The Making of the Christian West

Undergraduate / Graduate

The course surveys the late antique and early medieval formation of the Christian West, extending from Ireland through Scandinavia and all the way to the eastern Mediterranean. We will cover themes such as the construction of Roman and barbarian identities; relations between Christians and pagans; the changing social roles of women and men; the rise of the papacy and the Catholic Church; the history of the Vikings; the legacies of the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties; and the emergence of a plurality of nations and states whose names can still be found on present-day maps. We will conclude by considering how the diverse societies and cultures of medieval Europe came together and envisioned themselves as belonging to a distinct Western culture.