History of Christianity: History of Christianity from 1250

4 credits · Undergraduate

This course follows 185A as the 2nd of two semesters on the History of Christianity. It treats the history of (principally Western) Christianity between the High Middle Ages and the present in Europe and in the rest of the world. The course's main theme is Christianity and the encounter of cultures. Its core readings range from Thomas a Kempis, Martin Luther, and St. Teresa of Avila to Simone Weil and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The lectures will treat social, cultural, and intellectual topics, such as ecclesiastical authority institutions, forms of piety, revivalism, evangelization, theological speculation, Biblical scholarship, and philosophical arguments for and against religion.