Summer 2020/Online
HT500
Bantu
HT500: THE CHURCH’S UNDERSTANDING OF GOD AND CHRIST IN ITS HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT (4 Units: 160 hours). Vince L. Bantu.
DESCRIPTION: HT500 is a survey of patristic theology and early church history that focuses especially on the doctrine of God, including the Christian church’s development of trinitarian and christological theology and creeds in its dialogue with its opponents and with its multiple cultural contexts, including the empires, languages, religions, and philosophies of the ancient Asian, African and European regions. Related topics and themes to be addressed may include the role of the apostolic fathers and apologists, the controversy with Gnosticism, tensions between Eastern and Western forms of Christianity, and selected doctrinal developments that extend through the Protestant Reformation to today.
LEARNING OUTCOMES: Students who complete HT500 will demonstrate: (1) a basic historical and theological knowledge of the doctrines of God and Christ as those and other selected doctrines emerged in the early church and developed to this day; (2) a basic competence in interpreting this history and theology and an ability to evaluate these theological issues and their historical development; and (3) a critical and sympathetic appreciation for the breadth, unity, and diversity of the Christian church.
RELATIONSHIP TO PROGRAM LEARNING OUTCOMES: HT500 introduces students to a basic historical and theological knowledge of the doctrines of God and Christ (inter alia) as these doctrines and associated practices developed especially in the early church, 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.”
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: c.1150 total number of pages required
Clark, Elizabeth A. Women in the Early Church (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1983). ISBN: 978-0-814653326, Pub Price $29.95. [91 pp. 77-114; 204-258].
Coakley, John W. & Andrea Sterk, Readings In World Christian History, Vol. I: Earliest Christianity to 1453 (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2004). ISBN: 978-1570755200, Pub. Price $36.00. [227 pp. 3-230].
Irvin, Dale T. & Scott W. Sunquist. History of the World Christian Movement, Vol. I: Earliest Christianity to 1453 (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2001). ISBN: 978-1-570753961, Pub. Price $36.00. [256 pp. 1-256].
Turman, Eboni Marshall. Toward a Womanist Ethic of Incarnation: Black Bodies, The Black Church, and the Council of Chalcedon (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). ISBN: 978-1137373885, Pub. Price $79.99 (paperback). [115 pp. 1-86; 133-162].
Available on Canvas:
Aphrahat, Demonstrations, ed. Adam Lehto (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2010) [40 pp. 77-96; 157-178].
Benjamin of Alexandria, "On Cana of Galilee," in Coptic Church Review 23.3 (2002) [27 pp. 66-93].
Brock, Sebastian & Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Holy Women of the Syrian Orient (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1987) [78 pp. 63-141].
Ephrem the Syrian, The Hymns on Faith, ed. Jeffrey Wickes (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2015) [48 pp. 356-404].
Eusebius of Caesarea, The History of the Church, ed. Jeremy M. Schott (Oakland, CA: The University of California Press, 2019) [73 pp. 389-423; 453-492].
Eznik of Kolb, On God, ed. Monica J. Blanchard & Robin Darling Young (Leuven: Peeters, 1998) [57 pp. 145-202].
Narsai, Memre xvii, xxi, xxi & xxxii, ed. Alphonse Mingana (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1916) [74 pp. 1-74].
Shenoute of Atripe, I Am Amazed, ed. David Brakke & Andrew Crislip (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015) [28 pp. 54-82].
Timothy Aelurus, Against Chalcedon, ed. R.Y. Ebied & L.R. Wickham, in After Chalcedon: Studies In Theology and Church History Offered to Professor Albert van Roey, ed. C. Laga, J.A. Munitiz & L. van Rompay (Leuven: Peeters, 1985) [51 pp. 115-166].
RECOMMENDED READINGS:
Bauer, Walter. Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1971), ISBN: 978-0962364273, Pub. Price $30.95.
Baum, Wilhelm and Dietmar Winkler. The Church of the East: A Concise History (New York, NY: Routledge, 2003), ISBN: 978-0415600217, Pub. Price $59.95.
BeDuhn, Jason David. The Manichaean Body: In Discipline and Ritual (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000), ISBN: 978-0801862700, Amazon Price $19.99.
Brakke, David. Athanasius and Asceticism (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995), ISBN: 978-0801860553, Pub. Price $32.00.
Brock, Sebastian. The Luminous Eye: The Spiritual World Vision of Saint Ephrem the Syrian (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1985), ISBN: 978-0879076245, Pub. Price $29.95.
Brown, Peter. The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200-1000 (New York, NY: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), ISBN: 978-1118301265, Pub. Price $51.00.
Byron, Gay L. Symbolic Blackness and Ethnic Difference in Early Christian Literature (New York, NY: Routledge, 2002), ISBN: 978-0415243698, Pub. Price $44.95.
Cameron, Averil. Byzantine Matters (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014), ISBN: 978-0691157634, Pub. Price $17.95.
Davis, Stephen J. The Early Coptic Papacy: The Egyptian Church and its Leadership in Late Antiquity (Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2004), ISBN: 978-9774168345, Pub. Price $24.95.
Goehring, James E. Ascetics, Society, and the Desert: Studies in Early Egyptian Monasticism. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1999), ISBN: 978-1563382697, Pub. Price $55.00.
Isaac, Ephraim. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tawahido Church (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, Inc., 2012), ISBN: 978-1569023693, Pub. Price $33.93.
Menze, Volker L. Justinian and the Making of the Syrian Orthodox Church (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), ISBN: 978-0199534876, Pub. Price $155.00.
Ross, Steven K. Roman Edessa: Politics and Culture on the Eastern Fringes of the Roman Empire, 114-242 CE (New York, NY: Routledge, 2001), ISBN: 978-0415620093, Pub. Price $59.95 (paperback).
Welsby, Derek A. Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia: Pagans, Christians and Muslims in the Middle Nile (London: British Museum Press, 2002), ISBN: 978-0714119472, Pub. Price $54.00.
ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT:
PREREQUISITES: None.
RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM: Option to meet the TH1 or TH4 requirement in the 120 MDiv and 80 MAT Programs (Fall 2015). Option to meet the TH1 requirement in the 80 MATM and 80 MAICS Programs (Fall 2015). Meets the CHA requirement in the 144 MDiv program.
FINAL EXAMINATION: Yes.
NOTE: This ECD is a reliable guide to the course design but is subject to modification. Textbook prices are set by publishers and are subject to change. Copyright 2019 Fuller Theological Seminary.