This module focuses on the development of the Church in the Latin West from the papacy of Gregory the Great until the 16^th century. It will cover the main themes of medieval Christianity in order for students to become acquainted with the intellectual, spiritual, and institutional dimensions of the medieval Church. Students will study the historical context of Christian theology in the Middle Ages and explore some of the questions concerning relations with Jews and Muslims, roots and reasons for persecutions, causes and consequences of Scholasticism and the nature of lay devotion and practices.

• demonstrate a familiarity with the medieval period of Church history and theology both on their own terms and in their relation to the Early Church and the Reformation;
• demonstrate a historical perspective on the interaction between theology, social practices and culture and how these impact on human activity;
• demonstrate a degree of historical imagination and sympathy by grappling with primary sources within their historical and theological context and by considering both the theological background and legacy;
• study, interpret and discuss a range of primary and secondary sources and to analyse critically scholarly assessment of various sources and on-going debates.

• Ten one-hour lectures providing the basic content of the module.
• Assigned weekly readings of primary source material.
• Ten 50-minute group discussions of assigned primary source readings following the lectures.

Discipline Specific and Intellectual Skills:

• fairly represent views other than the student’s own while expressing his or her own opinions in an open way;
• demonstrate a capacity to think critically and question existing orthodoxies and prejudices;
• demonstrate a sensitive awareness of the truth-claims and passion that may arise in religious traditions, with their positive and negative effects;
• demonstrate awareness and growing understanding of the complexity of religious belief and the interplay between beliefs, texts, practices and institutions, within wider social and cultural structures, standards and inspirations;
• demonstrate awareness of and critical assessment of religious contributions to debate in the public arena about, for example, values, truth, beauty, identity, health, peace and justice;
• demonstrate an appreciation for how personal and communal identities are shaped by religion and both the constructive and destructive effects of such identities.

Key Skills (transferable Skills):

• communicate information, ideas, principles and theories by appropriate written means and develop and sustain a coherent argument through written essay;
• identify, gather, analyse and discuss primary data and source material;
• attend to, reproduce accurately, and reflect on the ideas and arguments of others;
• engage with empathy, integrity and critical reflection with the convictions and behaviours of others;
• undertake independent study (including time management) and reflect on one’s strength and weaknesses as a learner;
• use library and IT resources to identify source material, compile bibliographies, and inform research.

Assessment comprises a two-hour examination at the end of January (worth 60% of the final mark), a 2,000 word essay (worth 30%), and class participation (worth 10%) in class discussion of primary sources.

I. Medieval Monastic Culture:

• Rise of monasticism
• Monastic Culture

II. Authority & Reform in the Medieval Church:

• The medieval Papacy
• Persecution & Heresy
• Christians, Jews, and Muslims

III. Medieval Intellectual Tradition:

• Rise of the Universities
• Scholasticism & Humanism

IV. Medieval Lay Devotion & Mysticism:

• Lay Devotion
• Medieval Mysticism

Introduction

Bornstein, D., Medieval Christianity (Fortress Press, 2006)

Logan, F. Donald,A History of the Church in the Middle Ages(Routledge, 2002)

Lynch, Joseph H., The Medieval Church: A Brief History

Thompson, John A.F., The Western Church in the Middle Ages (Bloomsbury, 1998)

Indicative Reading and Resource List:

Rise of Monasticism

Dunn, Margaret, The Emergence of Monasticism(Blackwell, 2000).

Monastic Culture

Berman, Constance Hoffman,The Cistercian Evolution: The Invention of a Religious Order in Twelfth-Century Europe (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000)

Bynum, Caroline Walker,Crown and Veil:Female Monasticism from the Fifth to the Fifteenth Centuries(Columbia U.P. , 2008)

Lawrence C.H., The Friars: the Impact of the Early Mendicant Movement on Western Society (Longman, 1994).

—,Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life Western Europe in the Middle Ages, 3rd edition (Longman, 2000)

Leclercq, Jean,The Love of Learning and the Desire for God: A Study of Monastic Culture, trans. Catharine Misrahi (Fordham U.P., 1961)

Stewart, Columba,Prayer andCommunity: The Benedictine Tradition (Orbis Books, 1998)

Medieval Papacy

Barraclough, Geoffrey, The Medieval Papacy(Thames & Hudson, 1968).

