AC

Alphacrucis College

Details for History of Christianity: Frameworks and Function

History is a framing discipline for Christian studies – it is a source of data, of informing models and thinking approaches, and a fundamental element of the incarnational truth to which Christians hold. This unit provides an introduction to the methods and content of this essential discipline. 

Quick Info

  • Currently offered by Alphacrucis: Yes
  • Course code: HIS401
  • Credit points: 10

The unit History of Christianity: Frameworks and Function is part of the subject area Church History and is offered as a part of the following Awards: Master of Arts (Christian Studies) (Alphacrucis College (NSW Dept. of Education)).

Unit Content

Curriculum Objective

A successful engagement with this unit will leave students able to:

  1. describe the methods and skills used by historians, including those used to study primary documents, movements, issues and time periods
  2. understand the sweep of the Christian tradition from both an historical and global perspective
  3. evaluate the interaction of the church with wider society over time
  4. recognise the role of identity formations (e.g. gender and racial diversity, nationalisms and transnationalisms) in the Christian story as it has been lived out in cross cultural contexts;
    5. value the importance of past foundations and future directions of the church 

Subject Content

  1. Time and Christian Thought
  2. Church and State
  3. Christian Communalism and Sectarianism
  4. Christianity and Cultural Identity
  5. Reform and Renewal movements in Christianity
  6. Christianity in War and Peace
  7. Christianity and the Material world;
    8. Christianity and Globalism 

Assessment Methods

Reading reports, minor essay, major essay.

Prescribed Text

Representative References

Bradley, Ian. Celtic Christian Communities, Edinburgh: Northstone Publishing, 2001.

Brockway, Robert W. A Wonderful Work of God: Puritanism and the Great Awakening. Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh University Press, 2003.

Brundin, Abigail. VittoriaColonna and the spiritual poetics of the Italian Reformation. Aldershot, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2008.

Edelheit, Amos. Ficino, Pico, and Savonarola: the evolution of humanist theology 1461/2-1498, Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2008.

Ferguson, Everett. Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 3rd Edition. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 3rd Edition. 2003.

Fergusson, David. Church, State and Civil Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Forcellino, M. Michelangelo, Vittoria Colonna and the "spirituali": Religiosity and Artistic Life in Rome in the 1400s. Rome: Viella, 2009.

Freeman, C. A New History of Early Christianity. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.

Freiberger, O. Asceticism and its Critics: Historical Accounts and Comparative Perspectives. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.