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| Instructor: Dr. R. J. Hernández-Díaz | |
| Email: rhernandez-diaz@iliff.edu |
An introduction to the social, institutional and intellectual history of Christianity in Europe from the 9th century to the eve of the Reformation. Topics include: the schism between East and West, the growth and reform of the papacy, the medieval monks and friars, Scholasticism, the rise of the universities, the breakdown of the Thomistic synthesis, the decline of the papacy, conciliarism, medieval mystics, late medieval church and people, the Renaissance and Christian humanism.
Ozment, Steven. The Age of Reform, 1250-1550: An Intellectual & Religious History of Late Medieval and Reformation Europe . New Haven: Yale University Press, 1980.
Thomson, John A. F. The Western Church in the Middle Ages . New York: Arnold Publishers, 1998.
Ozment, Steven. The Age of Reform, 1250-1550: An Intellectual & Religious History of Late Medieval and Reformation Europe. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1980.
Thomson, John A. F. The Western Church in the Middle Ages. New York: Arnold Publishers, 1998.
Both of these books serve as background texts (Ozment and Thomson). Lectures assume that you have read the relevant portions of the text. You must read and master them in order to participate fruitfully in class discussions.
(all available on-line through the Canvas and on reserve at Taylor Library)
Aquinas, Thomas. “S. Thomas Aquinas, 1225-1274.” In Documents of the Christian Church, ed. Henry Bettenson & Chris Maunder. 3rd ed. Oxford University Press: Oxford; New York, 1999, 154-66.
Power, Eileen. Medieval Women. M. M. Postan, ed. Cambridge University Press, 1995, selections.
“Propositions of Wycliffe condemned at London, 1382, and at the Council of Constance, 1415” in Documents of the Christian Church, ed. Henry Bettenson & Chris Maunder. 3rd ed. Oxford University Press: Oxford; New York, 1999, 191-93.
Ward, Jennifer C. Women in medieval Europe, 1200-1500. Longman, 2002 (select chapters)
Colish, Marcia L. Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition 400-1400. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998.
Evans, G. R. ed. The Medieval Theologians. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001.
Logan, F. Donald. A History of the Church in the Middle Ages, 2nd edition. London: Routledge, 2013.
Scott, Robert A. The Gothic Enterprise: A Guide to Understanding the Medieval Cathedral. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2003.
At the end of the course, you will be able to:
There is more to the history of Christianity in the Middle Ages than we can discuss in one quarter. I have chosen some representative but not exhaustive thematic clusters around which we are going to explore this roughly one thousand year period of the history of Christianity. The initial stage of your explorations are the lectures and required readings. Further explorations will take the form of discussions, collaborative presentations, your own research, and other resources and materials I will provide. Much of this further exploration is student driven. Therefore I encourage you to identify what interests, excites, or troubles you about the history of medieval Christianity and use that to guide your learning.
Most weeks will have a similar rhythm. After you have had a chance to listen to the lecture and study the readings we will discuss this material. The purpose of these discussions is to provide you with an opportunity to think in a variety of ways about the module's topic: to evaluate, apply, and compare your understanding with that of your fellow learners. These discussions will help you reflect critically on the class materials and provide you with an opportunity to interact with one another, both of which are vitally important aspects of learning.
Please see the Discussion Guidelines for more details about discussions grading criteria.
You can find more details about the collaborative presentation on the assignments page.
The purpose of the comprehensive short essays is to allow you to make broad connections by addressing two or more topics covered in the class. You will choose from a list of essay prompts, then discuss and develop each answer separately. The essays should draw from all the pertinent course materials, including the collaborative presentations. You need not make use of outside references (though these are not unwelcome). I will provide a link to prompts themselves about midway through the quarter.
Instead of writing short essays, students can choose to write a 12-15 page research paper based on a proposed research topic. The proposed topic, along with a preliminary thesis statement, must be submitted to the instructor by the end of the sixth week of class in order to insure that the project is of appropriate scope.
As I mentioned on the Learning Process and Rhythm of the Class page, discussions are a vital aspect of our learning together. For each topic, the discussion facilitator will post 4-6 "prompts" related to the topic for the week derived from the readings and lecture. Each student is required to post twice: an initial response to at least two of the questions from the prompt and a second response to no less than two (2) of your colleagues’ initial posts. In your second post, you should attempt to draw out themes and common motifs from the week’s postings. The second post should constructively contribute to the ongoing discussion. Please post your initial response by 11:59 p.m. (MST) on Wednesday of the week of the discussion and your second post by 11:59 p.m. (MST) on Saturday. In this way, we will have an asynchronous conversation.
Your postings should demonstrate some discipline of thought. Avoid rambling that has little pertinence to the week's topic. Remember that others must read and understand what you are trying to say. A successful post will exhibit engagement with the readings and lecture, some critical thinking, and/or thought-provoking questions. For detailed rubric of how you will be evaluated, see below. Your posts should be kept short—about 300 words (1-2 paragraphs). I encourage you to post an audio or video response instead (the same rubric applies to written and oral responses).
