Assessment

Continuous Assessment 20% + Essays 80%

Module Aims

This module aims to introduce learners to the key personalities, theological developments, and events in the history of the Church in the Middle Ages, and to facilitate their engagement with the most up-to-date scholarship on the history of medieval Christianity. It also aims to help learners better situate other theological disciplines within their historical context, and to appreciate the continuing relevance of some of the issues faced by medieval Christians for Christian believers today.

Indicative Syllabus

• Charlemagne and the Carolingian Renaissance
• Monasticism in the West
• The Christianization of Europe
• Christians in Islamic Lands – the Case of Al-Andalus
• Eastern and Western Christianity and the Road to 1054
• The Gregorian Reform
• The First Crusade
• Scholastic Theology and the Rise of the Universities
• Heretics and heresy in the Central Middle Ages
• The Franciscan Movement
• The Papacy of Pope Innocent III
• The Medieval Inquisition
• Popes and Monarchs in the early 14th century – the Case of Pope Boniface VIII and King Philip ‘the Fair’ of France
• The Avignon Papacy and the Papal Schism
• William of Ockham, Nominalism, and Franciscan Debates over Apostolic Poverty

Learning Outcomes

• — critically evaluate current scholarship concerning medieval Christianity
• — appraise the relationship between secular and religious authorities in the Middle Ages
• — extrapolate from the history of medieval Christianity relevant perspectives by which to consider the legacy of such issues today 
• — employ what s/he has learned about Christianity in the Middle Ages to better understand historical and theological developments over time and to appreciate the relevance of this for theological discourse today.
• — demonstrate an appreciation of the diversity of theological views and religious practices in the period, in particular the diversity of theological and liturgical expression within eastern and western Christianity respectively
• — demonstrate a good historical sense of the period and display a willingness to “attentively listen to” the diverse arguments of a range of individuals / groups in key historical debates, and consider these judiciously in written work.

Bibliography

• — Bell, David N., Many Mansions: an Introduction to the Development and Diversity of Medieval Theology West and East. Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1996.
• — Downham, Clare, Medieval Ireland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
• — Duffy, Eamon, Saints and Sinners: a History of the Popes. 3rd ed., New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
• — Evans, G.R., The Medieval Theologians. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
• — Hamilton, Bernard Religion in the Medieval West. London: Edward Arnold, 2003.
• — Hastings, Adrian (ed.), A World History of Christianity. London: Cassell, 1999.
• — Holmes, Derek J. and Bernard W. Bickers, A Short History of the Catholic Church. London: Burns and Oates, 2004.
• — Lynch, Joseph H., The Medieval Church: a Brief History. London and New York: Longman, 1992.
• — Madigan, Kevin J. Medieval Christianity: a New History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015.
• — Noble, Thomas F.X. and Julia M.H. Smith (eds), The Cambridge History of Christianity volume III: early medieval Christianities c.600-c.1100. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
• — MacCulloch, Diarmaid, A History of Christianity: the First Three Thousand Years. London and New York: Allen Lane, 2009.
• — McManners, John (ed.), The Oxford History of Christianity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
• — Miles, Margaret R., The Word made Flesh: a History of Christian Thought. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005.
• — Rubin, Miri and Walter Simons (eds), The Cambridge History of Christianity volume IV: Christianity in Western Europe c.1100-c.1500. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
• — Tanner, Norman, The Church in the later Middle Ages: the I.B. Tauris History of the Christian Church. London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2008.
• — Tanner, Norman, New Short History of the Catholic Church. London: Burns and Oates, 2011.
• — Wilken, Robert W. The First Thousand Years: a Global History of Christianity. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013.