Ian Wood,
The
Missionary Life. Saints and the
Evangelisation of Europe 400-1050
(Longman, 2001)
[Not available in the U.S.
so it will take several weeks
for these to arrive, but copies will arrive by the time we need this
book.]
Lamin Sanneh, Disciples of All Nations. Pillars of
World
Christianity (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2007)
[For the seminar we will read
only
the first third of this book by a modern historian of Christianity and
Islam in
Africa.
However, this first part deals with the
spread and
indigenization of
Christianity from the New Testament through the Middle Ages, it is very
recent,
and Dr. Sanneh himself is coming to UF in late
March as part of our series,
“The Challenge of Religion in History.”]
Sidney Griffith, The Church in the
Shadow of the Mosque.
Christians and Muslims in the World of Islam. (Princeton University
Press, 2007)
Required, but not
ordered at Goerings:
Peter
Brown, Authority and the Sacred: Aspects
of the Christianisation of the Roman World (Cambridge,
1997)
[We will be
reading the entire book, but it is slim volume (3 essays which comprise
3
chapters) and is available through Amazon used or new; it is also an
e-book
available at our library.]
Finally, many essays, articles, and book chapters
that will
be available on electronic reserve at the library (ER) or through webct.
8/26 – Intro. to the
Course
Introductions & Course Overview
Reports: Gibbon, Nock, Harnack
Recommended Reading:
Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
Vol. 1, chap. 15
Nock, Conversion,
pp.1-6
Try to get
started on Brown, Rise of Western
Christendom
9/2 – Explaining Christian
Expansion
pre-Constantine
A few contemporary arguments, approaches, & assessments:
MacMullen,
Christianizing the Roman
Empire [=CRE],
1-42
Harris volume, 1-41, & 53-68
(Drake, Rives, & Kyrtatas articles)
Cameron,
Christianity and the
Rhetoric of Empire. The Development of Christian Discourse,
chapter 1 [webct]
Martin
Goodman, “The Significance of Proselytizing” and “Mission in the Early
Church,”
Chapters 1 & 5 in
Mission and
Conversion. Proselytism in the
Religious History of the
Roman
Empire, 91-108. [webct - chap. 1 is up; chap. 5 coming]
Lamin
Sanneh,
Disciples,1-56 (you can skip
36-49 for now; we’ll return to it later)
Conversion
of Elites & Non-Elites:
Justin Martyr,
Dialogue
with
Trypho, chapters 1-8 (skim the rest)
Justin Martyr,
Second Apology (focus on
chapters 12-15)
Cyprian,
Ad Donatum, especially 3-5
Pontius the Deacon,
Vita Cypriani
Life of
Gregory Thaumaturgus [excerpt - webct]
Alan Kreider, "The Conversions of Justin and Cyprian," 1-9 in The Change of Conversion and the Origin of
Christendom [webct]
Rebecca Lyman, “The Politics of
Passing: Justin Martyr’s Conversion as a Problem of ‘Hellenization’” in
Grafton
& Mills, 36-50/60. [library ER]
Recommended: Ramsay
MacMullen,
"Two
Types of Conversion to Christianity," Vigiliae Christianae
37 (1983): 174-192. [JSTOR]
Report: Eusebius of Caesarea
9/9 – Christian Expansion
pre-Constantine
(continued)
The Role
of Women?
Passages from Origen,
Contra Celsum:
3.44-60
and
6.12:14 [find
on-line if link doesn't work];
Acts of [Paul and] Thecla
[this is a good translation of most of it]
Matthews,
First Converts,
Introduction and chapter 4 [book on library reserve]
Osiek, “Women as Agents of Expansion,” in
Carolyn Osiek & Margaret Y. MacDonald,"
A Woman's Place, 220-243 [library
reserve; hopefully scanned soon]
Elizabeth Clark, “Thinking with Women: The Uses of the
Appeal to
‘Woman’ in Pre-Nicene Propaganda Literature,”
in
Harris, ed., Chap.3
Pagans, Polytheists, Barbarians, and the Conversion of Constantine
John
Curran, “The Conversion of
Rome
Revisited,” in Stephen Mitchell & Geoffrey Greatrex, eds.,
Ethnicity and Culture in Late Antiquity,
1-14. [on reserve]
Harris volume, chapters 4, 5, 7 &
8
MacMullen,
CRE, 43-67
Eusebius
accounts:
Church
History, Book IX.9.1-12 and Life of
Constantine (excerpt on Constantine's conversion)
Van Dam,
“The Many Conversions of Emperor Constantine,” in Grafton & Mills
[book oon library reserve; hopefully scanned soon]
9/16 – Susanna Elm – Pagans &
Christians, 4th
Century
Finish
MacMullen (68-119) by 9/23
Gregory of Nazianzus 5th oration
Brian Daley's Intro, pp. 1-61 in Daley, Gregory of Nazianzus
Susanna Elm, “Hellenism and Historiography: Gregory of Nazianzus and
Julian in Dialogue,”, either in _Journal of Early Medieval Europe_ 33: 3, Special issue honoring
Elizabeth A. Clark, 2003, 493-515; reprint in _The Cultural Turn in
Late Ancient Studies: Gender, Asceticism, and Historiography_. Ed. Dale
Martin, Patricia Cox Miller. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005
Sussan Elm, "A Programmatic Life" (Arethusa 2000)
Recommended:
Elm, "Inscriptions and Conversions: Gregory of Nazianzus on
Baptism (Or. 38-40)" in Mills & Graton, eds., 1-35.
