Fall 2018/Pasadena

HT500

Thompson

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

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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 class meets once per week for three-hour sessions for a total of 30 hours of classroom instruction for lecture and discussion plus 10 hours of directed learning activities for a total of 40 instructional hours.

REQUIRED READING: c. 1000 total number of pages required

Norris, R. A., ed. The Christological Controversy. Fortress Press, 1980. ISBN: 978-0800614119, Pub. Price $24.00 [140 pp. assigned].

Plantinga, Richard J., Thomas R. Thompson, & Matthew D. Lundberg. An Introduction to Christian Theology. Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN: 978-0521690379, Pub. Price $36.99 [269 pp. assigned].

Richardson, Cyril C., ed. Early Christian Fathers. Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 1995. ISBN: 978-0684829517, Pub. Price $17.00 or free PDF at https://archive.org/details/LCC1_ECF [164 pp. assigned].

Available on Canvas or eReserves: [app. 427 pp.]

“The Hymn of the Pearl,” from the (Gnostic) Acts of Thomas, in Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, ed. William Wright, (London, 1871), pp. 238-45.

“The Apocalypse of Peter,” in The Nag Hammadi Library, ed. James M. Robinson (Harper & Row, 1988), 372-78.

Various excerpts from Arius et al., in Christology of the Later Fathers, ed. Edward R. Hardy (Westminster, 1954), 329-54, 375-85.

Athanasius, “On the Incarnation of the Word” §§1-25 & 41-57, in NPNF2 4:36-50, 58-67.

Theodore of Mopsuestia, “Fifth Lecture on the Nicene Creed,” in The Commentary of Theodore of Mopsuestia on the Nicene Creed, ed. A. Mingana (Cambridge: W. Heffer & Sons, 1932), 54-61.

Gregory of Nazianzus, “Third Theological Oration: On the Son” and “Epistle 101, To Cledonius Against Apollinaris,” in NPNF2 7:301-9, 439-43.

Gregory of Nyssa, “To Ablabius, on Not Three Gods,” in NPNF2 5:331-36.

John of Damascus, On Holy Images, trans. Mary H. Allies (London: Thomas Baker, 1898), 87-115.

Scott W. Sunquist, “Ancient and Eastern Christianity: Syria, Persia, Central Asia, and India,” in The Blackwell Companion to World Christianity, ed. Lamin Sanneh (Blackwell, forthcoming), 1-19.

Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, “Is the Spirit Still the Dividing Line Between the Christian East and West?” in Perichoresis: The Theological Journal of Emanuel University of Oradea 9/2 (2011): 125-42.

Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, “The Chalcedonian Tradition,” “Atonement Traditions” and “Violence, Cross, and Atonement,” in Christ and Reconciliation (Eerdmans, 2013), 106-18, 294-314, 315-23.

Introduction to Anselm, Introduction to Theologians of the Twelfth Century, and Abelard on Rom.3: 19-26; in A Scholastic Miscellany: Anselm to Ockham, ed. Eugene R. Fairweather (Westminster John Knox, 1956), 47-62, 219-32, 276-87.

Anselm, “Cur Deus Homo,” in Complete Philosophical and Theological Treatises of Anselm of Canterbury, trans. Jasper Hopkins and Herbert Richardson (Minneapolis: The Arthur J. Banning Press, 2000), 296-389. Free PDF may be downloaded at http://www.jasper-hopkins.info/CurDeusI.pdf and http://www.jasper-hopkins.info/CurDeusII.pdf

Benjamin Myers, “The Patristic Atonement Model,” in Locating Atonement: Explorations in Constructive Dogmatics, ed. Oliver D. Crisp and Fred Sanders (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015), forthcoming.

Joel B. Green, ed., “No Cross, No Christianity,” Fuller: Theology, News & Notes 59/2 (Fall 2012): 3-29; available online at http://cms.fuller.edu/TNN/Issues/Fall_2012/Fall_2012/ (the six featured articles)

Friedrich Schleiermacher, On Religion: Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers, trans. John Oman (London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1893), excerpts from the second speech, 26-51.

Patrick S. Cheng, Radical Love: An Introduction to Queer Theology (New York: Seabury, 2011), 56-62.

James H. Cone, A Black Theology of Liberation (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1970), 212-19.

Fred Sanders, “What Trinitarian Theology Is For: Placing the Doctrine of the Trinity in Christian Theology and Life,” in Advancing Trinitarian Theology: Explorations in Constructive Dogmatics, ed. Oliver D. Crisp and Fred Sanders (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014), 21-41.

RECOMMENDED READING:

Cross, F. L. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Third Edition. Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN: 978-0192802903, Pub. Price $205.00.

Di Berardino, Angelo. Encyclopedia of the Early Church. 2 vols. Oxford University Press, 1992. ISBN: 978-0195208924, Out of Print.

González, Justo L. A History of Christian Thought. Abingdon, 2014. ISBN: 978-1426757778, Pub. Price $49.99.

Kelly, J. N. D. Early Christian Doctrines. HarperOne, 1978. ISBN: 978-0060643348, Pub. Price $17.99.

Muller, Richard A. Dictionary of Latin and Greek Theological Terms. Baker Book House, 2006. ISBN: 978-0801020643, Pub. Price $32.00.

Pelikan, J. The Christian Tradition, Vol. 1: Emergence of Catholic Tradition (100-600). University of Chicago Press, 1975. ISBN: 978-0226653716, Pub. Price $25.00.

Placher, William C. A History of Christian Theology. 2^nd ed. Westminster John Knox Press, 2013. ISBN: 978-0664239350, Pub. Price $30.00.

Seeberg, Reinhold. The History of Doctrines. TheClassics.us, 2013. ISBN: 978-1230466910, Out of Print, available at http://archive.org/details/cu31924029300064

Young, Frances M. From Nicaea to Chalcedon. 2nd edition. Baker Academic, 2010. ISBN: 978-0801039157, Pub. Price $40.00.

ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT:

1. Assigned readings of ~1000 pp. (assessed through essays and exams), to be completed as preparation for lectures and discussion. [This assignment is related to Learning Outcome #1] [68 hours].
2. Weekly directed learning activities: View/audit screencast/podcast resources (~90 minutes each), then interact by formulating and posting a doctrinal or pastoral position statement or question (per weekly instructions) based on the material. (10%) [These assignments are related to Learning Outcomes #2 and 3.] [20 hours].
3. Three directed essays (1800 words each) on assigned topics, drawing on primary source readings. (50%) [These assignments are related to Learning Outcomes #2 and 3.] [30 hours].
4. Comprehensive final examination, objective and short essay. (40%) [This assignment is related to Learning Outcomes #1, 2, and 3] [15 hours].

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.