East Tennessee State University
Department of History
History 3910: History of Christianity
Professor Burgess
This course will deal with the history of the Christian religion. Christianity is
normally classified as one of the world's major religions and as such is a fit
subject for historical inquiry. This class IS NOT a devotional service,
Campus Crusade for Christ, or designed to promote the doctrine of the First
Church of Whatever Imaginative Denomination of Johnson City, nor will it be
used by anyone, instructor or students, to promote or advocate any general
or particular version of Christianity. Such activity WILL NOT BE
TOLERATED!! Anyone (!!!) failing to remember this, risks immediate
expulsion from this class, with a "F" in the course. If you cannot act in
a civilized and open-minded fashion, and engage in civil discourse, please
drop the class now and avoid embarrassment for all of us.
My job, indeed, my moral and professional obligation in this class, as an
historian and teacher, is to acquaint you with the history of Christianity. This
means that I am going to summarize and explain to you the conclusions of
thousands of ancient and medieval historians and scholars regarding the
matters under discussion in this class. If we discuss something you have
never heard before or something that you "don't like", do not become hostile
or adversarial, and do not accuse me of "making it all up", or "lying". Simply
because you have never heard of, or been exposed to, aspects of the actual
history of the Church, does not mean that these things do not exist. I am
unable to go back and change the past so that it conforms to whatever
particular "story" you may have been told. Don't go around telling people
that I am "the Anti-Christ", "anti-Christian", "anti-religious", "anti-whatever"
because you will only succeed in demonstrating your ignorance to people
who know me and who have had classes with me.
This course will cover the historical background, both Hellenistic and Roman,
religious and cultural, which brought about the circumstances from which
Christianity arose. Included in this background will be such things as the
political developments of the Hellenistic kingdoms and the late Roman
Republic and their interaction with the Jews of Palestine. We will also
consider such things as public and private religion among the Greeks and
Romans, and the available alternatives, such as the various philosophical
schools.
This course will also consider the New Testament as a reliable historical
source, the historicity of Jesus of Nazareth, the early church, the Pauline
influence, and other non-successful forms of Christianity, and their
alternatives, the Mystery Cults. Consideration will then be given to the
development of Christianity as a religion, including theological, doctrinal, and
institutional development, the rise of Eastern and Western Christianity, the
development of monasticism, the Church in the Middle Ages, the rivalry
between the Church and the State, and the Protestant Reformation.
Grading and Written Assignments: This is not a required course and due
to the nature of the subject material, you are presumably taking it because
you have an interest in learning something about it. In this case, exams do
not seem to serve a useful purpose. Instead, they interfere with learning by
causing concentration on exam preparation and encourage a kind of rotememorization only. You will be required to do two written assignments. Each
will be a short paper (8-10 pages). The first will be due in the seventh week
of the course (Friday, October 14th) and the second on the Monday of the
last week of class, not the Monday of exam week. One letter grade will be
subtracted for each day your paper is late.
Each paper will count 40% of your grade. Each individual must see me to
have the paper topics approved by the fourth and twelfth week of the
semester. Papers may either be a pure research topic or a critical essay on
some appropriate topic. Papers must contain the necessary footnotes and
bibliography. I will give you a separate handout detailing Department
Guidelines for grading written work.
All papers must be typed and double-spaced, with appropriate margins. If
you are unaware of what that means, it means one-inch margins all around
and a font size of 10-11, depending on the font style. Don't give me two or
three inch margins and size 20 font. It will result in an "F", no questions
asked; just do what you are supposed to do. No handwritten papers will be
accepted. All papers must include appropriate footnotes (or endnotes) and
bibliography associated with a formal research paper, in an acceptable and
recognized form. Should you fail to include either appropriate footnotes (or
endnotes) or bibliography, you will loose a minimum of one letter grade for
each. If you are a History major, you must use Turabian. Failure to do so,
will result in one letter grade off your grade. If you are not a History major,
you may use the citation form appropriate to your discipline.
Do not tell me that your computer ate your disk or your dog ate your paper.
You are adults and I expect you to be capable of acting as such. Make
backups of your files. I will not accept "computer crashes" as an excuse for
late papers.
I will not accept papers with bibliographies composed entirely (or mostly) of
websites. You must go to the library and use actual books and journals. In a
parapharase of Sturgeon's Law, 90% of what is on the Web is crap. Should
you fail to do the basic research expected of you, you will receive an "F".
Also, you may not use encyclopediae or similar resources. This is college,
people, not junior high school. Use real books.
The remaining 20% of your grade will be determined by your interest,
participation, and ability to demonstrate during class discussion that you are
familiar with the material being studied. Obviously, it is important that you
participate in this class as an equal member.
Attendance: Attendance is not required. But since 20% of your grade is
based upon interest and participation, it would probably behoove you to put
in an appearance occasionally...
Books: Please, get them and read them.
Johnson. History of Christianity
Southern. Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages
Tatum. In Quest of Jesus
The New Testament (presumably, you can dig up a copy. If you
cannot, the Gideon's always give me multiple copies...for some
reason...so I have some in the office.)
Subjects and Reading Assignments:
I. Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic World
II. Greek Religion and Philosophy
III. Hellenism and Judaism

