Christianity: The Beginnings

4 credits · Undergraduate

The course deals with the beginnings of Christianity and its development into a legal religion in the Roman Empire. It traces the changes Christianity underwent as the Roman Empire changed into one of several powers in the Mediterranean alongside the Umayyad Caliphate and other post-Roman kingdoms. Focusing on the evolution of Christianity in the West, the course ends with the coronation of Charlemagne as emperor in Rome in 800 CE. Throughout, the beginnings of Christianity will be investigated in the context of the societal givens that shaped it and to which the inhabitants of the Roman Empire and its successor states who became Christian responded. The course is based on primary sources and will include problems of historical method.