Colorado College Religion Department

RE 130. Christianity

Block 1, 2007–08

Professor David Weddle

OFFICE HOURS: Monday, Wednesday, 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Armstrong 139
389-6615
E-mail: dweddle@ColoradoCollege.edu

The official description of this course is impossibly ambitious, but it suggests the range of topics we will explore during the block. Simply to note that Christianity is the largest and most diverse religious tradition in the world today, with over two billion adherents, is to acknowledge that much will be left out of our consideration. Those expecting an exhaustive survey will necessarily be disappointed.

How should we select what to study? Where shall we in Colorado Springs focus our attention for less than a month in order to understand a two-thousand-year-old tradition whose history has unfolded on every continent? One way to proceed would be to select the “essential” figures, events, and texts, while relegating those that fall outside the “mainstream” to the status of curiosities or ignoring them altogether. But such a method begs the question: what defines the mainstream? Who decides what constitutes the essence of Christianity and what belongs to the categories of sect and heresy?

We must not be naïve about the old dictum that history is written by the winners. Are larger groups, like Roman Catholics (roughly half of all Christians in the world), more representative of true Christianity than smaller groups, like the Church of God in Christ? Are groups that place ultimate authority in the Bible, like Southern Baptists, closer to the mainstream than groups that submit to the standard of early councils, like the Greek Orthodox, or than those that integrate indigenous traditions into their teaching, like the Ethiopian Church? Do earlier leaders or texts define the timeless standard of faith or does Christianity adapt to changing conditions in history? Should the beliefs and practices of Christians in the West be the authoritative model for Christians in the developing world?

And how could we who are observing Christianity as scholars, “from the outside” so to speak, possibly resolve such questions? How can we decide which specific Christian phenomena to observe so that we can draw valid generalizations about Christianity as a whole? This problem is one that plagues every exercise in inductive thinking. The challenge is to avoid the two extremes of premature definition and unending research. With the former we place ourselves in the seat of ecclesiastical judgment, deciding what Christianity is and then including in our survey only what conforms to our definition. With the latter we continue to look at everything that calls itself Christian without discrimination and find ourselves so overwhelmed with data we never get to the end of our research, much less reach a conclusion about anything!

In between is a method of family identity, related to the way we recognize the faces of family members in a crowd. Family is a recurrent symbol in Christianity. Members of different churches from different cultures in ecumenical gatherings still call one another brother and sister, despite the divergent histories of their traditions. The metaphor is central to Christian self-description, and I propose to make it the basis of selection of materials for this course. We shall concentrate on beliefs, rituals, and institutions that may not be universally appreciated, but are acknowledged by Christians worldwide as belonging to the family, as part of their common history.

We shall begin with a brief survey of Christianity from its origins as a messianic sect of Judaism to its present role as the largest religion in the world whose influence reaches to every country on earth. What we will discover along the way is that Christianity always strives for unity as an ideal but produces wide diversity in practice. Brian Wilson has recently argued that the future of the Christian religion in a “postmodern” world depends upon its various churches accepting the diversity, including syncretistic forms, rather than competing with one another (see his book Christianity in the series Religions of the World). Many Christians agree that continuing to play the game of “Who is the true Christian?”—in which losers are excluded as “heretics”—is an uncharitable leftover from the days of medieval inquisition and colonial usurpation. The challenge of embracing the unity of Christian faith while maintaining the diversity of its expressions is posed at the sacred center of the Christian world, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.

Christians have never enjoyed unanimous agreement on doctrine or liturgy or politics, but they do share the significance of common

Symbols:         Cross,          Chalice,         Dove,                 Fish

Sacred texts: Gospels                   

Rituals: Eucharist, Baptism, Confession, Prayer, Ordination, Marriage, Anointing 

Ideals: Love, Faith, Hope, Peace, Mercy, Justice

Confession: Jesus Christ is Lord.

