Storia della Chiesa 3 RA0805

This course is designed to help the students to acquire a basic knowledge of the facts, events and personalities in Church History from 1453 through the late 1789. Within this period the course is going to deal with: Luther’s Reformation, John Calvin, the Catholic Reformation, the elements of the Catholic Reform, the Reformed Catholicism and also the situation in the other Churches. The Students will discover a new Europe with the triumph of civil absolutism and the growing revolt against spiritual authority.

Course Outline: Reformation and Confessionalism (1453-1563). The breaking in of diversity. Historical context. Renaissance and Humanism. Luther’s reformation. The Lutheran Churches. John Calvin and Calvinism. The reformation in England. The Catholic reformation. The council of Trent. Conclusion. The post-reformation (1563-1648). Elements of Catholic reform. Elements of counter-reformation. What kind of reformed Catholicism? The other Churches. III. Divided and contested Christianity (1648 – 1789). Introduction: a new Europe of a divided and contested Christianity. The triumph of civil absolutism. Growing revolt against spiritual authority. Christian life in a mundane Church. The other Churches. General conclusion. Evaluation of the period 1453-1789. Learning Outcomes: - Students will be able to identify and evaluate elements carried by popular memory and appreciate the positive and negative developments within the different confessions. - They will appraise the complex development of the relations between Church and States and examine the origins of long term movements of ideas and practices still present in today’s world and Church. - They will evaluate the advances and setbacks of the evangelisation movement during these centuries.

BAINTON R., Here I stand (USA, Abington Press 1994); BETTENSON H.-MAUNDER C. (Ed.), Documents of the Christian Church (Oxford, Oxford University Press 1999); BIRELEY T., The Refashioning of Catholicism 1450-1700; CHADWICK O., The Reformation (London, Penguin Books 1990); COMBY J.-MACCULLOCH D., How to Read Church History (New York, Crossroads Publishing 1999); CROSS F.L-LIVINGSTONE E.E., Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (London, Oxford University Press 1974); DICKENS A.G., The German Nation and Martin Luther (London, 1974); DUFFY E., Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes (London, Yale University Press 2014); FREITAG A., Universe Atlas of the Christian World: The Expansion of Christianity through the Centuries (London, Burns & Oats 1963); JEDIN H., History of the Council of Trent (London 1957); JEDIN H., History of the Church, Vols. 5 to 8 (London, Burns & Oates 1981); MATHESON P. (Ed.) Reformation Christianity: A People’s History of Christianity, Vol. 5 (Minneapolis, Fortress Press 2006); NEILL S., A History of Christian Missions (London, Penguin Books 1994); PARTNER P., Renaissance Rome 1500-1559: a Portrait of Society (Berkeley 1976); SCHOECK R.J., Erasmus and Europe: The Making of a Humanist (Edinburgh 1990).