Instructor: Andrew Jacobs | ajacobs@bu.edu | 147 Bay State Rd., 408
Office hours: Thursday, 3-4:30pm or by appointment (in person or Zoom)

COURSE INFORMATION

Course websites:
1. http://andrewjacobs.org/rn301/ (no login required): All public information about this course, including syllabus, lecture outlines, reading guides, assignments, and additional resources
2. https://learn.bu.edu/ultra/courses/_149587_1/cl/outline (login required): Assigned readings, discussion boards, assignment portals, and other restricted information

Course Description: Surveys the many different and often competing forms of Christianity that arose and flourished in the second to the seventh century. Topics covered include martyrs, apocalypticism, Hell, Gnostics, prophecy, magical texts, angels and demons, and the various meanings of Christ.

As the title of the course suggests, we are approaching the first centuries of Christianity (roughly 100–500 CE) through its multiple and various manifestations, from its origins as a Jewish renewal movement to its union with the ruling powers of the Roman Empire. Our main method of approach method will be direct engagement with primary sources, that is, the textual remains of these various forms of early Christianity (in translation), with some supplementary essays and articles to give a sense of how scholars think about early Christianity.

No prior knowledge of Christianity or antiquity is required, although it is highly recommended that you have some experience with the study of western religions, the ancient Mediterranean, and/or the Bible.

The course is divided into four units:

I. Christians in the Roman Empire. How did followers of Jesus, from his earliest Jewish followers to his primarily non-Jewish worshipers, interact with and imagine their relationship to the power of the Roman Empire? How did non-Christian Romans come to view this new movement and its adherents? To what extent was Christianity in its first centuries imperial or anti-imperial?

II. Ways of Being Christian. What distinctive ways do we see Christians envisioning their identities through rituals, myths, historical imagination, scriptural interpretation, and theological speculation? To what extent are these diverse visions compatible or incompatible with each other? How and why could Christianity come to see itself as part of the Roman Empire?

III. Debating Christianity. How did a newly imperial Christianity develop notions of orthodoxy and heresy, and what topics proved especially divisive in the fourth and fifth centuries? How does language of exclusion and deviance become moral as well as theological and how did Christian division shape social spaces?

IV. Better Ways of Being Christian. How did new ideas about hierarchy and status shape Christian communities through new ideals of embodiment and salvation, particularly in new forms of monasticism, veneration of saints (in travel and texts), and new theories of human sin and salvation?

During each section you will be required to do one directed discussion board post/response and after the end of each section of the class you will be responsible for a directed written assignment (see instructions below), so you may want to keep an eye on those assignments as we proceed through each section.

This course fulfills the following undergraduate HUB requirements: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry 1, and Critical Thinking in the following ways (for more information on HUB requirements click here):

Historical consciousness: Through written assignments and course discussions, you will engage with, analyze, and develop original arguments about the historical contexts and process that led to diverse forms of early Christianity.

Social inquiry 1: Through course discussion, written assignments, and directed online posting assignments, you will engage with the specific social formations at work in the diversity of early Christianity including: empire; gender and sexuality; religious institutions; and urban violence.

Critical thinking: Through written assignments, course discussion, and your final exercise you will ask critical questions related to historical studies (how do we know about the past? how do we evaluate primary sources and scholarly arguments? what is the relationship between the past and history?) and religious studies (what distinguishes “religion” from other forms of life? who or what distinguishes one “religion” from another, and how and why?).

Graduate students enrolled in this class will be required to do an extended final exercise: please meet me with at your earliest convenience to discuss options.

Integrity: BU has a very long and detailed Academic Conduct Code which you can find here. It is worth reading so that you understand your rights and responsibilities as a member of the BU academic community. I confess little interest in acting as a classroom police officer; I am more interested in fostering an intellectual community in which we all want to learn with and from each other. If you find yourselves having the kinds of difficulties that make academic dishonesty seem easier or more appealing, I encourage you instead to come and speak with me so we can figure out a path together.

You (and I) may be unclear on the growing role of automated content generators like ChatGPT; if you are using these automated aids to generate new ideas and prose, you are probably not doing your own work (and you are helping to train systems whose ultimate uses and goals are unclear). I have tried to design assignments that make automated content generators unnecessary and even intrusive in the close reading and analysis of ancient texts. But, once more, I am more interested in helping generate original ideas and intellectual conversation than I am in acting as content police. If you are uncertain about how these new and uncertain tools fit into our intellectual community, I encourage you to come and speak with me.

Accessibility: All classrooms should be inclusive learning environments; if you have any concerns about accessibility (in general or to foster your own learning success) please get in touch with me. If you are unfamiliar with the classroom accommodations that BU can provide, you can find information here. I understand that getting “official” certification for accommodations can take time; I am happy to work with you to put needed accommodations in place for you while the machinery of bureaucracy proceeds.

RESOURCES

No books have been ordered for this class because of the escalating cost of print books for university courses (including the one I co-edited!). Instead, you will find links to readings online: links available publicly are underlined; links available only through the Blackboard site have an asterisk (*) in front of them. You can access both links directly through the main course website syllabus page.