1. learningobjectives2010.doc
  2. Lecture 3: Catholic Renewals and Humanism II (8 September)
    1. Compare and contrast the political and theological commitments of Jerome's Vulgate with those of Erasmus' New Testament in an effort to explain how Erasmus' translation figured in ecclesial reform.
    2. Characterize Devotio Moderna, Reform of Religious Orders, Reform of Spirituality, and Conciliar reform as responses to humanism and late-medieval/early modern global-political events.
  3. Lecture 4: Luther (10 September)
    1. Compare, contrast, and relate Luther's and Erasmus' methods for interpreting Scripture with their ideas about the role of Scripture in ecclesial reform. Be sure to include descriptions of Luther's vision of law and gospel, and his concept of sola scriptura.
    2. Compare and contrast Luther's and Byzantine images of Christ, and explain why Luther’s images figure in his views of justification and human salvation. Be sure to contrast theosis and justification in the course of your answer.
    3. Explain how Luther's theology is characteristic of the inward turn, and how it differs from the inward turn of humanism. Draw your examples from his debate with Erasmus about the freedom of the will, his idea about the Deus absconditus, and his characterization of the human as simil iustus et peccator.
    4. Explain how Luther imagines the relations of Scripture, church authority, and political authority to the Christian life with constant reference to his theme, "the Christian is perfectly free lord of all, subject to none, and servant of all, subject to all."
  4. Lecture 5: Martin Luther, Council of Trent, Ignatius and Teresa (15 September)
    1. Compare and contrast Luther and Trent on justification, with particular attention to 1) how they read scripture; 2) the status of human beings; and 3) the humiliated, defeated Christ.
    2. With attention to social and political contexts, compare and contrast the strategies of the “inward turn” and aims for ecclesial reform of Ignatius and Teresa with those of Erasmus and the humanists.
    3. Compare and contrast Ignatius' use of imagination in biblical accounts to Erasmus' attempts to get at the originals and Luther's use of a primary interpretive principle (justification by faith/law and gospel). Explain how these methods relate to different images of Christ, different kinds of inward turn.
  5. Lecture 2: Catholic Renewals and Humanism I (3 September)
    1. Describe some of the global and political events in early modern Europe and illustrate how they precipitated a shift from the exalted imperial Christ to the humiliated, defeated Christ. Be sure to compare and contrast the Byzantine political ordering with that of the humanist republican Italian city-states within your answer.
    2. Explain how the rise of humanism and reforming efforts exploited the light of Christ in their efforts to address changing global and political conditions. Explain the relation of the collapse of the empire to new humanist images of authority (particularly those in Cusanus, Pico, Ficino) and their critics (Savonarola and Machiavelli) in the course of your answer.
    3. Topic
  6. INTRODUCTION
    1. Identify and describe the principal features of the four Christs and Bibles; explain how they reflect certain political arrangements
    2. Explain what it means to say that Christianity is “a religion of the Book.”
    3. Identify four different notions of faith, together with the Bibles and historical contexts with which they are associated.
    4. Explain the difference between recollection and remembrance.
  7. Lecture 6: Zwingli, Zurich, and the Anabaptists (17 September)
    1. Explain how Zwingli's and Luther's approaches to Scripture relate to their suggestions for liturgical and political reform.
    2. Zwingli and Luther had different assumptions about the reliability of human perceptions and human (ecclesial, political, and natural) orderings. Explain how their assumptions, and hence, their ‘inward turns,’ and their conceptions of the light of Christ relate to their interpretations of Eucharist as remembrance and real presence.
    3. Describe Zwingli’s and Sattler’s positions on church and state. Given that both are inward turns, characterize their differences and make explicit one or two theological assumptions (perhaps about Scripture or Christ) that might account for these differences.
    4. Where Zwingli based his views about church/state relations upon the correctness of Scripture, the Anabaptists formed a paradigm for interpreting church/state relations and the character of Christian life upon the humiliated Christ. Given this thesis, contrast their responses to social, political, and ecclesial instability.
  8. Lecture 7 : John Calvin (22 September)
    1. Compare and contrast Zwingli's and Calvin's visions about how Scripture permits Christians to see or realize the ordering of God in the world.
    2. Compare and contrast the ways in which Trent and Calvin envision the role of Scripture in forming a right relationship to God.
    3. Show how Calvin’s depiction of Christ as prophet, priest, and king expands on the humiliated, defeated Christ of previous reforming traditions. Be sure to include Calvin’s conception of piety and Michelangelo’s Pieta in your assessment.
    4. Compare Calvin's views of justification and sanctification with Luther's. Explain how these are both examples of an inward turn, and identify one or two assumptions that might account for their differences.
  9. Lecture 8: English Reformation (24 September)
    1. Explain how political and ecclesial fractiousness and the rise of humanist ideals contributed to the inception and development of English reformation.
    2. Compare and contrast Pope Damasus’ request for the Vulgate (and Theodosius’ interest in it) with the English crown's calls for the Book of Common Prayer and its revisions. Be sure to comment on specific characterizations of the 1549 and 1552 versions.
    3. Compare and contrast the ways in which Zwingli and the English reformers used scripture and liturgy to promote or create a political unity. Be sure to explain what the via media is, how it unfolded, and how it reflects a different theological ordering than that of the Zwinglian state. Make use of Cranmer’s views in your description of the via media.
    4. Describe the three main phases of English Reform, with specific reference the relation of church and state. Be sure to refer to the following documents: (Henry VIII) the Act of Supremacy (1534), Ten Articles of Religion (1536); (Mary) Revival of Heresy Acts (1554); (Elizabeth) New Act of Supremacy (1558); Act of Uniformity (1559).
  10. Lecture 9: The Exalted and the Humiliated Christs: The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) (29 September)
    1. Explain how the Thirty Years War, English civil unrest, increased awareness of non-book religions, advances in Semitic philological studies, and the Galileo affair destabilized the newly re-formed symbols of Christ, Bible, and Christendom, thereby precipitating renewed fractiousness.
  11. Lecture 10: Rational Orthodoxy (6 October)
    1. Describe and characterize the Westminster Confession’s claims about the Bible as the sole source of revelation as a response to the political destabilization precipitated by reforming versions of the bible.