Part of the reason I've been thinking about teaching church history is that I hope to be tutoring in church history at one of the local theological colleges this year. This particular college has a number of church historians (all with PhDs in history!), and from my contact with them, I imagine they do a very good job of teaching the subject. But I can't imagine how! How do you teach 2000 years of history in one year without reducing it to a list of dates and doctrines? How do you provide some introduction to the skills of thinking historically within that context? How do you raise new questions, not just confirm old prejudices? I'm really looking forward to finding out!
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2 comments:
It's the breadth of the subject that can kill you as a student. In a survey course there really is too much to study for in an exam (typically Sem 1 = 0-1500, Sem 2 = 1600-2005). Plus you'd want to incorporate something of the story of the church in your own locality.
You could take Mark Noll's approach where he picks several "turning points" in church history (e.g. The fall of Jerusalem, the Councils of Nicea and Chalcedon (politics, faith & Empire), East-West schism etc.) and fleshes them out drawing together people, places and events. So you get Christological "heresies" etc. and meet Athanasius and co. but framed within the socio-political climate of the day.
Personally, I'd also like to see an engaging church history video series like Alain de Botton's "Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness". Picking what a particular figure said on a particular topic and bringing that into the present in a short, snappy presentation.
I like the sound of that. How you divide the course in terms of dates is fairly revealing of your theology. The pre-/post-reformation divide is, as you say, typical. The place I'm thinking of divides at 1100 or so, which communicates another set of assumptions. It also makes a bit more sense in terms of fitting it all in (unless you think all the important stuff happened in the last 500 years, I guess!!)
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