Learning Objectives

Upon successful completion you should be able to:

• Describe the Jewish, Greek, and Roman background of the early church

• Describe the concepts of catholicity and orthodoxy as goals of the church fathers

• Outline the interplay of persecution and the development of the early church during the first three centuries

• Discuss the impact of Constantine’s conversion and the Edict of Toleration on the development from the early church to Christendom

• Discuss the slow separation between Western (Catholic) and Eastern (Orthodox) Christianity, the rise of the papacy, and the Great Schism between East and West

• Discuss the formulation of theology and its expression through the creeds

• Describe how Celtic Christianity arose and its function within Christendom

• Discuss the dynamic of church and state interaction through the Middle Ages

• Recognize the names of significant people, events, and ideas and be able to engage in discussions regarding them

Course Outline

Introduction

• Introducing the Speaker and the Course

Unit 1: Introduction: A Christian View of History

• The Concept of “Catholicity”

• The Methods of Historical Inquiry: How Do We Do History?

Unit 2: Background of the Early Church: Judaism

• Monotheism

• Jewish History to the Time of Jesus

• Key Aspects of First-Century Judaism

• Using Ratings and Collections to Search for Key Terms

Unit 3: Background of the Early Church: The Greeks

• The Classical Era

• Alexander and His Conquests

• Features of Hellenism

Unit 4: Background of the Early Church: The Romans

• Rome and the Early Church: Friends or Foes?

• A Brief Survey of Roman History

• Aspects of Roman Culture Conducive to the Gospel

• Using Search Operators to Find Information about Roman Travel

Unit 5: The Birth of Christianity

• Key Ideas of the “Orthodox” Church

• The Myth of Early Universal Orthodoxy

• The Myth of Radical Diversity

• How Orthodoxy Was Formed

Unit 6: Judaism and the Early Church

• Hebrews, Hellenists, and Heretical Sects

• James and the Jerusalem Church

• Understanding and Using the Referent Database

• The Church versus the Synagogue

Unit 7: Strategies to Achieve Catholicity

• The Monepiscopacy

• Using Louw-Nida Numbers to Research Church Leadership

• The Canon of Scripture

• The Creeds of the Ancient Church

Unit 8: Persecution in the Early Church

• The Reasons behind Persecution

• The Roman Imperial Cult

• Historical Stages of Persecution

• Using the Timeline to Look Up Persecution in Church History

Unit 9: Imperial Christianity

• The Rise of Constantine

• Two Important Successors to Constantine

• The Imperial Theology of Eusebius

Unit 10: The Council of Nicaea

• The Theology of Arius

• Nicene Trinitarianism

Unit 11: Early Christian Art and Architecture

• The Catacombs

• Finding Images of the Catacombs and Storing Them in Favorites

• Types of Early Christian Art

• Triumphal Art after Constantine

• Early Christian Buildings

Unit 12: Augustine of Hippo

• Augustine’s Life

• Augustine’s View of History

• Using Notes to Track Augustine’s View of the Two Cities

• Augustine’s Legacy for Western Civilization

Unit 13: The Council of Chalcedon

• Heretical Christologies

• The Alexandrians and the Antiochians

• Chalcedon and Its Aftermath

Unit 14: Early Christian Monasticism

• Antecedents of Early Christian Monasticism

• The Historical Motive

• Finding Information on the Origins of Monasticism

• Key Figures in Early Christian Monasticism

Unit 15: Christian Mission

• Alternate Christian Expressions

• Early Missionary Efforts

Unit 16: The Byzantine World

• Constantine and His City

• The Splendor of Justinian

• Conversion of the Slavs

• Eastern Orthodox Distinctives

Unit 17: The Fall of Rome

• Historical Explanations

• The Barbarian Invasions

• New Alliances for the Church

Unit 18: The Rise of the Papacy

• Apostolic Succession

• The Prestige of Rome

• Theology of the Papacy

• Using the Clause Search to Explore the Relationship between Jesus and Peter

• Key Figures in the Development of the Papacy

Unit 19: British and Celtic Christianity

• Early History of the British Isles

• Christianity in Britain

• The Celtic Church

• The Anglo-Saxons

Unit 20: The Birth of Europe

• Political Structures

• Religious Beliefs and Practices

• Cultural Institutions

• Using the Sermon Starter Guide to Find a Biblical Perspective on War

Unit 21: Charlemagne and the Carolingian Renaissance

• Rise of the Carolingians out of the Dark Ages

• Rebirth under Charlemagne

• The Holy Roman Empire

• The Viking Invasions

Unit 22: The High Middle Ages

• Reforms of Gregory VII

• Lay Investiture Controversy

• Romanesque and Gothic Architectural Styles

• The Great Schism

Unit 23: Life in Medieval Christendom

• William the Conqueror

• Norman Castles

• Thomas Becket and the “Murder in the Cathedral”

• Pope Innocent III

Unit 24: The Crusades

• Interpretation and Motivations

• Historical Context: The Rise of Islam

• The First Crusade

• Results of the Crusades

Unit 25: Medieval Intellectualism

• Two Important Intellectual Leaders: Alcuin and Anselm

• New Monastic Orders: Cistercians, Dominicans, and Franciscans

• Rise of the Universities

• Scholasticism and Thomas Aquinas

Conclusion

• Conclusion to the Course

Details

• Title: CS201 Western Civilization: Greeks to Aquinas

• Instructor: Bryan M. Litfin

• Publisher: Lexham Press

• Publication Date: 2014

• Product Type: Logos Mobile Education

• Resource Type: Courseware, including transcripts, audio, and video resources

• Courses: 1

• Video Hours: 8