9/23
– Christianizing Late Roman Society
Excerpts
from Book 16 of the Theodosian Code
David Hunt, "Christianising
the Roman Empire: The Evidence of the Code," in Jill Harries and Ian
Wood, eds.,
The Theodosian Code.
Studies in the Imperial
Law of Late Antiquity,
Duckworth, 1993, 143-158. [webct]
Michele Salzman, "Evidence for the Conversion of the Roman Empire to
Christianity in Book 16 of the Theodosian Code,"
Historia 80 (1993): 362-378 [webct]
Harris volume, chapter 6: Isabella Sandwell, "Outlawing 'Magic'
or Outlawing 'Religion'? Libanius and the Theodosian Code as
Evidence for Legislation against
'Pagan' Practices," 87-123.
Rita
Lizzi, “Ambrose's Contemporaries and the
Christianization of Northern Italy.” Journal
of Roman Studies 80 (1990): 156-173 [webct]
Michele Salzman,
The Making of a
Christian Aristocracy: Social and Religious Change in the Western Roman
Empire, chapters 6 & 7: "The Emperor's
Influence on Aristocratic
Conversion" and "The Aristocrats' Influence on Christianity" [webct;
endnotes to Salzman 6&7 a separate file]
Peter Brown, "Conversion and Christianization in Late Antiquity: The
Case of Augustine," in Straw & Lim ed.,
The
Past
Before Us. The Challenge of
Historiographies of Late
Antiquity (Brepols, 2004), 103-117. [webct]
Recommended (perhaps for next week):
Richard Lim, "Converting the Unchristianizable: The Baptism of Stage
Performers in Late Antiquity," in Mills & Grafton, eds., 84-126.
J. Maxwell, "Teaching to the Converted: John Chrysostom's Pedagogy," in
Christianization and Communication in Late Antiquity: John
Chrysostom and
his Congregation in Antioch,
Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Report: Theodosian
Code, Book XVI
Discussion
of Research Papers: Choosing a Topics
9/30
– Christianizing Society (cont.)
&
Monks, Mission,
& Imperial Politics
Peter Brown, Authority and the Sacred. Aspects of teh
Christianization of the Roman World (Cambridge University
Press, 1995) - 3 essays [library reserve]
Peter Brown, "Conversion and Christianization in Late Antiquity: The
Case of Augustine," in Straw & Lim ed., The
Past
Before Us. The Challenge of
Historiographies of Late
Antiquity (Brepols, 2004), 103-117. [webct] - the essay
we really didn't get to last week
Richard M. Price, "The Holy Man and
Christianization from the Apocryphal Apostles to St Stephen of Perm,"
in The Cult of the Saints in Late
Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Essays on the
Contribution of Peter Brown. Edited by James Howard-Johnston and
Paul Antony Hayward. (New York: OUP, 1999) [webct]
Philostorgius,
Church History
III.4-6 - account of the missionary work of Theophilus the
Indian. There is a new edition and English translation of this
work by
Philip
Amidon, and this section is available on line. An older
translation of
Photius's
Epitome of Philostorgius, Book III.4-6 is also available on-line.
"Abraham" in
Theodoret,
History of the Monks of
Syria (Historia religiosa)
W.H.C. Frend, "The Missions of the Early Church, 180-700 AD," in
Derek Baker, ed.,
Miscellanea
Historiae Ecclesiasticae, 3 (Louvain, 1970) [webct]
W.H.C.