Johnson. 1-20
IV. Rome and the Jews
V. The Problem of the Sources


The Gospels. all
Tatum. begin reading
VI. The Life of Jesus


Tatum. finish reading
Johnson. 20-32
VII. The Early Church

Johnson. 32-63, 69-91, 112-118
VIII. The Competition: Gnosticism and the Mystery Cults
IX. Growth and Persecution
X. Constantine the Great


Johnson. 67-78
Southern. begin
XI. Developing Doctrine

Johnson. 88-139
XII. The Christian Communinity

Johnson. 140-161
XIII. Monasticism
XIV. Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism
XV. Church and State

Johnson. 162-188
XVI. Luther and the Protestant Reformation

Johnson. 191-328
A large bibliography Bibliography of Ancient Religions. Do not try to
print it all out. It runs well over 300 pages. Save to a disk and use your
search funtions, if you want the whole thing. I am adding more aas time
allows.
Additional Readings for your future edification: Not Required
-these reading deal with the scholarship on the historical Jesus and related
subjects. Their publication dates range from the beginning of the century to
last year. A far more extensive bibliography is in the process of being
produced for the Department's webpage.
General histories and intellectual histories:
K. Bihlmeyer. Church History (A good, readable Church history by, as I recall, a Roman Catholic)
S. Brown. The Origins of Christianity
N. Cohn. Cosmos, Chaos, and the World to Come: the Ancient Roots of
Apocalyptic Faith (a tour-de-force on the origins of apocalyptic faiths including Zoroastrianism,Judaism, and
Christianity and the relations between them. Not to be missed.)
C. Cochrane. Christianity and Classical Culture
(An amazing intellectual tour-de-force. Shows
the merging, and eventual dominance, of Greek thought with early Christianity.)
M. Ellis. The Christian Fathers
R. Fox. Pagans and Christians
P. Hughs. The Church in Crisis
(the first 6 or 7 ecumenical councils)
Paul Johnson. A History of Christianity
(Used to be a Marxist, now a sort of "fundamentalist"
Anglican.)
K. Latourette. History of Christianity (A good, readable Church history by, as I recall, a Baptist, but
not a Southern Baptist.)
T. Sheenan. The First Coming: How the Kingdom of God became Christianity
(...an interesting view of the origins of Christianity by a philosopher...from Notre Dame.)
Texts and criticism:
The Apocrypha trans. E.J. Goodspeed
The New Testament trans. E.J. Goodspeed
(A really excellent translation of the N.T. by a good
scholar.)
M.W. Barton. Biblical Interpretation
J. Bentley. Secrets of Mt. Sinai
(The story of the discovery of what is currently the oldest N.T Ms., not
available to the tranlators of the KJV.)
H. Chadwick. Early Christian Thought and the Classical Tradition
B. D. Erhman. The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture
(A must read for anyone who believes
that the current N.T. is substantially the same as the autographs fo the original books. He is head of his department at
Chapel Hill.)
R.L. Fox. The Unauthorized Version
R.W. Funk, ed. The Five Gospels
(Interesting and fun to read.)
(The four canonical gospels, plus the Gospel of Thomas.)
Daniel Harrington, S.J. Interpreting the New Testament
(If you don't know what S.J.
means, Harrington is a member of the Society of Jesus.)
Randel McCraw Helms. Who Wrote the Gospels?
(Clear explanation and thought provoking
approach to some of the literary problems of the Synoptics and John. Interesting reading, people.)
B.L. Mack. The Lost Gospel : The Book of Q and Christian Origins
R.J. Miller, ed. The Complete Gospels
(The canonical and non-canonical gospels. Interesting reading,
people.)
Keith F. Nickle. The Synoptic Gospels: An Introduction
(Taught at Columbia Seminary and
used to be the pastor at First Presybterian in Jefferson City, TN.)
N. Perrin. The New Testament: an Introduction
(A really excellent intro to the N.T. by a good
scholar...an Baptist, but not a Southern Baptist, as I recall. I recommend it highly.)
G. Vermes. The Dead Sea Scrolls
N. Glob. Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls: The Search for the Secret of
Qumran
H.-J. Klimkeit. Gnosis on the Silk Road: Gnostic Parables, Hymns, and
Prayers from Central Asia
C.W. Hedrick and R. Hodgson, Jr. ed. Nag Hammadi, Gnosticism, and Early
Christianity
H. Gamble. The New Testament Canon: Its Making and Meaning
(Attended seminary
with Dr. Dennis Hamm, up in Criminal Justice.)
The Nag Hammadi Library, ed. J. M. Robinson
(A translation of the Gnostic text found in Egypt
in the late 1940's.)
The Other Bible, ed. W. Barnstone
(Writings not include in the canon of the N.T.)
The Apostolic Fathers, ed. J. B. Lightfoot
