SOUTHWESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
COURSE SYLLABUS
Course Title: Church History I
Class Dates and Time: August 23rd-December 14
Professor: John M. Yeats
COURSE DESCRIPTION
A general survey of the history of Christianity from the New Testament to 1500 AD
COURSE GOALS
Students will focus on the history of the Christian Church from the time of the New Testament through the late
Medieval period with a goal of understanding the major movements and persons involved in the period of study.
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

Students will gain a basic knowledge of key persons, movements, events and ideas in the fields of church
history and historical theology.

Students will demonstrate the ability to think historically and critically about these significant persons,
events and movements.

Students will be able to discuss events and movements in history in light of the historical record including
critical analysis of their relationship to other concepts and movements.


Students will be able to produce a written artifact(s) that demonstrates a basic analysis and/or synthesis of
historical material.
Students will be able to assess written works in the fields of church history and historical theology.

Students will learn from those who have journeyed before us in the adventure of faith.
COURSE TEXTS
Required
o Justo Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, 2nd Rev. Ed. (San Francisco: Harper One, 2010).
ISBN: 978-0061855887.
o Early Christian Fathers, ed. Cyril C. Richardson, (New York: Touchstone, 1996).
ISBN:0684829517
o Additional texts to be distributed via Blackboard.
Book Review Texts
 First Review: Pick one of the two.
o Michael Green, Evangelism in the Early Church (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004). ISBN: 9780802827685
o Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World’s Largest
Religion (San Francisco: Harper One, 2011). ISBN: 978-0062007681

Second Review: Pick one of the two.
o G.R. Evans, John Wyclif: Myth and Reality (Grand Rapids: IVP, 2006). ISBN: 978-0830828357
o Carl Volz, The Medieval Church: From the Dawn of the Midieval Ages to the Eve of the
Reformation (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1997). ISBN: 978-0687006045
Recommended
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 4th ed. F.L. Cross and E.A. Livingstone. ISBN:
019211655X
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
1.) Reading – In addition to the course textbook, there will also be readings posted on Blackboard. Each
reading assignment must be completed by the student by Thursday of the assignment week. It is
expected that students will keep up with the class reading schedule. Failure to do so will result in poor
performance on exams and the reduction of your grade. Sections of the exam will extensively cover your
reading and there will be a portion of the exam asking if you have read everything for the section. For
reading to count, you must read every word on the page -- no skimming or skipping sentences. Use your
integrity! Luke 16:10.
2.) Quizzes. Because reading is so integral to gaining a handle on course content, students will take a weekly
reading quiz.
3.) Exams - There will be three exams through the course of the semester. These will consist of objective
questions -- matching, fill-in-the blank, identification of passages from primary sources and short or long
essay question. Exam questions will be based on reading, primary source reading and lectures.
4.) Book Reviews – Students will choose one book from the first book review group and one book from the
second book review group and write an 8 page critical book review following the guidelines published in
the SWBTS style guide. Please watch your due dates carefully as late projects will not be accepted.
Reviews will be evaluated on the student’s comprehension and presentation of the main argument and flow
of the book as well as the student’s ability to interact with the text itself. A significant portion of the grade
will also evaluate the student’s ability to utilize appropriate formatting and book review style. Students can
access the help files under the “Research” tab on Blackboard. From there, choose “Book Reviews” to see
examples and suggestions.
5.) Weekly Interaction – Each student will respond to the weekly question. The questions are designed to help
apply practical ministry skills to what we are learning. Please note that for each weekly question, you must
also respond to at least one of your peer’s written responses. Please be generous with one another and use
grace when challenging someone’s perspective or views. All responses to the question must be posted
during the week it is assigned for it to count. No comments posted on Sundays will count toward your
grade. All posting needs to take place Monday-Saturday.
GRADES
Grades will be determined by the following scale: 100-98 (A+); 97-93 = A; 92-90 (A-); 89-88 (B+); 87-83 (B); 8280 (B-); 79-78 (C+); 77-73 (C); 72-70 (C-); 69-68 (D+); 67-63 (D); 62-60 (D-); Below 60 = F.
Activity
Points
Exams
300 total
(100 each)
300 total
(150 each)
150
250
1,000 total points
Book Reviews
Quizzes
Weekly Interaction
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
Plagiarism is the misrepresentation of another's work as one's own. When the professor concludes that a student
has plagiarized an assignment, the student will receive the grade of zero for the assignment, and the office of the
Vice President for Student Affairs will be notified about the incident. The same actions apply to other acts of
academic dishonesty such as cheating on examinations (see Ethical Conduct section in SWBTS catalog).
