English Reformations

Instructor:

Course Synopsis

Course Overview

ENGLISH REFORMATIONS

IST 3045

Winter Quarter 2022

An on-line, independent study course offering

 

GOD shin’d upon this Island early; early in the plantation of the Gospel, (for we had not our seed-Corn from Rome, howsoever we may have had some waterings from thence) and early in the Reformation of the Church:  for we had not the model of any other Forreign Church for our pattern; we stript not the Church into a nakedness, nor into rags; we divested her not of her possession, nor of her Ceremonies, but received such a Reformation at home, by their hands whom God enlightened, as left her neither in a Dropsie, nor in a Consumption; neither in a superfluous and cumbersome fatness, nor in an uncomely and faint leanness and attenuation.

John Donne, 1572-1630

Sermons IV.3.639-48

 

Instructor

 

Gregory Allen Robbins, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Religious Studies, University of Denver

Director, The Anglican Studies Program, Iliff School of Theology/Diocese of Colorado

Cell phone: 303.330.3634 (I live in the eastern time zone)

Preferred e-mail address:  grobbins@du.edu

 

Course description

This course argues that English Christianity has always been in the process of reformation.  The Venerable Bede, in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, documents this tendency in the early Middle Ages. Henry VIII's reforming turn, the reforms sought by John Wesley and by John Henry Newman continued the process. Current upheavals in the post-colonial era constitute a new chapter in a reformation still underway.

Course Objectives

• To recognize that English Christianity has always been in the process of reformation, even today.
• To read and analyze critically both primary and secondary texts;
• To engage recent historiographical debates about the history of English Christianity, the English Reformation and its aftermath;
• To contemplate the future of Anglicanism (and Methodism) in a post-colonial world.

 

Course Outcomes

Students who complete the requirements of IST 3045 will:

• Submit five reflection papers that “exegete” foundational texts or illuminate important methodological and theological questions;
• Understand the complex social, cultural, and theological matrix that gave rise to the various reformations in English Christianity, and recognize that there has been/is more than one way to construe the English Reformation and its consequences;
• Begin to comprehend the link between the English reformations we have studied and issues that the Episcopal (and United Methodist) churches in America are confronting.

 

Texts

 Required: 

 

Weeks 1-2: Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Penguin Books, Revised Edition, 1990). ISBN 0-14-044565-X (paper)

Weeks 3-4: Alec Ryrie, The Age of Reformation: The Tudor and Stewart Realms 1485-1603 (Pearson Education Limited, 2009). ISBN: 978-4058-3557-2 (paper).

Weeks 4-5: Richard P. Heizenrater, Wesley and the People Called Methodists (Abingdon, 1995). ISBN: 10-0687443113 (paper).

Weeks 6-7: C. Brad Faught, The Oxford Movement: A Thematic History of the Tractarians and their Times (Penn State University Press, 2003).  ISBN:  0-271-02394-5 (paper).

Weeks 8-9: Kwok Pui-lan, Postcolonial Politics and Theology: Unraveling Empire for a Global World (Westminster John Knox, 2021). ISBN 9780664267490 (paper).

Note: Primary texts, in addition to Bede, will be available on Canvas.

 

 

Overall Course Evaluation

We shall develop a rhythm to our work over the course of the term. One week will be devoted to preparing for an online discussion with the instructor. This preparation will include our reading for the week and responses to various prompts.

The "writing" week will include attention to both the historical overviews we've been reading, and close, textual analyses of original sources. Students will complete five, short papers in which they will “exegete” specific passages from original sources. 

Finally, each student is asked to subscribe to the Episcopal News Service and other Anglican news sites, and to report weekly in a posting to everyone an item of particular interest and relevance to our study. I often refer to these as "Chicken Little" or "The Sky is Falling" posts, since the media tend to focus on apocalyptic or bad news topics. I'll certainly appreciate those that are more uplifting in content! 

            Online discussions with the instructor                         = 40%

            Five reflection (“exegetical”) papers                             = 40%

            Anglicans in the news postings (x 8)                             = 20%

 

Rubrics for Instructor's Evaluation of Exegetical (Analysis/Reflection) Papers

"A" work

• The paper provided evidence that the author had read and carefully attempted to understanding the primary document under consideration;
• The paper responded fully to the analytical questions posed by the instructor;
• The paper referred to or quoted directly passages in the primary text to support claims and/or to develop its argument;
• The paper offered insightful comments and/or raised probing questions that demonstrated genuine engagement with and mastery of the major ideas of the course unit;
• The paper was clearly organized, well-written and free grammatical, punctuation and spelling errors.
• “High pass”

"B" work

• The paper provided evidence that the author had read and mostly grasped the content of the primary document under consideration;
• The paper attempted to respond to all of the analytical questions posed by the instructor, with some responses more fully developed that others;
• The paper’s reference to or quotation of passages in the primary text to support its claims and/or to develop its argument was uneven;
• The paper demonstrated genuine engagement with and passing mastery of the major ideas of the course unit, but insightful comments and/or probing questions were limited;
• The paper’s organization was mostly clear and the writing relatively good, with only a few grammatical infelicities, or errors in punctuation and spelling;
• Clearly, a “passing” effort.

"C" Work

• The paper suggested that the author had problems understanding the important parts of the primary document under consideration;
• The paper failed to address one or more of the analytical questions posed by the instructor;
• The paper rarely referred to or quoted passages from the primary text to support claims and/or to develop the argument;
• The paper was more or less wide of the mark in linking the assignment to the major ideas of the course unit;
• The paper lacked organizational clarity, or was poorly-written, and/or rife with grammatical, punctuation and spelling errors;
• Borderline “passing” effort

Work not passing

• The paper revealed that the author did not understand the primary document under consideration;
• The paper mostly ignored the analytical questions posed by the instructor;
• The paper did not refer to or quote passages from the primary text to support its claims and/or to develop an argument;
• The paper failed to make any connections between the assignment and the major ideas of the course unit;
• The paper failed to meet the writing standards of graduate theological education;
• A “failing” effort.

Or

• No paper was submitted;
• No credit awarded.