Further, there are certain formative thinkers and actors who are acknowledged by most Christians as important members of the family, ancestors of the faith. We shall read several of their works as well. Because we want to sample individual writings from many different centuries, we shall take advantage of primary texts available on-line, particularly from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library at: http://www.ccel.org.

For selections from the Bible you may use any standard version, but the state-of-the-art academic edition is The HarperCollins Study Bible.

Further, since Christianity is a religion of the incarnation of the divine in human form, we shall also examine visual representations of the faith in icons, churches, and films—as well as making field trips to Christian communities.

In addition, as a plausible forecast of the future of Christianity, we will read Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (Oxford University Press, 2002).

Schedule

Monday, September 3
9:00 Opening Convocation
10:30 Introductions. Where we begin: group exercises. Run through syllabus.

Tuesday, September 4
Story of Jesus: official version
Read Gospel of Mark (in one sitting if possible). This gospel is the earliest narrative of the life of Jesus, beginning with his baptism by John through his crucifixion. Matthew and Luke follow Mark's story line, but expand his account with long passages of Jesus' teaching. They also add stories of Jesus' appearances after his resurrection, while Mark's gospel ends mysteriously with some women among his disciples discovering his empty tomb and fleeing in fright. (The earliest manuscripts of Mark end at 16:8; the "longer ending" recorded in the King James Version as 16:9-20 is a much later addition.)

Wednesday, September 5
Story of Jesus: minority reports
The Gnostic interpretation of Christ as the revealer of esoteric wisdom was an early version of Christian faith. An ancient library of Gnostic texts was discovered in Egypt in 1945, including the Gospel of Thomas, a collection of 114 sayings of Jesus. Read the text at: http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gosthom.html. Which sayings of Jesus in this text are like those in Mark? Which sayings are unlike those in the New Testament?

Another Gnostic Gospel is the Gospel of Mary, the only gospel attributed to a woman. In it, Mary Magdalene is presented as the chief disciple of Jesus, the one who understands his message more fully than the other, male, disciples. Read the very fragmentary text at: http://www.gnosis.org/library/marygosp.htm.

Write three pages comparing the interpretation of Jesus in Mark with that in Thomas.
Essay due on Thursday.

Thursday, September 6
Overview: Central Events in History of Christianity
Our guest speaker for this session is the Rev. James W. White, retired senior pastor of First Congregational Church in Colorado Springs and author of Christianity 101: Tracing Basic Beliefs (Westminster John Knox Press, 2006). Rev. White is well-known for his thoughtful insights into Christian faith, expressed with eloquence and a touch of humor. He will outline what he calls CRITICAL EVENTS in Christian history, beginning with formative moments in ancient Israelite religion and extending to recent developments, such as Vatican II, the growth of charismatic evangelicalism, and the influence of Christian feminism.

Friday, September 7allows Eve)
Gospel According to Paul
Read Letter to the Galatians chapters 1-2 and Letter to the Romans, chapters 1-12.
Acts of the Apostles traces the progress of the Christian church as it expands from Jerusalem to Rome under the leadership of Saul of Tarsus, who later adopted the Roman name Paul. His letters to Christian congregations he founded during three extensive journeys are the earliest extant Christian writings. Paul's passion for his calling as an apostle of Christ is evident in Galatians chapters 1-2. What does Paul claim as the basis of his personal authority and how does he understand the distinctive "gospel" he believes Christ commissioned him to preach? How did Paul's vision of the resurrected Christ shape his sense of calling as an "apostle"? In his Letter to the Romans, how does Paul interpret the key terms of Christian theology: faith, grace, justification?

Write three pages on Paul's version of the Christian gospel.
How does Paul's version of Christian faith compare to what Jesus taught?
Where would Paul stand on questions that Christians still debate?
Essay due on Monday.

Sunday, September 9
Attend the worship service at New Life Church, 11025 Voyager Parkway. We will drive in caravan, leaving CC at 10:15 a.m. For an overview of New Life Church and its ministries, surf the Web site at http://www.newlifechurch.org. Report due on Monday.