SPECIAL NEEDS
Individuals with documented impairments who may need special circumstances for exams, classroom participation,
or assignments should contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester in order for special arrangements to be
considered.
CLASS SCHEDULE
Week
Intro – Aug. 23-25
One – Aug. 27- Sept.
1
Syllabus and Intro
Two – Sept. 3-8
Three – Sept. 10-15
Reading Assignment
None
G: 1-39
ECF: 15-26; 33-80
Suggested: Book of Acts
G: 41-58
ECF: 81-120
BB: Apostle’s Creed
G: 59-81
ECF: 161-171; 120-137
BB: Acts of Perpetua
and Felicitas
Project Due
Extra Credit for
watching Torchlighter’s
Movie, “Perpetua Story”
and the one hour
documentary on the
DVD.
Begin Memorizing
Nicene Creed.
Four – Sept. 17-22
G: 83-127
ECF: 290-334
BB: Nicene Creed
Five – Sept. 24-29
G: Review for Exam
ECF: 343-397
EXAM 1 – Exam will
Book Review Selection
G: 129-172
BB: Life of Anthony
Book Review Selection
READ!!!
Book Review of
Selection from
Group A due.
Deadline Friday.
at Midnight CST
Six – Oct. 1-6
Seven – Oct. 8-13
Eight – Oct. 15-20
Nine – Oct. 22-27
Ten – Oct. 28-Nov. 3
FALL BREAK
G: 173-261
Book Review Selection
for second project
G: 263-344
BB: Pseudo Dionysius,
Bede – Conversion of
England; Glaber – On
the First Millenium;
Catch up on Reading
Book Review Selection
be available to take on
Friday only.
EXAM 2 – Exam will
be available to take on
Friday only.
Eleven – Nov. 5-10
Twelve – Nov. 12-17
Thirteen – Nov. 1924
Fourteen – Nov.26Dec. 1
Thanksgiving!!
Fifteen – Dec. 3-5
Final – Dec. 6 or 7
Wrap up and Study!
FINAL
G: 345-386
BB: Urban II and
readings on the crusades;
Anselm Cur Deus
Homo,
Catch up on Reading
G: 387-446
BB: Aquinas’ Summa
Theologica , Wycliffe,
Roger Bacon, Boniface
VIII
Book Review Selection
READ - Book Review
Selection
G: 447-490
BB: Petrarch and
Savonarola
Catch up on Reading
EXAM
G – Gonzalez
BB – BlackBoard
Book Review Selection – The book you chose from the appropriate group.
THANKSGIVING
Book Review of
Selection from
Group B due.
Deadline Friday at
Midnight CST
Final Exam
COURSE BIBLIOGRAPHY
Church History Overviews
Ahlstrom, Sydney E. and David D. Hall. A Religious History of the American People. rev. ed. New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2004.
Baker, Robert A. and John M. Landers. A Summary of Christian History. 3rd ed. Nashville: Broadman & Holman,
2005.
Bays, Daniel, ed. Christianity in China: From the Eighteenth Century to the Present. StanforG: Stanford University
Press, 1996.
Breward, Ian. A History of the Churches in Australasia. In Oxford History of the Christian Church, ed. Henry
Chadwick and Owen Chadwick. OxforG: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Ferguson, Everett. Church History Volume 1: From Christ to the Pre-Reformation. Grand Rapids: Zondervan,
2004.
Gonzalez, Justo L. The Story of Christianity: The Early Church to the Present Day. Peabody, MA: Prince Press,
2001.
Hastings, Adrian, ed. A World History of Christianity. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999.
________. The Church in Africa, 1450-1950. In Oxford History of the Christian Church, ed. Henry Chadwick and
Owen Chadwick. OxforG: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Latourette, Kenneth Scott and Ralph D Winter. A History of Christianity. rev. ed. 2 vols. San Francisco: Harper &
Row, 1975.
Irvin, Dale T. and Scott W. Sunquist. History of The World Christian Movement—Volume I: Earliest Christianity to
1453. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2001.
Moffett, Samuel H. A History of Christianity in Asia, Vol. 1, Beginnings to 1500. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1992.
Neill, Stephen. A History of Christian Missions. Harmonsworth, EnglanG: Penguin Books, 1990.
Troeltsch, Ernst. The Social Teachings of the Christian Churches. Translated by Olive Wyon. 2 vols. New York:
Barnes & Noble, 1956.
