Weighting of assignments for the final grade

Class participation: 20% (2 points each for 6 discussions; 8 points for attendance and participation in other classes)
5 Quizzes (10% each): 50%
Paper 1: 15%
Paper 2: 15%

 

Discussions: general instructions, readings and study questions

Prepare for each discussion by carefully reading the material to be discussed and preparing full answers to the study questions given below. Discussion will begin from a close focus on the primary text(s) assigned. Bring the text to class and be prepared to cite specific passages from it to support your answers to the study questions. This is an opportunity for you to work together as a group and take active responsibility for your learning and for the success of the course. Discussion sessions are not primarily intended for you to ask me questions. Please ask your questions during lecture. During the discussion sessions, I will act primarily as a moderator. If you wish to raise topics not covered in the study questions, please do so in the form of questions for discussion aimed at your fellow students. For each discussion session, you will receive one point towards your final grade for being present, and one point for participating substantively at least once.

 

Discussion 1: Constantine and conversion (excerpts from Eusebius, Church History and Life of Constantine and Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors)

Study questions:

  1. Compare the accounts of Constantine's conversion in the excerpts from Eusebius, Church History and Life of Constantine, and Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors. Make a chart comparing the three accounts in parallel columns. List the events described in each account in order. How do the sequences of events differ among the three versions?
  2. What reasons do our surviving Christian sources give for Constantine's adoption of Christianity? How consistent are the two versions of Eusebius with each other and with the version of Lactantius? What can we learn from these sources about why Constantine actually converted to Christianity?
  3. What might it mean for Christianity to become the favored religion of a Roman emperor in the early fourth century--both for the empire and for Christianity? Answer this question in the context of your answers to the previous three study questions. How does your answer to this question differ now from what you might have assumed before doing this assignment?

 

Discussion 2: Gregory of Nazianzus, Third Theological Oration

Study questions:

  1. What kinds of arguments does Gregory use in the Third Theological Oration? What sources of authority does he explicitly invoke? What does he implicitly assume his audience will find convincing?
  2. Do you find Gregory's arguments persuasive? Why or why not?
  3. What ideas about religious authority does this way of arguing imply?
  4. What theological conceptions about God and human language does this way of arguing imply?
  5. What, if anything, can we conclude from this sermon, and specifically from the way that Gregory argues here, about what kinds of people were in his audience? How educated were his intended listeners? What views did they share with Gregory?

 

Discussion 3: Syriac Life of Simeon the Stylite

Study questions:

  1. How does Simeon live? Where does he live? How does he get food and other supplies? Answer these questions for each phase of his career.
  2. What does Simeon do? What does he do every day when he is on his column? What does he do during certain times of the week or year? What does he do occasionally?
  3. Who does Simeon interact with? List the individuals and groups who are described as interacting with Simeon in the Syriac Life. What kinds of people does he interact with? How does the author of the Syriac Life characterize the different types of individuals and groups who interact with Simeon?
  4. How would you describe Simeon's social role in the context of rural and urban society in the hinterlands of Antioch? What is his social role in the eastern Roman empire more broadly? What kinds of situations does he typically get involved in, and what role does he play in them?
  5. Simeon wields power over others in a variety of ways. What kinds of power does he wield, and under what circumstances? Where does his power come from? Pay attention to both Simeon's supernatural powers and the power that goes along with his social role(s). How are the two connected?

 

Discussion 4: Life of Martin by Sulpicius Severus and Miracles of Martin by Gregory of Tours

Study questions:

  1. What do relics do?
  2. How are their activities and functions similar to, and different from, those of holy men?
  3. Review the Syriac Life of Simeon as well as the Life of Martin and the readings on relics to answer these questions.

 

Discussion 5: Acts of the Council of Chalcedon

Study questions:

  1. Identify the offices held by the participants in this excerpt from the proceedings at Chalcedon, and their tasks or roles, whether formal or informal.
  2. How did the decision-making process of the Council of Chalcedon work, based on the excerpts assigned?
  3. How did the attending bishops express their views?
  4. Who generated proposals for consideration, and how?
  5. How were competing views evaluated?
  6. How were decisions arrived at and expressed?
  7. What are the topics under debate in this excerpt, and what kinds of arguments do the contending parties present?
  8. Specifically, how are documents used, and what kinds of arguments are made about them?

 

Discussion 6: Lives of Radegund, Benedictine Rule and Pastoral Rule

Study questions:

  1. Compare the descriptions of authority within the church in these three texts. Who holds authority in each one? How do different office holders relate to each other? How do they relate to authority figures outside the church?
  2. What are the most important roles or duties of the authority figures portrayed in each of these texts? What are their usual activities? How do they attain authority, and what qualifications are expected of them?
  3. How would you account for the differences between the ways that authority is portrayed in these three texts? What differences are matters of literary genre, target audience, and prescriptive vs. descriptive purpose? What differences reflect underlying differences in the three authors' understandings of Christian authority and church organization?
  4. What historical circumstances might account for any differences you discerned in question 3?

 

Quizzes

There will be five quizzes, each of which will take 20 minutes to complete, during class time. Each quiz will include 10 multiple choice questions (5 minutes) and 3 identification questions (answer 3 of 5, 15 minutes). The multiple choice questions may test your knowledge of material from lectures, videos, or the reading.

The identification questions will ask you to discuss terms from the lists below. For each term, you should be prepared to write a full paragraph that answers the questions, "When? Where? What? Who?", and shows that you understand what this person, place, thing or concept is, how it is different from other, similar items, and above all, why it is significant for understanding the period covered for the quiz. You do not need to give precise dates, but you must give at least an approximate date that places the term in chronological context.

You will be expected to draw on all readings as well as notes taken on the lectures and videos to prepare your answers for the identifications. For some terms, you will need to think carefully about what information is most important to include in your answer, since there will be much more relevant information than you could include in a single paragraph. For others, you will need to include most or all of the information given in the lectures, readings and videos in order to get full credit.

Only answers satisfying all of the above criteria, including careful selection of the information presented, will receive full credit. Answers that are only a series of random facts will not receive full credit, even if all the facts are correct.

Do not use any outside sources to prepare for the quizzes, since most outside sources (including virtually all web/internet sources) will contain significant errors of fact or interpretation. Your answers must be based on the assigned materials for HIST 329 only.

 

Terms for identification

 

Quiz 1

  1. basilica
  2. parabalani
  3. logos
  4. Paul of Samosata
  5. Arius
  6. Nicea
  7. homoousios
  8. Homoians
  9. askesis
  10. Origen
  11. anachoresis
  12. hermit
  13. coenobite
  14. skete
  15. stylite
 Quiz 2
  1. Manichees
  2. Donatists
  3. Confessions
  4. City of God
  5. Jerome
  6. Paulinus of Nola
  7. Pelagianism
  8. primary relic
  9. invention
  10. translation
  11. Martin of Tours
  12. hagiography
  13. Sulpicius Severus
  14. Gregory of Tours
  15. patron saint
 Quiz 3
  1. Nestorius
  2. Monophysite
  3. Cyril of Alexandria
  4. Ephesus I
  5. Twelve Anathemas
  6. Latrocinium
  7. Pulcheria
  8. Theodosius II
  9. Miaphysite
  10. Theotokos
  11. Trisagion
  12. Chalcedonian Definition
  13. communicatio idiomatum
  14. Leo the Great
  15. Santa Maria Maggiore

Quiz 4

  1. Gregory the Illuminator
  2. Mesrob Mashtots
  3. Nino
  4. Columba
  5. Columbanus
  6. Iona
  7. Gregory the Great
  8. Lombards
  9. Vandals
  10. Clovis
  11. Merovingians
  12. Caesarius of Arles
  13. Adelskirche
  14. Radegund
  15. Benedict of Nursia

Quiz 5

  1. Hijra
  2. Kaaba
  3. caliph
  4. Umayyad
  5. Battle of Poitiers
  6. Abbasid
  7. Harun al-Rashid
  8. aniconism
  9. tagmata
  10. Iconophile
  11. Iconoclast
  12. Constantine V Copronymos
  13. Council of Hieria
  14. Empress Irene
  15. John Damascene

 

Paper 1: Primary source paper

For this paper, you will need to choose a primary source assigned for the class and answer the following questions, based on your reading of the text itself and the supplementary materials (if any) included with it, and the reference books listed below. Do not use any sources not listed here or assigned for class as they will almost certainly contain serious errors of fact or interpretation. Do use all of the assigned books, including materials that have not yet been assigned as reading, to the extent that they are relevant. Do not insert headings following the list of topics, but make sure your paper answers all of these questions.

WHAT is it? What is the literary genre in which it was written (e.g. history, hagiography, letter, sermon)? What conventions govern this genre? If it is not a literary text, what is it (for example, the acts of a church council)? What features of the document are shaped by the kind of text it is?

WHO created it and how? What was the author's position in society? What interests and concerns would go along with the author's social location? If the identity of the author is not precisely known, what can we say about the kind of person who probably wrote this document? What is the basis for this identification?

WHEN and WHERE was it created (date and place, as precisely as you can find out)? What was going on in that place and time that would affect how a person like the author might perceive and interpret events?

What is the POINT OF VIEW of the author or authors?  The document might have a clearly stated argument, but it is usually more subtle than that.  Use your knowledge of the period to figure out what the biases of the producer(s) might be.  Because a source has a point of view does not mean it is not valid or useful as historical evidence. Rather, the very fact that a source has a particular point of view is a crucial starting point for historical reconstruction, telling us how a person thought at a given point in the past.

WHY was it created? Who was the original intended audience of the document? Who would have had access to it in the original context of its composition? What function did it serve?  Was it written in response to a particular kind of problem?  If so, what might the problem have been? 

What is the document's SIGNIFICANCE as historical evidence? What can you conclude from a close reading of the document about the history of Christianity (as a worldview or belief system, as a social institution, as a cultural phenomenon, etc.) during the time period when the document was composed? Your answer can, indeed probably must, be selective. Choose what you think is the most important, most interesting, or most overlooked aspect of the document's significance.

Do not summarize the document. Do not give a narrative outline, but an interpretation based on evidence taken from the document, answering questions of "how" or "why" rather than merely "what happened." Do not assume that any document presents a direct reflection of "events," but at the same time avoid naively dismissing your text as uninterpretable or irrelevant because of its author's biases. Finally, remember that all the texts we are reading are translations, from several different languages: avoid arguments based on word choice or other aspects of the translated text.

PRIMARY SOURCES TO CHOOSE FROM:

All of the following are texts assigned as reading for HIST 329. Texts not on this list are either off limits or present challenges that will make this paper much more difficult. Excerpts on the conversion of Constantine from the first class are poor choices since each is a small part of a much longer text; please do not write on one of these texts.

Gregory of Nazianzus, 3rd Theological Oration
Letters of Anthony (either a group or a single, longer letter)
Syriac Life of Simeon Stylites
Life of Martin of Tours
Gregory of Tours, Miracles of St. Martin (a difficult choice: get my written approval or choose something else)
Nestorius, Sermon 27
Proclus, Sermon 1
Cyril, Letter 96
Cyril, Explanation of the 12 Chapters
(Do not choose Nestorius, Bazaar of Heraclides)
Chalcedonian Definition
(The Acts of the Council of Chalcedon are very difficult: get my written approval or pick something else)
Patrick, Confession
Benedictine Rule
(Gregory the Great, Pastoral Rule, is a difficult choice: get my written approval or pick something else)
Life of Radegund by Baudonivia
Life of Radegund by Venantius Fortunatus
Definition of the Council of Hieria

Reference books for Paper 1:

Do not use reference books not listed here. Do not use Wikipedia or any other online sources. Be aware that I am familiar with all of the relevant material in both the listed reference books and in standard online sources such as Wikipedia and will notice violations of these rules. Consult all the listed reference books to find information relevant to your document. Be creative in identifying headings likely to lead to relevant information, and follow up on cross-references in the reference books. Plan to spend a minimum of 5-10 hours in the reference room to find all the information you will need. Plan to photocopy relevant entries rather than taking handwritten notes.

G.W. Bowersock, Peter Brown, and Oleg Grabar, eds. Late antiquity: a guide to the postclassical world. Cambridge MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1999. [For topics through the 6th C] Reference Room (Annex 1) DE5 .L29 1999.

Edward D. English, ed. Encyclopedia of the medieval world. [For topics from the 6th C on] New York: Facts On File, 2005. Reference Room D114 .E55 2005 v.1, 2.

Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (abbreviation: ODB): Alexander P. Kazhdan et al., eds. The Oxford dictionary of Byzantium. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. [For topics in the Greek-speaking world] Reference Room, DF521 .O93 1991, 3 vols.

Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church: F. L. Cross, ed. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 3rd ed., edited by E.A. Livingstone [NOTE: use this edition ONLY; entries are very brief] New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Reference Room, BR95 .O8 1997.

Everett Ferguson, ed. Encyclopedia of Early Christianity. Main collection. BR162.2 .E53 1990   

 

Citing sources:

Use informal, in-text parenthetical citations. Do NOT use footnotes or endnotes. Refer to passages from your primary text by short title and book and chapter number, or by short title and page number ONLY if there are no book and chapter numbers. Do NOT include a bibliography, since you will use only materials listed here or elsewhere on the HIST 329 site.

For citations from reference works, use a short title or standard abbreviation for the title of the reference work and the abbreviation s.v. (for "sub voce," Latin for "under the heading/word"), followed by the term under which you found the information. DO NOT use page numbers to cite reference works unless you are citing an article that does not appear under an alphabetical entry.

Example: (ODB, s.v. "Iconoclasm") = the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium's entry on iconoclasm.

Use Author, Short Title format to cite the secondary books assigned for the class.The same format is appropriate for citations of the introductions to source collections assigned for class.

Example: (Brown, Christendom, 234) = Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom, page 234.

Example: (Lives, tr. Doran, 23) = The Lives of Simeon Stylites. Tr. with an intro. by Robert Doran. Page 23.

All factual statements in your paper must be supported by at least one written source unless they are common knowledge or drawn directly from class lectures. I will check 5 randomly-chosen citations from your paper and deduct 5 points from your final grade for HIST 329 for each incorrect or improperly formatted citation. If I find one incorrect or improperly formatted citation, I will continue checking until I have checked all your citations or your grade for the course as a whole is below 60% (F).

I will also check for plagiarism and paraphrasing. You must write in your own words, and at the same time properly acknowledge the sources of your information. The penalty for plagiarism (which includes paraphrasing sources even if you do cite them, and all other forms of inaccurate citation liable to mislead your reader about the source of either an idea or a form of words) begins with a grade of WU for the course (for relatively minor cases of obviously unintentional or merely sloppy use of sources). It goes up to permanent expulsion from the University. You are very unlikely to escape detection for plagiarism or paraphrasing. Do not take the risk.

 

Paper 2: Book review

Choose a book from the course bibliography and write a 5-7 page book review.

A review is a critical analysis of a book, NOT a summary of its contents. "Critical", in this context, means "evaluative", but need not imply "negative": a critical evaluation may be entirely positive. A review is not a personal reaction, but an evaluation of the book's contribution to our knowledge and understanding of its topic, and its usefulness for its intended readership. Most of the books listed are intended for scholarly readers. Many are boring and hard to understand compared to books written for normal audiences. This is not particularly interesting information unless the book's style or organization seriously interfere with or somehow directly undermind its argument, so do not dwell on it.

Note that only books on the course bibliography can be used for this paper. Some books on the course bibliography are not in our library and will have to be ordered on LINK+, which takes at least a week. Do not wait until the last minute to get a book, as you may not be able to find one still in the library. You may write on a book someone else has also chosen, but you must get your own copy, so you will have a much broader range of options if you plan well ahead.

Do not try to use Google Books for this assignment since it will not contain the complete text of your book and you will not be able to understand it. However, online sources may be very useful in helping you decide what book you want to read and review.

Any and all use of existing book reviews without full, correctly formatted citation will be considered intentional plagiarism and will be reported to University authorities for judicial action, with a probable penalty of expulsion. You are better off avoiding others' reviews, unless you are prepared to cite fully and correctly.

Your analysis of the book must answer all of the following questions:

  1. What is the author's thesis? What implications does the author draw from his or her thesis?
  2. What sources does the author use? How did he or she choose those sources, interpret them, and present them?
  3. How convincing is the book's argument?
  4. What is the book's significance? How does it change our understanding of the topic it deals with?

The introduction (first paragraph) of your paper should contain brief answers to ALL of these questions. You should then expand upon and justify these answers in the body of the paper. Do not use section headings to break up your paper, but make it clear to your reader that you are addressing each of the questions listed.

For each of these questions, you should support your claims about the book either with references to specific passages of the book you are reviewing, or if appropriate with direct quotations from the book. Do not use sources other than the book itself and (if necessary) the assigned readings. Always make clear what page, chapter, or section of the book you have in mind, using parenthetical citations giving ONLY the page number(s) when referring to the book you are reviewing. Cite other sources using the format described above. Do NOT use footnotes, endnotes, or a bibliography.

Do not make writing style, accessibility, or how you liked or did not like the book a major topic of your review. You may wish to refer to some of these issues if you feel that they contribute to answering question 4 above, but they should be minimal. Note that many authors do not explicitly state a thesis, or may state a thesis different from what they actually argue for. It is your responsibility to uncover the author's central arguments, whether explicitly stated or only implied, and to evaluate whether they are convincingly supported or not.

In order to review a full-length book in a 5-7 page paper, you will need to be very concise. Avoid anything that will make your paper longer without adding to its substance, including:

  1. summarizing the book
  2. detailed accounts or lengthy narratives of historical facts
  3. long quotations
  4. wordy expressions and long-windedness
  5. vague generalizations