Week I - Foundations

  • W 1/11- First day of class
  • F 1/13 Class Discussion: If all you had was the Bible, how would you go about building an institution?
    • Informal Writing Assignment Due in Class: 250 words on the above question. Your writing will serve as the basis for small-group discussion, and will be collected at the end of class. Polish this a little, so that I can see how you think and write.
    • Reading: Skim one of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, or Luke). Read: Epistles of St. Paul -1 Corinthians, 1 Ephesians, 1 Acts of the Apostles.
    • Prepare: Reading notes. In a 300-level class, the conversation will operate at a level beyond what casual recollection can support. You need organized notes on your reading in order to be prepared. You should have a few notes from each piece of reading so that you are ready to point to a letter, or Acts, or gospel, in specific ways.

Week II - Church Fathers

Week III - Saints

Week IV - Monks

  • M 1/30 The Hero Monks of Yore
    • Due: Integration Paper 1 on Saints
    • Reading: Life of St. Anthony. Bring to class in some format.
    • Discussion Questions for Class:
      • How does Anthony begin his career? Why does he make the choice to retreat to the ascetic life? What are the practical concerns he must address?
      • Who are the other people in Anthony's Life? What are their relationships to the monk? How do they view him and why (this last being important). What is it that dictates their response. Look for specific textual examples. Note not all encounters are postive.
      • Think about this hagiography as a text written with a clear purpose. What might those purposes be?
      • What can we extrapolate is the role of the monk for society?
  • W 2/1 The Rule of St. Benedict. If you have read this text with me before, I will expect you to read the sources below for class.
  • F 2/3 Monasticism and Culture - Cluny handout in class.

Week V - Missionaries

Week VI - Popes: Lynch Chapters 8 and 9.

  • M 2/13 Tierney 33-84.
    • Read the text, focus on the primary documents, and locate arguments for each position within the documents.
    • Due Integration Paper 3 on Missionaries
  • W 2/15 Tierney 95-126.
  • F 2/17 Measure papal arguments against imperial arguments in class discussion.
    • The goal for this week is to understand the nature of the arguments made by each side as they developed over time. At the beginning of the week, we will divide into papal and imperial supporters, and spend the entire week trying to understand and support arguments. Your papers will need to take both sides into account and you need to read Tierney's excellent introductions as well as the sources.
  • Questions:
    1. What are the arguments of each document?
    2. How do the authors support their argument or on what grounds do they base they arguments?
    3. How do the arguments change over time?
    4. (And the big meta-question: what does it all tell us about medieval religion?).

Week VII - Builders: Lynch Chapters 10 and 11.

  • M 2/20 Panofsky, 39-81.
    • Due: Integration Paper 4 on the Papal-Imperial Crisis.
    • For class - Come to class with three quotations to discuss and questions/comments you want to raise about them from the primary source.
  • W 2/22 Reading: Panofsky, 82-138. Let's pick quotations again!
  • F 2/24 Assignment: Searchable Database of Images from Cathedrals.
    • Go into this database (we will discuss it in class) and come to class with one image or set of images that you would like to discuss. What does it tell us about the Cathedral?
    • Chartres link.
    • NOVA link.

Week VIII - Friars: Lynch Chapter 15.

  • M 2/27 Life and Rule of St. Francis
  • W 2/29 Canonization and Life of St. Dominic
    • Documents are here.
      • Skim the Life and get a sense of the narrative flow.
      • Read the two canonization processes closely. Either bring a digital or paper copy, or produce detailed notes so you can guide us to your selections in the text in class.
      • Paper writers will need to make use of the other documents again.
    • Some useful resources for paper writers.
      • Sources for the Biography of St. Francis of Assisi
        Emma Gurney Salter
        Speculum , Vol. 5, No. 4 (Oct., 1930), pp. 388-410
      • And more importantly
      • The Politics of Canonization in the Thirteenth Century: Lay and Mendicant Saints
        Michael Goodich
        Church History , Vol. 44, No. 3 (Sep., 1975), pp. 294-307
  • R 3/1 R 3/1 REQUIRED TALK ON NORTHERN EUROPE. THURSDAY, 3/1.
    • 3:00
    • INSTITUTE FOR THE HUMANITIES
      University of Illinois at Chicago
      701 South Morgan, Lower Level
      Stevenson Hall, Chicago, IL
  • F 3/2 Meeting with Ellen Arnold to talk, informally, about medieval environmental history. People who attend the UIC talk may be excused (but why would you want to be!)

Week IX - SPRING BREAK

  • M Contemplate
  • W Meditate
  • F Recreate -

Week X - Heretics - Lynch reading, Chapter 14.

Week XI - PROFESSOR IN ITALY

  • M 3/19 Work
  • W 3/21 on
  • F 3/23 Papers

Week XII - Catholic Life and Literature - Lynch chapters 10, 12, and 17.

  • M 3/26 Discuss Lynch
    • Due Integration Paper 7 on Heretics.
    • Due List of sources that you have in your possession. List of sources you've requested. This number ought to be about 10.
  • W 3/28 Read the Following Article:
    The Christian Middle Ages as an Historiographical Problem
    John Van Engen
    The American Historical Review , Vol. 91, No. 3 (Jun., 1986), pp. 519-552
    • Please note that this is not a new article, but it poses some fundamental questions about the period we're studying through a particular lens. So, questions:
      • What's the "problem?"
      • How have historians addressed the problem?
      • How do the questions addressed by the author fit with your understandings/confusions about the medieval past?
      • Note - This will probably take you two hours to read. Start now. :)
  • F 3/30 Felix Fabri - Text. Print please.
    • More content you can see.
    • Come to class with some ideas about how this kind of practice fits within the bigger issues we have been discussing about Christian life and belief. How would reading this text influence you as a medieval Christian, even one who could never leave your hometown?
    • Also:
      1. Why go? (with evidence from the text)
      2. What are the problems encountered by FF and the pilgrims? How does Fabri respond?
      3. What are the geopolitical issues that complicated matters?
    • This text focuses mostly on travel. The later texts talk more about Jerusalem and the Holy Land.

Week XIII - Pilgrims

  • M 4/2 The Peasant fabliaux
  • W 4/4 URSCI - You must go, and in particular attend your classmate's session.
  • F 4/6 - EASTER

Week XIV - The Devout

  • M 4/9 Van Engen - 63-118
    • Discussion Questions
      • Compare these people, and the documents, to the other religious movements we've studied. What are the points of contact and of divergence?
    • Due Integration Paper 8 on Pilgrims/Life.
  • W 4/11 Van Engen - Reprise of reading due 4/9.
  • F 4/13 Van Engen - 3

Week XV Draft Due

  • M 4/16 Drafts - We will have a class meeting.
    • You need to turn in a draft of your paper.
  • W 4/18 Meetings
    • Due Integration Paper 9 on the Modern Devotion.
  • F 4/20 Presentations
    • Jena
    • Mimi
    • Anna S.

Week XVI - Presentation Guidelines (3 per day)

  • M 4/23 Presentations
    • Kerri
    • Anna M.
    • Casey
  • W 4/25 Presentations
    • Madelyn
    • Bree
    • Russell
  • F 4/27 Presentations
    • Kaitlyn
    • Natalie
    • Lou

FINAL EXAM WEEK 4/30-5/3

  • Seniors must turn in their papers by 11:00 AM on Wednesday, 5/2.
  • Everyone else by noon on 5/4.

 

 

Site last updated: 1/12/09
Comments to: David Perry
Homepage URL: http://domin.dom.edu/faculty/dperry/hist308church/
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