Walker, Williston, Richard A. Norris, David W. Lotz, and Robert T. Handy. A History of the Christian Church. 4th
ed. New York: Scribner, 1985.
Historical Theology
Berkhof, Louis. The History of Christian Doctrines. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1975.
Bromiley, Geoffrey W. Historical Theology: An Introduction. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1978.
Fisher, George Park. History of Christian Doctrine. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1896.
Gonzalez, Justo L. A History of Christian Thought. rev. ed. 3 Vols. Nashville: Abingdon, 1987.
Harnack, Adolph. History of Dogma. Translated by Neil Buchanan. 7 vols. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 1997.
Lohse, Bernhard. Epochen der Dogmengeschichte. Hamburger Theologische Studien Bd. 8. Münster: Lit, 1994.
Lane, Tony. A Concise History of Christian Thought. rev. and enl. New York: T&T Clark, 2006.
Muller, Richard A. Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics: The Rise and Development of Reformed Orthodoxy, ca.
1520 to ca. 1725. 2nd ed. 4 vols. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2003.
Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine. 5 vols. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1975.
Seeberg, Reinhold. Text-Book of the History of Doctrines. Translated by Charles E Hay. Grand Rapids: Baker,
1954.
Shedd, William.G. T. A History of Christian Doctrine, 2 vols. New York: Charles Scribner & Co, 1870.
Tillich, Paul. A History of Christian Thought: From Its Judaic and Hellenistic Origins to Existentialism. Edited by
Carl E. Braaten. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1972.
Early Christianity
Primary Sources
Creeds: Apostles Creed, Nicene Creed, Creed of Constantinople, and Formula of Chalcedon. Schaff, Phillip. The
Creeds of Christendom, 3 vols. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998.
Athanasius. On the Incarnation. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir Seminary Press, 1987.
Augustine. The Confessions. Translated by Maria Boulding. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1997.
________. The City of God against the Pagans. Translated by Robert Dyson. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1998.
Basil of Caesarea. On the Holy Spirit. Translated by David Anderson. Popular Patristics Series. Crestwood, NY: St.
Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1980.
Burns, J. Patout, ed. and trans. Theological Anthropology. Sources of Early Christian Thought Series. Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 1981.
Cyril of Alexandria, On the Unity of Christ. Translated and Edited by John McGuckin. Crestwood, NY: St.
Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1993.
Eusebius of Caesarea. Ecclesiastical History. Translated by Roy Defarrari. Washington D. C.: Catholic University
of America Press, 1965.
Gregory of Nazianzus. On God and Christ: The Five Theological Orations and Two Letters of Cledonius.
Translated by Lionel Wickham. Popular Patristics Series. Crestwood. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s
Seminary Press, 2002.
Irenaeus of Lyon. Against Heresies. Tranlated by Dominic Unger. New York: Paulist Press, 1992.
________. On the Apostolic Preaching. Translated and Edited by John Behr. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s
Seminary Press, 1997.
Origen. On First Principles. Translated by G. W. Butterworth. New York: Harper & Row, 1966; reprint Peter Firth,
1990.
Secondary Sources
Anatolios, Khaled. Athanasius: The Coherence of His Thought. New York: Routledge, 1998.
Ayres, Lewis. Nicaea and its Legacy: An Approach to Fourth-Century Trinitarian Theology. New York: Oxford
University Press, 2004.
Behr, John. The Way to Nicaea. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2001.
________. The Nicene Faith. 2 vols. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2004.
Bonner, Gerald. “Pelagianism and Augustine,” and “Augustine and Pelagianism.” In Doctrinal Diversity: Varieties
of Early Christianity. ed. Everett Ferguson, 191-210, 211-232. New York: Garland, 1999.
Brown, Peter R. L. Augustine of Hippo: A Biography. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
Clark, Elizabeth A. The Origenist Controversy: The Cultural Construction of an Early Christian Debate. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1992.
Crouzel, Henri. Origen: The Life and Thought of the First Great Theologian. Translated by A. S. Worrall. San
Francisco: Harper Collins, 1989.
Daley, Brian E. Gregory of Nazianzus. Early Church Fathers Series. New York: Routledge, 2006.
Esler, Philip F., ed. The Early Christian World. 2 vols. New York: Routledge, 2000.
Ferguson, Everett, ed. Church and State in the Early Church. Studies in Early Christianity 7. New York: Garland
Publishing, 1993.
________. Backgrounds of Early Christianity. 3rd ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003.
Frend, W. H. C. Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church: A Study of a Conflict from the Maccabees to
Donatus. New York: Oxford University Press, 1965.