Frend, “The Church in the Reign of Constantius II (337-361):
Mission—Monasticism—Worship,”
Entretiens sur L’Antiquité Classique (
Geneva,
1989),
73-111; reprinted in Frend,
Orthodoxy,
Paganism and Dissent in the Early Christian Centuries (Ashgate:
Variorum,
2002). [The library does
not have this volume; if I
can't find my own copy by some time this weekend, I will give you by
Monday another short article/book chapter relevant to
mission & imperial policy
under Constantius I.]
Anastasios Yannoulatos, "Monks &
Mission in the Eastern Church During the Fourth Century,"
International Review of Missions 58
(1969), 208-226. [webct]
E.A. Thompson, "Christianity and the Northern Barbarians," in
Arnaldo Momigliano, ed.,
The
Conflict between Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth
Century (Oxford, 1963)
[webct]
Sergey A. Ivanov, "Casting Pearls Before Circe's Swine: The Byzantine
View of Mission," in
Travaux
et Mémoires 14.
Mélanges
Gilbert Dagron (Paris,
2002), 294-301. [webct]
Everyone must meet with me individually this week
about book review & direction of paper!
10/14 – Mission & National
Conversions:
Histories, Hagiography & the problem of
the sources
East: Georgia,
Armenia, Axum, South Arabia
Primary sources:
Rufinus,
Church History, 10.9-10 [on
Axum and Iberia], Philip Amidon's English translations is available as
an e-book
Agathangelos,
History of the Armenians
[excerpts on the conversion of Armenia]
The relevant excerpts from these two texts are now available in one
document on webct.
Françoise Thelamon, "La conversion des Ibères," chapter 2
in
Païens et chrétiens
au IVe siècle, 85-122 (French - available on ARES -
libary electronic reserve)
Christopher Haas, "Mountain Constantines: The Christianization of
Aksum and Iberia,"
Journal of
Late Antiquity 1.1 (Spring, 2008):101–126 [on-line & webct]
Andrea Sterk "Captive Women & Conversion:
Interpreting Accounts of Mission on the East Roman Frontiers" - article
draft [webct]
Cornelia Horn, "The Lives and Literary Roles of
Children in Advancing Conversion to Christianity: Hagiography from the
Caucasus in Late Antiquity and the Middle
Ages on
Georgia," Church History 76
(2007): 262-297. [webct or electronically]
West:
Franks, Lombards, Anglo-Saxon England...
Primary sources:
Patrick,
Confession
[versions readily available on-line or a good translation on webct]
Gregory
of Tours on the Conversion of Clovis
Bede on the
Conversion of England
Walter Pohl, "Deliberate Ambiguity: The Lombards and Christianity," in
Armstrong & Wood, eds.,
Christianizing
Peoples and Converting Individuals (Brepols,
2000), 47-58
Ian Wood, "Some Historical Re-Identifications and the Christianization
of Kent," Armstrong & Wood, 27-35.
Ian
Wood, article [up on webct]
Reports:
Rufinus, Sozomen & Socrates, Patrick, Columbanus
Book Review due in class or in my offcie by
Friday, 10/17, or (latest) Mon., 10/20
10/21 – Mission and the “First Byzantine
Commonwealth”; Mission Under Justinian
Primary Sources:
The Martyrs of Najran [pre-Islamic Arabia]
John of Ephesus,
Ecclesiastical
History (excerpt on the mission to Nubia); followed by Cosmas
Indicopleustes (1-page excerpt on Christians in India) [webct]
Procopius,
Wars I.19-20
[available on-line, more passages coming]
S.P. Brock, "Christians in the Sassanian Empire: A Case of Divided
Loyalties,"
Studies in Church History
18 (London, 1982), pp.1-19. [webct]
Garth Fowden, "The First Byzantine Commonwealth: Interactions of
Political and Cultural Universalism," chap. 5 in
Empire
to Commonwealth. Consequences
of Monotheism in Late Antiquity
(Princeton, 1993), 100-137. [webct]
Isrun Engelhardt,
Mission und Politik in Byzanz. Ein Beitrag
zur Strukturanalyse byzantinischer Mission zur Zeit Justins und
Justinians (Munich, 1974),
4-22 [webct]
Philip Mayerson, "A Confusion of Indias: Asian India and African India
in the Byzantine Sources,"
Journal
of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 113, No. 2
(Apr.-Jun., 1993): 169-174.
[JSTOR]
Stanley Burstein, "When Greek was an African
Language: The Role of Greek Culture in Ancient and Medieval Nubia,"
Journal of World History Vol. 19,
No. 1
(2008): 41-61. You can kim
41-49, and focus on 54-61. [JSTOR]
Jitse Harm Fokke Dijkstra,
Religious Encounters on the Southern
Egyptian Frontier in Late Antiquity (Groningen, 2005), pp.