Update (1/13/2014): Note that your entire initial post, your response to the initial prompts, should be kept to about 300 words. This limit is an attempt to keep the discussion manageable. Since there are 15 of you, you are expected to read approximately 14*300 = 4,100 words of responses from other students. I understand it is difficult to be concise. Just do the best you can; try to be brief. Don't get too fixated on the exact word count. Please do note, however, that there is a penalty for writing much more than 300 words.
For your initial posting, five (5) points are possible. The initial post will be grading using the following criteria:
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5
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4
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3
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2
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1
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The second post, again up to five (5) points, will be assessed on the following three criteria:
In keeping with the learning objectives of the class, and to further the goal of student-driven learning, each of you, in collaboration with one or two of your classmates, will take responsibility for presenting on a specific topic in the history of medieval Christianity.
The purpose of this presentation is to highlight for yourself and the class what is significant about medieval Christianity. Your presentation should move beyond/supplement the readings and the lectures. Your group can choose one broad subject or a cluster of related, narrower subjects. This allows you to learn something new and to be guided by your own interests and not just those of the instructor. The instructor will be glad to consult with you about your presentation.
Your assignment is to choose an event, idea, person, document, or institution and gather background information, read primary source documents, consider key points, and think about how to share this material with the rest of the class in an interesting way. Your presentation should include what the class needs to know about the topic you have chosen. At a minimum, this will include:
Artifacts can include images, web pages, sound clips, and videos where appropriate. I imagine that you will find these mostly on the web, but do not feel that you must limit yourself to on-line resources. You can scan a particularly interesting medieval map or some medieval art. You can take a picture of yourself visiting a museum that contains a painting or object from the Middle Ages or touring a cathedral that utilizes gothic architectural style. Or you can share a clip from a documentary or feature film portraying the Middle Ages. Nearly anything that creatively illustrates your topic can function as an artifact.
In terms of the form of the presentation, you are highly encouraged to use one the plethora of on-line presentation tools available. Two of my favorites are Prezi (http://prezi.com/), which provides you with a zoomable canvas (a visually stunning tool) and Google Sites (http://sites.google.com) which allows you to create your own website with minimal technical knowledge. You are certainly welcome to use Google Docs Presentation (http://docs.google.com/) through your Iliff Google Apps account. All of these tools are free and all of them allow you to collaborate with others.
Here's an example of a good presentation from last year on Julian of Norwich to give you a better idea of the sort of thing you might do. This particular presentation uses Google Sites, which you can see is very effective. While I hope this example sparks your imagination, I encourage not to feel limited by it.
It is sometimes difficult to determine which online sources are written and/or vetted by experts. Here is a list of a few sources that are a good starting point for your research that also provide plenty of primary source materials:
I've also created a video tour of some of these sources that will help to orient your online research.
Please do NOT refer to Wikipedia or other general knowledge encyclopedia. While these materials provide a good general orientation, your goal in this project is to move towards a much deeper, graduate-level discussion of medieval Christian history.
Groups will make their presentation available to the class during the week in which we are discussing the related topic.
(UPDATE 1/22/2014): Ideally, the presentation would be made available early in the week so that the other students can experience it alongside of the lecture and readings. I realize that this will not always be possible. In all cases, the project should be posted no later than Friday 11:59 pm of the week that corresponds to the project topic.
Here's a link to some instructions on how to create a discussion if you're unsure:
http://guides.instructure.com/s/2204/m/4212/l/40160-how-do-i-start-a-new-discussion
The purpose of the comprehensive short essays is to allow you to make broad connections by addressing two or more topics covered in the class. You will choose from a list of essay prompts, then discuss and develop each answer separately. The essays should draw from all the pertinent course materials, including the collaborative projects. You need not make use of outside references (though these are not unwelcome). Here are the final essay prompts themselves along with a some instructions for the assignment.
Instead of writing short essays, you can choose to write a 12-15 page research paper based on a proposed research topic. The proposed topic, along with a preliminary thesis statement, must be submitted below by the end of the sixth week of class in order to insure that the project is of appropriate scope.
Update (2/7/2014): Remember that if you chose to answer the standard prompts, you do NOT have to submit anything on February 15th.
Incompletes: If incompletes are allowed in this course, see the Master's Student Handbook for Policies and Procedures.
Pass/Fail: Masters students wishing to take the class pass/fail should discuss this with the instructor by the second class session.
Academic Integrity and Community Covenant: All students are expected to abide by Iliff’s statement on Academic Integrity, as published in the Masters Student Handbook, or the Joint PhD Statement on Academic Honesty, as published in the Joint PhD Student Handbook, as appropriate. All participants in this class are expected to be familiar with Iliff’s Community Covenant.
Accommodations: Iliff engages in a collaborative effort with students with disabilities to reasonably accommodate student needs. Students are encouraged to contact their assigned advisor to initiate the process of requesting accommodations. The advising center can be contacted at advising@iliff.edu or by phone at 303-765-1146.
Writing Lab: Grammar and organization are important for all written assignments. Additional help is available from the Iliff Writing Lab, which is available for students of any level who need help beginning an assignment, organizing thoughts, or reviewing a final draft.
Inclusive Language: It is expected that all course participants will use inclusive language in speaking and writing, and will use terms that do not create barriers to classroom community.
** Please note: I reserve the right to change the syllabus at any time.
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