Storia della Chiesa 1 RA0807

This course is a study of the Church foundation from 6 BC until 694 AD. Within this period the course will deal with the rise of Christianity and the foundation of the primitive Church, the Imperial Church (between the years 313-395 AD) and later. The course will deal with the scattered of the Church after 395 until 694. The course will focus on the main events and the main personalities that affected the religious, cultural and political life of the Mediterranean of the Greco-Roman world.

Course Outline: The birth of the Church in the pagan empire: Constantine’s policies and his attitude towards Christianity between the years 313-337 AD; the organization and the expansion of the Imperial Church; The impact of the ecumenical councils on the Christian faith; the “golden age” in the 4th-5th century of the patristic learning; The rise of Constantinople and the Christological controversies. The Church under the imperial rule and the scattered religious institutions between the years 395-488 AD; the condition and the organization of the Eastern Churc; the rise of Constantinople and the Christological controversies. The state of Empire and Church: controversies and the main intellectual personalities during the end of the 5th until the end of the 7th centuries AD; the Papacy and the age of western monasticism and their influence on the history of the Church. Learning Outcomes: Students will be able: - To acquire knowledge about the historical context of Christianity from the birth of the Church and the encounter with the Jewish religion and paganism. - To understand the currents of thought that challenged the faith and unity of the Church. - To know, by the end of this course, the structure of the Church and the different doctrines which developed during the history of Christianity. - To understand the different traditions and to evaluate the developing eastern and western Church. - To know the role of the main personalities of the Church during this period (6BC-694 AD) and the intellectual dialogue with paganism. - To write a scientific essay and improve their research skills - To improve their presentation skills during the course so as to summarise one chapter of the course within fifteen minutes. - To deal with different historical resources concerning the history of the Church in order to create critical thinking of these resources.

BAINTON H.R., Christianity (Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company 1985); BROX N., A History of the Early Church (London, SCM Press Ltd, 1994); CHADWICK H., The Early Church (Harmonds-Worth 1993); CHRISTOPHE P., 2000 Ans d’Histoire de l’Eglise (Paris, edition Mame-Desclée 2012); DUCHESNE L., Early History of the Christian Church: From its Foundation to the end of the Fifth Century (Alcester, Read Books 2009); DUFFY E., Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes. (London, Yale Univ. Press 2014); FREEMAN C., A New History of Early Christianity (London, Yale Uni. Press 2009); FREND W.H.C., Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church (Oxford 1965); FREND W.H.C., The Rise of Christianity (London, Fortress Press 1984); HARDING M., Early Christian life and thought in social context: A Reader (London, T&T Clark International 2003); LAUX J., Church History (Charlotte, North Carolina 2012); LEON H.J., The Jews of Ancient Rome (Philadelphia, 1960); NORWICH J.J., The Popes (Great Britain, Vintage Books 2011); RICHARDS J., The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages 476-752 (London, 1979); WILKEN RL., 1936-The first Thousand Years: ‎A Global History of Christianity (New Haven, Yale University Press 2014).