Monday, September 10
Greek Fathers: Martyrs
Read The Encyclical Epistle Concerning the Martyrdom of the Holy Polycarp, at: http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-01/anf01-13.htm#P911_166347. Polycarp was the bishop of Smyrna, a church to whom one of the letters in the Book of Revelation was addressed (2:8–11) with a special emphasis on martyrdom. Polycarp lived in the middle of the second century and was one of the earliest Christian martyrs, following Stephen whose death is recorded in Acts of the Apostles 6:8–7:60. Look for the parallels between the account of his capture and execution and the accounts of Jesus' trial and crucifixion in the New Testament. Does your comparison confirm that early Christians regarded martyrdom as a form of imitatio Christi ("imitation of Christ")?

Orthodox Christians found the basis for martyrdom as a sign of sainthood in Paul's references to his own suffering as his form of identification with Christ (Galatians 2:19-20, 6:17; Philippians 3:10-11). But there were other Christians who regarded martyrdom as a sign of ignorance of the teachings of Christ and a misunderstanding of resurrection as restitution of a material body. Read the first half of the late second-century Gnostic polemic, The Testimony of Truth at http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/testruth.html. Although the text is fragmentary, how do you understand the author's objections to martyrdom?

Tuesday, September 11
Greek Fathers: Apologists
Athenagorus is one of the first apologists. He wrote his defense of Christian faith under a pseudonym representing a philosopher who was converted by St. Paul’s preaching in the agora, or marketplace, in Athens (Acts 17:16–33). According to tradition, Athenagorus presented A Plea for the Christians to the Roman emperors Aurelius and Commodus about 177 c.e. Read chapters i–xvi and xxxi-xxxvii of his apology at: http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-02/anf02-46.htm#P2139_587041.

Wednesday, September 12
Ecumenical Councils: Doctrine of Trinity
Athanasius was a young presbyter, assisting the bishop of Alexandria, when he wrote his defense of the belief that Christ shared eternally the divine nature of the Trinity against the claim of another presbyter, named Arius, that Christ had been adopted as God’s Son at his baptism. Read chapters 1–5 of his classic work On the Incarnation at: http://www.gty.org/~phil/history/ath-inc.htm. (You may find it helpful to read first the introduction by C. S. Lewis, an effective apologist for Christianity in the twentieth century.)
Then read the ecumenical creeds at: http://www.cresourcei.org/creedsearly.html. These are classic statements of Christian faith in God as Trinity and Jesus Christ as both human and divine.

Write three pages analyzing two of Athanasius's arguments that support
the statement in the Nicene Creed that God the Son is "of one being with the Father." Essay due on Thursday.

Thursday, September 13
(Students attending Rosh Hashanah services should see me about excused absecnce.)

Eastern Church: Spirituality of Eye and Heart
Read The Orthodox Liturgy (handout) and read the summary of Orthodox faith at: http://www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/articles/article8038.asp.

Orthodox spirituality is inspired by image as much as by word. Survey traditional icons at: http://www.ocf.org/OrthodoxPage/icons/misc_in.html and more recent icons at: http://www.comeandseeicons.com/icons.htm. Select two or three images that you think express most clearly features of Orthodox Christianity. Come to class prepared to explain how your selected icons serve as "windows" into Orthodox beliefs or practices.

Thursday, September 13 at 11:00 a.m.
Visit with Fr. Anthony Karbo at Saints Constantine and Helen Orthodox Church, 2770 North Chestnut. We will leave Armstrong Hall at 10:45 a.m. Please dress appropriately.
Report due on Friday.

 

Friday, September 14
Roman Catholicism: Scholasticism
The "dark ages" in Europe began to end at the turn of the first Christian millennium. With the rediscovery of Greek philosophy (mediated to the West by Islamic culture) and new economic development, came a revival of learning and Christian scholarship. Out of the new confidence in the power of "faith seeking understanding" emerged a dense body of theological analysis and argumentation known as "scholasticism."

