Exploring Church History: Importance, Requirements & Sources

1. Class 1: Introduction Ann T. Orlando 18 January 2006

2. Introduction to Class • Introductory remarks • Importance of Church History for me • Review Syllabus • Requirements • Structure of course • Course Web Site • Primary sources • Where are they? • How to read them

3. Importance of Church History(or why I love Church History) • Gives me the context for the theological answers that have been developed and taught by the Church • Often, can’t appreciate the answer without knowing the question • Example: Jesus Christ whom we confess as one person with two natures • Gives me an appreciation for importance of Catholic Church in Western civilization • Gives the examples of holy men and women for me to follow

4. Requirements • Class attendance and active participation. • Preparation of weekly papers and class discussion • Two Exams: • Midterm will cover first half of semester (closed book) • Final will cover second half of semester (closed book) • Both midterm and final will include matching quotes to primary source authors; identification of terms and people; geography identification; brief essays • Grade: • 1/3 papers and discussion (200 pts) • 1/3 midterm (200 pts) • 1/3 final (200 pts)

5. Texts for Class • Thomas Bokenkotter. A Concise History of the Catholic Church. New York: Doubleday,2004. • Carter Lindberg, Editor. The European Reformations Sourcebook. Malden: Blackwell, 2000. • Francis De Sales Devout Life, Introduction to the Devout Life tran. John Ryan. New York: Image, 1950. • John Courtney Murray. We Hold These Truths. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1988. • Paul Hyland. The Enlightenment, A Sourcebook and Reader. London: Routledge, 2003.John Dwyer, Church History (New York: Paulist, 1998).

6. Structure for Each Week • Each week will consist of two parts; • Reading of one page papers and discussion by class (Monday) • Lectures (Wednesday) • Reading for each class will include approximately 100 pages. • The 1 page paper every week; should focus on the primary source readings. The paper should start with a one sentence thesis statement, followed by supporting arguments that answers the paper topic question. • One page paper will be read by class-member; followed by class discussion of readings • I will lecture on what the readings cover for the coming week

7. Web Site for Class • web.mit.edu/aorlando/www/ModernHistory/ • Several files • Word file of syllabus • Web file (html) with links to web primary readings; other background resources of interest; • Basic map of key historical regions (large pdf file) • Lecture slides; posted day after each lecture, in a folder called Lectures; PowerPoint format

8. Primary Sources • Different, multiple sources each week; should be focus of papers • Read everything critically (includes secondary sources) • What is author’s perspective • What issues is author addressing; how important is the historical circumstance to those issues • Who is the audience • What is genre of the work (homily, thesis, poem, letter, Biblical commentary) • Caution using Web Resources • Anybody can put anything on the web and claim that it is ‘authoritative’ • Many texts are available, but in older translations • Maintenance of a web resource is still on an individual basis; no guarantee that information will be well maintained

9. Difficulty of Primary Source Readings • I know that this is a lot of material • I know that it is often very difficult to read • Therefore • At the end of each class on Wednesday, I will strongly suggest what should be read carefully, and what should be skimmed • I will try to point out key themes