ACOM / Study / Units / H8100C Introduction to Christian History

H8100C Introduction to Christian History

This introduction to the study of church history equips students with methods of historical inquiry applied to an analysis of the church’s doctrinal and institutional evolution as a framework for other theological study.
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Unit Overview

Qualification

Graduate

Unit Availability

Trimester 1 2025

Study Mode

No Facilitation

Placement

N/A

Tuition

Graduate BTM Fee

Prerequisite

N/A

Corequisite

N/A

Notes

N/A

Unit Details

The Christian church is an evolving institution, which has constantly acted and reacted in terms of its own developing sense of identity, and in terms of its historical and social context. In this way, the theology and the ecclesiology of the church have come to assume their current shapes. This introduction to the study of church history equips students with methods of historical inquiry applied to an analysis of the church’s doctrinal and institutional evolution as a framework for other theological study.

At the end of this unit students will be able to:

  1. Identify the major developments and critical turning points in the history of the Christian churches from their origins to the present.
  2. Explain the causes and outcomes of significant historical events and trends within the Christian churches throughout history.
  3. Analyse the problems, opportunities and attitudes of past Christians in their interaction with the societies in which they lived.
  4. Evaluate the contribution of selected people and movements to the development of the church’s thought and structures.
  5. Interpret primary and secondary historical documents in their social context in the development of a coherent historical argument in written form.

 

  1. The Beginnings of Christian History
  2. Christianity in Asia to 1453
  3. Christianity in Africa to the Fourteenth Century
  4. Christianity in Medieval Europe
  5. Christianity in Europe after 1492
  6. Christianity in Latin America
  7. Christianity in North America
  8. Christianity in Africa after 1500
  9. Christianity in Asia after 1453
  1. Primary Document Study (20%)
    Word Limit: 1200
    Due: Week 4
  2. Historiographical Essay (30%)
    Word Limit: 1800
    Due: Week 7
  3. Research Essay (50%)
    Word Limit: 3000
    Due: Week 12
  • MacCulloch, Diarmaid. A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. London: Penguin, 2009.
  • Marty, Martin. The Christian World: A Global History. New York: The Modern Library, 2009.

Unit Details

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