Chadwick, Henry,East and West: The Making of a Rift in the Church: From Apostolic Times until the Council of Florence, Oxford History of the Christian Church (OUP, 2003)

Duffy, Eamon,Saints & Sinners: A History of the Popes, 3rd ed. (Yale U.P. , 2007)

Morris, Colin,The Papal Monarchy: The Western Church from 1050 to 1250 (OUP, 1991)

Welsh, Frank, The Battle for Christendom: The Council of Constance, 1415, and the Struggle to Unite against Islam(Constable, 2008).

Persecution & Heresy

Lambert, Malcolm,Medieval Heresy: Popular Movements from the Gregorian Reform to the Reformation, 2nd ed. (Blackwell, 1992)

Leff, Gordon,Heresy in the Later Middle Ages: the Relation of Heterodoxy to Dissent, 1250-1450, 2 vol. (Barnes & Noble, 1967)

Moore, R.I.,The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Authority and Deviance in Western Europe 950-1250(Wiley-Blackwell, 2006)

Russell, Jeffrey Burton, Dissent and Order in the Middle Ages(Twayne Publishers, 1992)

Christians, Jews & Muslims

Chazan, Robert, Reassessing Jewish Life in Medieval Europe (CUP, 2007)

Elukin, Jonathan, Living Together, Living Apart: Rethinking Jewish-Christian Relationsin Middle Ages (Princeton, 2007)

Maalouf, Amin,The Crusades Through Arab Eyes(Schocken Press, 1985)

Richard, Jean,The Crusades, c.1071-c.1291 (CUP, 1999)

Riley-Smith, Jonathan (ed.), The Oxford History of The Crusades(OUP, 1999).

Rise of Universities

Constable, Giles,The Reformation of the Twelfth Century(CUP, 1998).

Haskins, Charles H.,The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century (Harvard U.P., 1990)

—,Rise of the Universities(Cornell U.P., 1979)

Jaeger, C. Stephen, The Envy of Angels: Cathedral Schools and Social Ideals in Medieval Europe 950-1200(Univ. of PA Press, 1994).

Southern, R.W.,St. Anselm: A Portrait in a Landscape(CUP, 1990)

Scholasticism & Humanism

Baldwin, John W., The Scholastic Culture of the Middle Ages, 1000-1300(Johns Hopkins Press, 1971).

Colish, Marcia L.,The Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition, 400-1400

Dauphinais, Michael and Matthew Levering,Knowing the Love of Christ: An Introduction to the Theology of St. Thomas Aquinas(University of Notre Dame Press, 2002)

Delio, Ilia, Simply Bonaventure: An Introduction to His Life, Thought, and Writings (New City Press, 2001)

Evans, G.R. (ed.),The Medieval Theologians: An Introduction to Theology in the Medieval Period(Blackwell, 2001)

—,Fifty Key Medieval Thinkers(Routledge, 2002)

Southern, R.W.,Scholastic Humanism and the Unification of Europe, 2 vol. (Blackwell, 1995-2000)

Lay Devotion & Popular Religion

Brooke, C.N.L. and R.B., Popular Religion in the Middle Ages: Western Europe 1000-1300(Thames & Hudson, 1984).

Duffy, Eamon, The Stripping of the Altars, part 1, (Yale U.P., 2005).

Monti, James, A Sense of the Sacred: Roman Catholic Worship in the Middle Ages (Ignatius, 2013)

Rubin, Miri, Corpus Christi: the Eucharist in Late Medieval Culture (CUP, 1991).

Swanson, R.N., Religion and Devotion in Europe, c.1215-c.1515, Cambridge Medieval Textbooks (New York: CUP, 1995).

Vauchez, André, The Laity in the Middle Ages: Religious Beliefs and Devotional Practice (University of Notre Dame Press, 1997).

Mysticism

Bynum, Caroline Walker,Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages (University of California, 1982)

Davies, Oliver, Godithin: The Mystical Tradition of Northern Europe (DLT, 1988).

McGinn, Bernard,The Flowering of Mysticism (Crossroad, 1998)

— The Growth of Mysticism: 500 to 1200 A.D.

—The Harvest of Mysticism in Medieval Germany, (Herder / Crossroad, 2005)

—The Varieties of Vernacular Mysticism (1350-1550)(Crossroad / Herder & Herder, 2012)