125-150. (comparing Procopius
& John of Ephesus on
Nubia) [Dissertation & now book on-line]
Michael Maas, "'Delivered from their Ancient Customs': Christianity and
the Question of Cultural Change in Early Byzantine Ethnography," in
Mills & Grafton, eds.
Conversion,
162-188.
Report: John of Ephesus
10/28 – Conversion &
Christianization:
The Evidence of Art/Archeology/Material
Culture
Florin Curta, "Before Cyril and Methodius: Christianity and
Barbarians
beyond the Sixth-Century Danube Frontier," in Curta, ed., East Central
and Eastern
Europe in the Early Middle Ages, 181-208.
[webct]
Eric Rebillard, "Conversion and Burial in the Later Roman Empire, in
Mills & Grafton, eds., 60-83. [webct]
Bonnie Effros, "De partibus Saxoniae and the Regulation of Mortuary
Custom: A Carolingian Campaign of Christianization or the Suppression
of Saxon Identity?"
Revue
Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire 75 (1997): 267-286. [webct]
Thomas Mathews,
The Clash of Gods: A Reinterpretation of
Early Christian Art, 2nd rev. edition (Princeton University
Press, 1999), Chapter 4 and
Epilogue [webct - will be up on
Sunday]
Find one
article of your own on this topic and, if possible, relevant to your
own research paper for the course!
Paper
topic proposal or abstract due in my office on Friday afternoon, 10/31
(with preliminary bibliography)
11/4
– Early Medieval
West
Ian Wood (finish entire book)
Wolfert Egmond, “Converting Monks:
Missionary Activity in Early Medieval Frisia and Saxony”
in Guyda & Wood
11/11
– Veteran's Day, no class
Work on papers!
11/18 Byzantine
Mission:
Slavs
Primary Source: Life of Constantine[-Cyril] [webct]
Recommended: Excerpt on the Conversion of Russia from the Primary
Chronicle [webct]
For background:
Florin Curta, "The Rise of New Powers
(800-900)," in Southeastern Europe in the Middle
Ages, 111-179. [will be put on reserve at library]
Jonathan Shepard, "Byzantium's
Overlapping Circles," Proceedings
of the 21st International Congress of Byzantine Studies. Vol. I
Plenary Papers (London,
2006), 15-56. [On-line pdf;
also up on webct]
J. Shepard, "Spreading the Word: Byzantine
Missions," in The Oxford History of
Byzantium (OUP, 2002), 230-248 [webct - coming]
[Another Shepard essay (brand new in the Cambridge History of Christinaity,
vol. 3, Oct. 2008) on Slavic Christianities will be put up if it
arrives by next week!]
Sergey A. Ivanov, "Casting Pearls Before Circe's Swine: The Byzantine
View of Mission," in Travaux
et Mémoires 14. Mélanges
Gilbert Dagron (Paris,
2002), 294-301. [webct] - Read it
again & bring it to class! (Another essay of
Ivanov,
"Religious Missions," is coming out imminently in the Cambridge
History
of Byzantium
(2008), but I don't think it will be out by next week.)
Thomas S.
Noonan, “Why Orthodoxy did not Spread among the Bulgars of the Crimea during the Early Medieval Era: An Early
Byzantine
Conversion Model,” Armstrong & Wood, eds, 15-24. [webct]
Omeljan Pritsak, "Turkological Remarks on Constantine's Khazarian
Mission in the Vita Constantini
in In Christianity among the Slavs: The Heritage
of Saints Cyril
and Methodius, eds. Edward G. Farrugia, Robert F. Taft, &
Gino K. Piovesana. Rome, 1988. Pp. 295-298 [webct]
Ihor Ševčenko, "Religious Mission seen by
Byzantium" Harvard Ukranian Studies 1988-1989
[webct]
Richard E. Sullivan, "Early Medieval Missionary Activity: A
Comparative Study of Eastern and Western Methods," Church History 23/1 (1954):
17-34
[older article attempting comparative questions -
available through JSTOR & on webct]
11/25
Further
East: Christians & Conversion Under
Islam
Primary Source: Apology of Patriarch Timothy of Baghdad before the Caliph Mahdi; a long excerpt is on webct (under 11/25) as a Word document.
Griffith, The Church in
the Shadow of the Mosque
Sanneh,
Disciples, chapter 2 (pp.57-88)
Karl Morrison, Understanding Conversion. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1992. Read chapter 1 (and a bit of chapter 2 if you have time).
To get a quick take on Morrison's whole book, here is a review. For those interested, I have also put up Thomas Head's review of Morrison's two related
books on conversion on webct.
Presentations
Presentations