Church History

• CHUR 501  The First Millennium (3)
  A survey of church history from Apostolic times to the Gregorian Reform.  The course focuses on the development of the institutional church, with particular emphasis on the theological, political, and pastoral controversies that occasioned growth.
  
• CHUR 502  Medieval and Renaissance Church History (3)
  A survey of church history from the Gregorian Reform to the Council of Trent. The course will continue the story of church development begun in CHUR 501, again centering on theological, political, and pastoral controversies occasioning growth.
  
• CHUR 601  Modern and Contemporary Church History (3)
  A survey of church history from the Council of Trent to the present day. The course concludes the sequence of church history courses, CHUR 501 and CHUR 502, tracing the development of the institutional church through its  theological, political, and pastoral controversies.
  
• CHUR 802  History of the Church in the United States (3)
  A study of selected themes, topics and persons in the development of the church in the United States since colonial times.

Elective Courses: M.A. (Theology) degree candidates, concomitant with requirement, take an additional one-credit directed research course to meet the Research Portfolio required for the degree.

• CHUR 906  The Church in the Twentieth Century (2)
  A study of the church in the 20^th century. Emphasis is given to the pontificates of Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul II. 
  
• CHUR 908  The Black Catholic Experience (2)
  A seminar designed to increase the students’ awareness of the past relationship between the churches and black communities, beginning with the failed Christianization of West Africa. Black American bishops, religious orders and pioneer parishes are given particular study.
  
• CHUR 911  Research Seminar: History of the Church in the USA (2)
  Training in oral history skills in addition to visits to prominent sites of American ecclesiastical import.
  
• CHUR 912  History of the Church in Latin America (3)
  A study of Latin American church history from colonial times to the present day. Emphasis is given to contemporary issues such as liberation theology, basic Christian communities, shortages of priests, growth of lay leadership, and the Medellín, Puebla and Santo Domingo Conferences. Cross-listed as PATH 912.
  
• CHUR 913  Hispanics and the Church in the USA (3)
  A study of the importance of the Hispanic factor in the church in the United States. Emphasis is given to the richness of the Hispanic cultures, past and new movements of immigration, and the manner in which the church is attempting to meet Hispanic needs. Cross-listed as PATH 913.
  
• CHUR 914  American Catholic Culture (2)
  The particular context of the Catholic Church in the United States will be studied through two modes of art and architecture, demographics, drama, ethnicity, language and idiom, literature, poetry, and popular religiosity.
  
• CHUR 917  The History of Religion in the USA (2)
  In guest lectures, site visits and research reports, the history of churches in the United States will be explored. Special attention will be given to those denominations that find their origins here.
  
• CHUR 919  Topics in Saint Augustine (2)
  The texts and themes of this course will vary from semester to semester.  Specifics will be decided upon in consultation with the students, the church history department, and the academic dean. The course will be primary source driven and discussion intensive.  This course can be taken for credit more than once as long as the topic studied varies.
  
• CHUR 920  Jews, Christians, & Muslims in the Middle Ages (2)
  In this course students will examine scripture, law, exegesis, polemics and philosophy from the three major Abrahamic religions of the medieval west.  Students will explore the similarities and the differences among the three religions, and consider how those religions influenced each other and how they distanced and refuted each other.  The goals are twofold.  First identify how each tradition conceived of itself as a community defined by belief and regulated by law.  Second, establish how various contexts – political, social, cultural, and intellectual – inform those ideas, especially when the communities come into contact with each other.  During the semester students will study important primary texts from the three religions, analyze their content, and evaluate the relationships between them.