear that the majority of Christians worldwide were not Europeans or North Americans but Latin Americans, Africans, and Asians. Some observers interpret this as a major shift in the very nature of Christianity but others view it as the renewal of what is essentially a non-Western religion. Instead of representing an entirely new development, they see the twentieth century growth of Christianity as a return to the history of Christianity before 1200- 1400 AD when Europe developed as its dominant heartland. By means of readings, guest lectures, and student seminar presentations, this course examines aspects of non-Western Christianity including early origins, struggles with Islam, the impact of European imperialism and missions, and factors involved in the accelerated growth in many parts of the world since the mid-twentieth century.

This course examines in detail the background and development of Christian thought and life in the period spanning the Apostolic Fathers through to the Council of Nicaea (325). Particular attention is paid to how the early Christians understood themselves, how they interpreted their religious tradition and related it to their religious experience, and how they defined their own purposes. This course seeks to contextualize pre-Christianity in its diverse expressions. Thus, the course analyzes the complex formulation of Pre-Nicene Christianity through the writings of some of its most influential thinkers, leaders, and movements (both orthodox and heretical) with an eye toward identifying major developments in early Christian theology and practice.

This course uses reading, discussion, and student presentations to examine the ways that historians have conceptualized the Atlantic World and those who people it. It considers the very idea of the Atlantic system as a framework for historical study and the ways in which various historiographical and methodological approaches have affected the way we understand the people and events of the Atlantic basin.