________. The Rise of Christianity. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984.
Grant, Robert M. Irenaeus of Lyons. Early Church Fathers Series. London: Routledge, 1997.
Gregg, Robert C. and Dennis E. Groh. Early Arianism: A View of Salvation. London: SCM Press, 1981.
Hanson, R. P. C. The Search for the Christian Doctrine of GoG: the Arian Controversy, 318-381. Edinburgh: T&T
Clark, 1988; reprint, 2000.
Kelly, J. N. D. Early Christian Doctrines, 5th ed. New York: Continuum, 2000.
________. Golden Mouth: The Story of John Chrysostom-Ascetic, Preacher, Bishop. Ithaca: Cornell University
Press, 1995.
McGinn, Bernard. The Presence of GoG: A History of Western Christian Mysticism. New York: Crossroad, 1991.
McGuckin, John. Saint Gregory of Nazianzus: An Intellectual Biography. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary
Press, 2001.
Meyendorff, John. Byzantine Theology: Historical Trends and Doctrinal Themes. New York: Fordham University
Press, 1987.
Pettersen, Alvyn. Athanasius. Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse, 1995.
Stark, Rodney. The Rise of Christianity. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997.
TeSelle, Eugene. Augustine the Theologian. New York: Herder & Herder, 1970.
Thomas G. Weinandy and Daniel Keating, eds. The Theology of St. Cyril of Alexandria: A Critical Appreciation.
Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2003.
Wilken, Robert L. The Christians as the Romans Saw Them, 2nd ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.
________. The Spirit of Early Christian Thought. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.
Williams, Rowan. Arius: Heresy and Tradition. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.
Young, Frances. From Nicaea to Chalcedon. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983.
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Young, Frances, and Margaret Mitchell, eds. The Cambridge History of Christianity. Vol. 1, Origins to
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Medieval Christianity
Primary Sources
Creeds: Lateran IV (1215). See Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom.
Á Kempis, Thomas. The Imitation of Christ. New York: Dorset Press, 1986.
Anselm of Canterbury. Why God Became Man. In Anselm of Canterbury, The Major Works. ed. Brian Davies and
Gill Evans, 260-356. New York: Oxford, 1998.
Aquinas, Thomas. Nature and Grace: Selections from the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas. Translated by A.
M. Fairweather. The Library of Christian Classics, Vol. 11. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1954.
Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People. New York: Penguin Classics, 1991.
Ha Levi, Judah. Kuzari: The Book of Proof and Argument. New York: Schoken Books, 1966.
Fairweather, Eugene R., ed. and trans. A Scholastic Miscellany: Anselm to Ockham. Library of Christian Classics,
Vol. 10. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1956; reprint Philadelphia, Westminster John Knox, 1982.
Innocent III. Between God and Man: Six Sermons on the Priestly Office. Translated by Corinne J. Vause & Frank
C. Gardiner. Medieval Texts in Translation. Washington, D. C.: Catholic University of America Press,
2004.
Luibheid, Colin, Ed. Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works. The Classics of Western Spirituality. Mahwah, NJ:
Paulist Press, 1987.
McCracken, George E., Ed. Early Medieval Theology. Library of Christian Classics, Vol. 9. Philadelphia:
Westminster Press, 1957.
Spinka, Matthew. Advocates of Reform, from Wyclif to Erasmus. The Library of Christian Classics, Vol. 14.
Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1953.
Secondary Sources
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Chadwick, Henry. East and West: The Making of a Rift in the Church: From Apostolic Times Until the Council of
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Chazan, Robert. Daggers of Faith: Thirteenth-Century Missionizing and Jewish Response. Berkeley: University of
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Cunningham, Lawrence S. Francis of Assisi: Performing the Gospel Life. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004.
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Evans, G. R. John Wyclif: Myth and Reality. OxforG: Lion Books, 2005.
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________. The Cathars. OxforG: Blackwell, 1998.
Lawrence, C. H. Medieval Monasticism, rev. ed. London: Longman, 1989.
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________. The Flowering of Mysticism: Men and Women in the New Mysticism, 1200-1350. New York: Crossroad,
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Morris, Colin. The Papal Monarchy: The Western Church from 1050 to 1250. Oxford History of the Christian
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Ozment, Steven. The Age of Reform, 1250-1550. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1980.
Riche, Pierre. Daily Life in the World of Charlemagne. Translated by Jo Ann McNamara. Philadelphia: University
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________.Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages. Harmondsworth, EnglanG: Penguin Books, 1970.
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