We continue with an academic survey of Christianity. This Module, as the ones that follow, concludes with an interview with a member of the clergy to show what the tradition also looks like from the inside.
I have created a Discussion Board, where you can also jot down your thoughts (organized by Module) and read the thoughts of others. The Topic for this Module is here.
Outcomes
By the end of this Module you should:
- Better understand the historical relationship between Jews and Christians;
- Understand the role that political power has played in the development of Christianity;
- Be able to know the difference between and trace the historical split between Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox churches;
- Have a sense of the diversity of Christianity, especially today, and the political roles that Christians see for themselves;
- Have a basic sense of the New Testament
- Understand the relationship between the New Testament, the Old Testament, and Judaism;
- Understand the differing role that Scripture plays between Protestant denominations and other Christian groups;
- Have a better sense of how “authority” functions in Christian groups;
- Know the different ways in which belief plays a role in different Christian groups;
- Be able to reflect on the nature of religious belief and “secular” thought;
- Have a grasp of the Christian debates over the nature of Jesus, and what is at stake;
- Know what a sacrament is and how different Christian communities understand it;
- Know the major Christian holidays, calendar, and life-cycle rituals;
- Know the different ways (including transubstantiation) that Christians understand “communion”;
- Know the meaning and importance of baptism;
- Be able to compare the historical/mythical structures of the Jewish and Christian ritual calendars
1. There are many excellent academic histories of Christianity. In this lecture, I try to give a brief overview that emphasizes some of the most important issues:
- As or after you watch, you might want to think about, to what extent does Christianity depend on Judaism? Can there be a Christian story without a Jewish one, and what does this mean about the way in which Christians should treat actual living Jews?
2. One of the earliest Christian attempts to write its own history is the biblical Book of Acts. Read the book, and try to think about its central message and why it might have been included in the New Testament.
3. You may also want to read the “95 Theses” of Martin Luther, considered a founding document of the Protestant movement. Luther pulls no punches!
4. While the Roman Catholic Church and Protestant denominations dominate Western Christianity, there are many other manifestations in Africa and the East. A number of these get grouped together as “Orthodox”. For an introduction to Orthodox Christianity (that is somewhat polemical!), watch this video:
5. Today, the Roman Catholic Church is expanding most strongly in Latin America, and in some ways is also most vital there. The following video, about the Church in Mexico, both illustrates what the Church is doing there, as well as the historical tension between the Church and the authorities of the places in which they worked:
6. The New Testament is the most important book in Christianity. For an introduction, watch this video:
You have already read the Book of Acts. To get a sense of the genres in the New Testament, read:
- Matthew 26-28
- John 1, 15, 20-21
- Letter to the Philippians 2
- 2 Corinthians 4
- Ephesians 6
- Revelation 1
Many (but not all) of these texts concern the nature of Jesus. Are there similarities and differences between their understanding of the nature, and meaning, of Christ’s coming and death?
7. The relationship between Christianity and Judaism is complex. For an introduction to some of these complexities, watch this video:
Read the short Letter to the Galatians. What is at stake? What is Paul’s argument about the Law (and what is the Law)? Note that Paul might express a somewhat different stance in his Letter to the Romans.
8. Scripture is not the only “authority” in Christianity (although some Protestant branches lean on it more than others). For an overview of how authority works in Christianity, see this video:
And from a more “first-order” and polemical perspective:
9. Far more than Judaism and Islam, Christianity emphasizes the importance of individual belief. Watch the following short lecture video:
10. From their very origins, Christians debated – sometimes violently – the nature of Jesus. To what extent was Jesus divine, and to what extent human? Did Jesus fulfill the prophecies of the “Old Testament” or stand apart from them? How is Jesus related to the other “persons” of the Trinity, the “Father” and the “Holy Spirit”? For an introduction to these debates, watch the following short lecture video:
11. One of the more distinctive beliefs and rituals of Orthodox Christianity is their theory of “icons.” For a modern description of this idea from a confessional perspective, read this article.
12. The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints, also called Mormons, pose an interesting test case for what we consider “Mormonism.” For a history of the movement, read this article. Then read some excerpts from The Book of Mormon. Go to this site Links to an external site.and read (using the navigation bar on the left) 1 Nephi 1-2; Mormon 1-2, 9; Moroni 1-2, 10.
13. Over the past few decades, a number of different Christian theologies have emerged, many on the heels of other contemporary social movements (e.g., feminism). Liberation theology grew within the Catholic movement as a response to the political and economic oppression of ordinary people in South America, although it has met with an often chilly reception from the Vatican. Watch the following discussion that discusses liberation theology in the Roman Catholic Church today:
14. What are the “sacraments”, both conceptually and concretely? Watch this short introductory video:
Then read a description of Orthodox sacraments. Reflect on the meaning of “sacrament” from an etic perspective. How might an academic understand and use the term? Are there secular “sacraments”?
14. We examined the Jewish calendar in some depth largely because it is quite different than our own “secular” calendar. Yet our calendar is, of course, not secular at all but Christian. Watch the following short video on the Christian calendar:
Lent is an important period of time in the Catholic calendar. Read this article, from a Catholic perspective.
15. The Eucharist, or “communion” or “Lord’s Supper”, is one of the more important and distinctive rituals practiced by most Christian groups. There is, however, a wide gap in how this ritual is both understood and practiced. To see a sample communion service in a Baptist church, watch this video:
16. And for a Catholic baptism:
17. The Roman Catholic Church has a distinctive understanding of marriage as an indissoluble sacrament. Protestant Churches generally allow divorce, and the Orthodox position is in between.
For a short discussion of the Orthodox position, see this article .
For a discussion of different Christian wedding rituals, read this website.
The topic obviously intersects with definitions of marriage, particularly concerning same-sex and other “non-traditional” arrangements. If the topic interests you you can get some more information on this page .
18. Finally, I talk with a priest about many of the issues discussed in this unit: