Reformation
and Early Modern Christianity
WYH2003HS Spring 2003
Links
Of course you know about the amazing search engine, Google.
CCEL, the Christian Classics Ethereal Library, connected with Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S.A., has lots and lots of original texts from the world of Church history.
Special note can be made of the CCEL Encyclopedia of Christianity. Enter a word, and it will check four reference works for you. Caution: most of the material is really dated.
The Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, Victoria University, offers a database of materials through "Iter". It also offers links to other sites.
Here are primary sources from Reformation Ink.
The privately maintained "American Colonist's Library" has all kinds of material for early American history, including sources which American colonists might have read, from Augustine to the Constitutions of Clarendon. But the website says it might be disappearing soon.
The history department at Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana, U.S.A., maintains a website with lots of original texts and some secondary resources from the Renaissance and the Reformation, with a special section on witch hunts.
Paul Halsall, a medieval historian at Fordham University, New York City, maintains the "Internet History Sourcebooks Project". The link will take you to the main index page, where you can browse the resources, or go directly to "Internet Modern History Sourcebook" for Reformation and early modern texts.
A website with internet resources related to Church history still operates though the British academic organization which created it has lost its funding and gone out of existence.
The Wabash Center has syllabi, links, images, and other materials relating to the Reformation.
Quite a number of links to texts and sites relating to Puritanism can be found at Le project albion, run by someone named Lauric Henneton, agrégé en stage (teaching assistant) and DEA (doctoral student) at le campus Jussieu, Paris.
"The Reformation Guide", pages and links from Michigan State University
Tuesdays 11:15–1:00
Instructor: Alan L. Hayes
T.A.: Brian Cooper
Here are the guidelines for the two-page précis (thesis statement, search statement, and bibliography) which is required of those choosing the option of a research essay.
Link to guidelines for writing papers
Link to Chicago Manual citation guide (mainly for the research papers; in the short papers, only the primary text will normally be cited)
Schedule of class topics
January 7 Origins of the Reformation
This will introduce the objectives and processes of the course. The lecture
will look at issues of periodization, and will introduce some general
competing historiographical interpretations of the era. Then it will focus
on the state of the western Church in the late Middle Ages. The tutorial
groups will discuss a short document which can be read quickly —
a letter
from Lorenzo de Medici to his fourteen-year-old son, whom he had just
arranged to make a cardinal.
January 14 Luther
Before the class, please read González, pp. 6–45, and Luther's
Open Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation concerning
the Reform of the Christian Estate, which is the equivalent of
about 100 pages long. (If you want to read this in hard copy, make sure
you read this work, and not the similarly titled "Address to the
German Nobility on Christian Liberty".)
Remember to check the class topic webpage ahead of time as well (click
on "January 14" above). The lecture will discuss Luther; the
tutorial will discuss the Open Letter. (A similar pattern will be followed
in future weeks.)
Luther is a key figure, and so you should read more widely in Luther than
the minimum amount required if you want to get a firm grip on the material
of this course. See the Lutheran resources on the class topic webpage.
January 21 The Swiss and the Anabaptists
Before the class, please read González, pp. 46–60, and the
Schleitheim
Confession.
January 28 Calvin
Before the class, please read González, pp. 61–69, and Calvin's
Necessity
of Reforming the Church. Students should also seriously consider purchasing
a copy of Calvin's Institutes (the Library of Christian Classics translation
is the best) for their personal libraries, and it will repay you to browse
in this great work.
February 4 England
Before the class, please read González, pp. 70–85, and Bishop
John Jewel's Apology
(defence) of the Church of England. I'll hope to have an extract from
a video of one of the many films and television dramas which have been
made from this fascinating era.
February 11 The Catholic Reformation
Before the class, please read González, pp. 86–125. Also,
please read selections from the
Council of Trent. (Check the class topic webpage, by clicking on "February
11" above, to see which specific sections you should read.) González'
treatment of Roman Catholicism in this book is not particularly strong
and shows some sign of prejudice. Therefore, kindly read an additional
primary source linked from the class topic webpage. (It needn't be very
long.) Be prepared to tell your tutorial group about the additional reading.
Also, today Thomas Power, the theological librarian at the Graham Library, will talk about strategies for historical research in the library and over the Internet. A summary of his talk is found here.
February 18 Reading week
February 25 France and New France
Today, those who propose to write a research essay for the course are
required to submit their précis. No reading from the González
text is required for today. Before the class, please read the selected
reports from the Jesuit
Relations indicated on the class webpage for the day. In class we'll
consider religion in the long reign of Louis XIV both at home and in his
American colonies. I hope that we can see part of the video of a London
production of Molière's Tartuffe, which in its day was suspected
by some as a satire of Jansenism.
March 4 Puritanism
Before class, please read González, pp. 132–163. Please also
read the canons of the Synod
of Dort, and the
interrogation of Anne Hutchinson in Newton, Massachusetts Bay Colony,
1637.
March 11 Orthodoxies
Before class, please read González, pp. 164–184. Here he is
primarily interested in the construction of doctrinal systems — "orthodoxies"
— in Protestantism and Roman Catholicism, but the theme is a good
excuse for us to consider Eastern Orthodoxy, which González is
inclined to ignore. Please read the letter
of Philotheus (for Russian orthodoxy), and the
Confession of Dositheus (Orthodoxy's critical response to Calvinism
in 1672).
March 18 The Enlightenment
Before class, please read González, pp. 185–195, and the entry
by Voltaire
on "religion" in the Philosophical Dictionary.
March 25 Pietism and evangelicalism
Before class, please read González, pp. 196–216. Here are
your choices for the primary text (just choose one of the following):
- August Hermann Francke's Faith's Work Perfected. Pro: It's short and you can find it easily. Con: It won't let you download or print the text.
- Spener's Pia Desideria, on reserve at the Graham Library. Pro: You can get it in hard copy. Con: It's a bit longer (but not very long, and you don't have to read every word), and you'll only be able to borrow it for two hours.
- Choose several Pietist from a hymn book -- say, ten or twelve. Hymns by Neander, Zinzendorf, Francke, etc. will qualify. If you can't find that many, fill in the rest with hymns by Charles Wesley.
April 1 America
Before class, please read González, pp. 217–231. Also read
the very engaging description of a religious revival in Northampton, Massachusetts,
in Jonathan Edwards' Faithful
Narrative of the Surprising Work of God.
April 8 Conclusion
No reading from González is required for today. No primary texts
are required either. Those who have chosen the option of a research essay
for the course should submit the essay today.
April 15 Exam
The written exam will be held in the classroom. Appointments for the oral
exam will be made for this period.