The most famous medieval scholastic was the Dominican monk, Thomas of Aquino (1225-1274), who employed the philosophy of Aristotle to create a tightly reasoned Christian theology. Read his Summa Theologica, qq. 2 (arguments for the existence of God), 4 (perfection of God), 6 (goodness of God), and 9 (immutability of God) at: http://www.ccel.org/a/aquinas/summa/FP.html.

Monday, November 10
Roman Catholicism: Cathedrals
The great churches of medieval Europe are monumental symbols of Christian aspiration. Their arched ceilings draw the eye and spirit upward and the long nave draws the worshipper into the narrative space of biblical story and ecclesiastical ceremony. You will find architectural diagrams of Chartres Cathedral in France at: http://vrcoll.fa.pitt.edu/medart/image/France/Chartres/Chartres-Cathedral/chartres-main.html. For more detailed images, go to: http://www.bluffton.edu/%7Esullivanm/chartreswest/centralportal.html.

Take a look at the stone carvings of Rouen Cathedral at: http://www.newyorkcarver.com/photogal14.htm. Jeanne d'Arc, who was burned at the stake at Rouen for heresy in 1431, was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church in 1920. Learn more about her at the site for a museum in her honor at Rouen: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/musee.jeannedarc/indexanglais.htm.

At 11:00 Dr. Kenneth Burton, Dean of the Chapel Emeritus, will lead us in a tour
of Shove Memorial Chapel. Shove Chapel was built on the CC campus in 1931
and is patterned after Winchester Cathedral in England.

 

Wednesday, September 19
Martin Luther (1483-1546) said he was converted to personal faith upon reading Paul's letter to the Romans and Luther's interpretation of Paul launched the Protestant movement in the early 16th century. Read Luther's preface to his commentary on Romans at: http://www.ccel.org/l/luther/romans/pref_romans.html.
John Calvin (1509-1564), Luther's younger contemporary, is regarded as the most formidable intellect of the Reformation. Read selections from his Institutes of the Christian Religion: defense of the authority of the Bible as independent of the Catholic Church, teachings that humanity is corrupted by original sin and that salvation is possible only through the imputation of the righteousness of Christ's sacrifice to believers by faith, and strong views of predestination (handout).

Thursday, September 20
The European Enlightenment of the eighteenth century celebrated the power of reason to disclose the secrets of nature and the human spirit. Immanuel Kant declared that the motto of Enlightenment was "Dare to use your own reason." From this confidence in free rationality arose a distrust of dogmas, whether philosophical or theological, and an interest in "natural religion," a simple faith in God free from ecclesiastical authority and irrational belief in the supernatural. Read the powerful defense of this modernist view by Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-78) in Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar at: http://www.bartleby.com/34/4/.

Write three pages comparing the versions of Christianity
presented by Jean Calvin and Jean Jacques Rousseau.
Select three points of comparison and develop each in detail.
Examples: human freedom/divine sovereignty,
reason/revelation, original sin/basic goodness.
Essay due Friday.

Friday, September 21
Global Christianity
Read Jenkins, The Next Christendom, 1-53: The Myth of Western Christianity.
What are the primary differences between Christianity in the West and in the South? Why does Jenkins call the growth of Christian churches in Africa and Asia a move "back to the future"? How does the development of indigenous churches challenge the conventional view of the relation between missions and colonialism?

Tuesday, September 24
Read Jenkins, The Next Christendom, 163-220: The Next Crusade or the Final Unity?
Why do Christian and Islamic views of the politics of religion raise the threat of conflict in this century? How do Southern Christians differ from Christians in the West on social issues, such as women's rights, tolerance for homosexuality, abortion, and free speech? What themes in the Bible are most important to Southern Christians?

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