Winter 2020/Fuller Online

CH504

Cerling

CH504: THE MODERN CHURCH IN A GLOBAL HISTORICAL CONTEXT (4 Units: 160 hours). Becky King Cerling.

DESCRIPTION: This course introduces the most important themes and events in the life of the church around the world from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries. Beginning with the post-Reformation period, students will examine the growth and contributions of the church in Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, and Australia/Oceana. Attention will be given to some of the more important historical, theological, and cultural developments that have shaped (or been shaped by) specific regional and global historical contexts.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: Students who complete the course will demonstrate ability to (1) identify and explain principal theological developments and historical events and personalities that have shaped the modern church; (2) think critically about historical texts and arguments, placing them in context; (3) interpret their own ecclesiastical tradition and other traditions with critical awareness and reflection; (4) critically assess their religious and cultural assumptions by examining the complexity and diversity of modem Christian history; (5) gain an appreciation for the multiplicity of ways in which the Christian faith is experienced and expressed in various parts of the world.

RELATIONSHIP TO PROGRAM LEARNING OUTCOMES: CH504 introduces students to a basic historical knowledge of the church in its diverse global expressions of theology and practice, particularly as that diversity has been manifested over the course of the last three centuries, with an eye to developing skills in interpretation and critical appreciation; it thereby seeks to implement the SOT PLO, “Students will have demonstrated capacities for historically informed theological and ethical reflection.” (MDiv, MATM, MAT).

COURSE FORMAT: This course will be conducted online on a ten-week schedule aligned with Fuller’s academic calendar for a total of 40 instructional hours. Students are required to interact with the material, with each other, and with the instructor regularly through online discussions, reading, and other assignments that promote active learning.

REQUIRED READING: Minimum 1,100 pages

Anderson, Allan. An Introduction to Pentecostalism. Cambridge University Press, Second Edition, 2013. ISBN: 978-1107660946, Pub. Price $31.99. Available as an e-book from Fuller Library [145 pp. assigned.]

Miller, Glen. The Modern Church: From the Dawn of the Reformation to the Eve of the Third Millennium (1997). ISBN: 978-0687006052, Pub. Price $ 28.99. [312 pp. assigned.]

Supplemental reading distributed by professor and available electronically on Canvas [400 pages assigned.] Including excerpts from a Mother’s catechism, John Wesley, Dorothy L. Sayers, Pandita Ramabai, John Keble and others.

Student’s Choice of one from the following list of regions. Additional titles listed on the syllabus:

Africa:

Bediako, Kwame. Christianity in Africa: The Renewal of a Non-Western Religion. Orbis, 1996. ISBN: 978-1570750489, Pub. Price $36.00. [267 pp.]

Isichei, Elizabeth. A History of Christianity in Africa: From Antiquity to the Present. Eerdmans, 1995. ISBN: 978-0802808431, Pub. Price $38.00/Digital Price $6.80. [432 pp.]

Sanneh, Lamen. Summoned from the Margin: Homecoming of an African. Eerdmans, 2012.

ISBN: 978-0802867421, Pub. Price $24.00. Available as an e-book from Fuller Library [276 pp.]

OR Asia:

Kim, Sebastian and Kirsteen Kim. A History of Korean Christianity. Cambridge, 2015. ISBN: 978-

1108467711, Pub. Price $32.99. Available as an e-book from Fuller Library. [373 pp.]

Moffett, Samuel. A History of Christianity in Asia: 1500-1900, Orbis, 2005. ISBN: 978-1570757013,

Phan, Peter C., ed. Christianities in Asia. Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. ISBN: 978-1405160902, Pub. Price $41.95. Available as an e-book from Fuller Library [290 pp.].

OR Europe:

Atkin, Nicholas and Frank Tallet, eds, Religion, Society, and Politics in France since 1789.

Bloomsbury Academic, 2003. ISBN: 978-1852850579, Pub. Price $96.00. Available as an e-

book from Fuller library. [242 pp.]

Gregory, Brad S. The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society.

Harvard, 2012. ISBN: 978-0674088054, Pub. Price $23.00 [388 pp.]

Picton, Hervé. A Short History of the Church of England: From the Reformation to the Present Day, Cambridge, 2015. ISBN: 978-1443871761, Pub. Price $71.95. Available as an e-book from Fuller Library [180 pp.]

OR Latin America:

González, Ondina, and Justo González. Christianity in Latin America: A History. Cambridge, 2007. ISBN: 978-0521681926, Pub. Price $31.99. Available as an e-book from Fuller Library [344 pp.].

Gutierrez, Gustavo. We Drink from Our Own Wells. Orbis, 2003. ISBN: 978-1570754968,

Hartch, Todd. The Rebirth of Latin American Christianity. Oxford, 2014. ISBN: 978-0199843138,