Summer 2015/Pasadena Hybrid+

HT500

Waldrop

HT500: THE CHURCH’S UNDERSTANDING OF GOD AND CHRIST IN ITS HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT (4 Units: 163 hours). Jeffery Waldrop.

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.

COURSE FORMAT: This is a hybrid+ course, meaning that it is a ten-week course with nine weeks of online instruction and one week of classroom instruction during week three of the quarter. The week of classroom instruction will include four hours daily of lecture and discussion, as well as additional lunch meetings and evening sessions (required in hybrid+ courses). Classroom and online instruction will include lecture and discussion for a total of 40 instructional hours.

REQUIRED READING: 1,310 total pages required

Chadwick, Henry. The Early Church, revised edition. Penguin, 1993. ISBN: 978-0140231991, Pub. Price $17.00 [320 pp.].

Clark, Elizabeth A. Women in the Early Church. Liturgical Press, 1984. ISBN: 978-0814653326, Pub. Price $24.95 [260 pp.].

González, Justo L. The Story of Christianity, vol. 1: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation, second edition. Harper One, 2010. ISBN: 978-0061855887, Pub. Price $20.00 [220 pp.].

Placher, William. Readings in the History of Christian Theology, vol. 1. Westminster John Knox Press, 1995. ISBN: 978-0664240578, Pub. Price $16.34 [110 pp. assigned].

Plantinga, Richard, J., Thomas R. Thompson, and Matthew D. Lundberg. An Introduction to Christian Theology. Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN: 978-0521690379, Pub. Price $29.75 [200 pp.].

Posted Class Lecture Notes [200 pp.].