Infln Crstnty Int'l Rltn Hstr

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This course will be an exploration of the basics of Christianity and their relationship, if any, to the history and development of International Relations. At the outset we will make a brief overview of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam to provide context for the idea of religion affecting relations among peoples. While most International Relations theory is considered a product of the last century or two, peoples and thier governments have had relations wherever and whenever they existed. Culture and religion have influenced these international relations of the past. Some think Christianity has dominated the development of political thought and International Relations and, thus, has dictated the political solutions to the problems facing competing entities in an evolving world order. Others think that International Relations began as a secular subject, and its secular nature was confirmed and cemented from the Enlightenment to the present day. In this course we will examine both ends of the spectrum. We may find maddeningly ambivalent answers in history. Together, we will explore the ideas and doctrines of Catholicism, Christianity, and International Relations over history. After a general outline of these subjects, our main focus will be the overlap, if any, between them. You all probably know at least some of this material. What we will do in this class is to align the elements in context. As a template, we will examine this relationship with the hypothesis of Christianity as the independent variable for the function that causes of events in International Relations. During the course we will debate and decide if this hypothesis is valid or invalid. In this way, we can have one historical picture of the relationship between governments in the context of a religion. Along the way, we examine both sides of the argument in the details of specific periods in history. This will give us a framework we can use when examining the same relationships with other religions, other cultures, other times, and speculations about the future.