The History of Christianity: From the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation

(Rick Simeone) #1

Lecture 1: The Historical Study of Christianity


o Our richest literary (and material) evidence comes from within
the Roman Empire and uses Greek and Latin. But Christian
literature also encompasses Syriac, Ethiopic, Coptic, Georgian,
and Slavic literature.

•    Our sources are also uneven in terms of their perspective.
o With some few exceptions, the majority of evidence comes
from insider rather than outsider sources.

o Insider sources themselves must be distinguished in terms
of their orthodox (“right-thinking”) and heterodox (“other-
thinking”) perspectives; by far, the greatest number of sources
comes from orthodox authors.

Organization of the Course
• The first section of this course, entitled “The Beginnings,” covers
the first three centuries of Christianity.
o After a rapid survey of Greco-Roman and Jewish culture pertinent
to the understanding of Christianity, the lectures consider the
birth and first expansion of the religion in the 1st century.

o Over the 2nd and 3rd centuries, Christianity experienced crises
from without (persecution) and within (heresy) that forced
institutional and intellectual development.

•    The second section, entitled “The Imperial Religion,” covers
roughly the 4th to the 8th centuries.
o Special attention is given to the cultural and political
adjustments consequent on becoming the imperial religion as
Christianity expanded into new significance.

o During these centuries, positive developments in worship and
piety were offset by severe and divisive conflicts over doctrine.

o Of great subsequent importance was the growing cultural
divide between the East (centered in Constantinople) and the
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