(Writers from the late First and early Second century
A.D.)
M.W. Meyer. The Secret Teachings of Jesus: Four Gnostic Gospels
S.L. Schepps. The Lost Books of the Bible
(More non-canonical books.)
H.J. Schoenfield. The Original New Testament: A Radical Translation and
Reinterpretation (A radical, and interesting translation of the text.)
The Historical Jesus:
S.F.G. Brandon. The Trial of Jesus of Nazareth
(An excellent look a the political and social
reasons for the arrest of Jesus and his trial, concluding that he was executed for political violence and armed
sedition...difficult to refute.)
J.D. Carmichael. The Birth of Christianity: Reality and Myth
(A good summary for the
non-specialist.)
H. Carpenter. Jesus
(A good, readable biography for the non-specialist.)
H. Conzelmann. Jesus
(Lays out and discusses the major problems and questions of Jesus-scholarship.)
J.D. Crossan. The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish
Peasant
(A complex and complicated book. I would not recommend it first. Do it when you have some background.)
J.D. Crossan: Jesus: A Revlolutionary Biography
J.D. Crossan. Who Killed Jesus
J.D.G. Dunn. The Evidence for Jesus
P. Fredrikson. From Jesus to Christ: The Origins of the New Testament
Images of Jesus (If you are curious about the manner in which the Church's image of Jesus came to be, then
read this book. Excellent.)
W. Fricke. The Court-Martial of Jesus
(An examination of the trial by a lawyer. Sensible and well-
written.)
M. Grant. Jesus: An Historian's Review of the Gospels
(An ancient historian, trained in
Graeco-Roman history, looks at Jesus-of-the-Gospels. An excellent beginning place for the non-specialist)
M. Grant. St. Paul
R.A. Horsley and J.S. Hanson. Bandits, Prophets, and Messiahs: Popular
Movements at the time of Jesus (If you want to understand the political, social, and religious
background of the time of Jesus, read this. There were a whole bunch of people claiming to be Messiahs, prophets, and
Kings of the Jews; Jesus is not unique, just the most successful.)
R.A. Horsley. Jesus and the Cycle of Violence
R.A. Horsley. Sociology and the Jesus Movement
L. T. Johnson. The Real Jesus
(A Roman Catholic scholar, from Emory. Somewhat conservative, but
accepts most standard N.T. scholarship.)
W.F. Meeks. The First Urban Christians
(A Baptist, as I recall, and one not particularly happy about
the why the Baptist denomination has gone in the last forty years.)
J.Meirs. A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus
(Three volumes, so far. Complex
and not for the beginner; read it when you have some background.)
J. Painter. The Quest for the Messiah
N. Perrin. The Ressurection
J. Reumann. Jesus in the Church's Gospels
E.P. Sanders. The Historical Figure of Jesus
(An excellent history of the historical Jesus.)
A. Schmenann. The Historical Road to Eastern Orthodoxy
M. Smith. Jesus, the Magician
(Potentially disturbing and difficult to refute...)
G.N. Stanton. The Gospels and Jesus
G. Theissen. Sociology of Early Palestinian Christianity
G. Vermes. Jesus, the Jew
(If it somehow hasn't dawned on you that Jesus was a Jew, or you would like to
understand the background of Judaism and Galilee at the time, read this.)
G. Vermes. The Religion of Jesus the Jew
G.A. Wells. Who was Jesus?
G.A. Wells. The Jesus of the Early Christians
G.A. Wells. The Historical Evidence for Jesus
G.A. Wells. Did Jesus Exist
A.N. Wilson. Jesus. A Life
Graeco-Roman Religion:
S. Angus. The Mystery Religions
W. Berkert. Greek Religion
W. Burket. Ancient Mystery Religions
F. Cumont. The Mysteries of Mithra
W. Holliday. The Pagan Background of Early Christian Religion
F. Legge. Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity
R.M. Seltzer. Religions of Antiquity
D. Ulansey. The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries
L. Martin. Hellenistic Religion
Judaism:
M. Grant. The Jews in the Roman Empire
E. Schurer. A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus
V. Tcherikover. Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews
Gnosticism:
C.W. Hedrick and R. Hodgson, Jr. ed. Nag Hammadi, Gnosticism, and Early
Christianity
H. Jonas. Gnosticism
H.-J. Klimkeit. Gnosis on the Silk Road: Gnostic Parables, Hymns, and
Prayers from Central Asia
E. Pagels. The Gnostic Gospels
E. Pagels. The Gnostic Paul
E. Pagels. Adam, Eve, and the Serpent
S. Petrement. A Separate God: The Origins and Teaching of Gnosticism
K. Rudolph. Gnosis: The Nature and History of Gnosticism
Ancient and Medieval Christianity:
P. Brown. Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early
Christianity (If you are curious about the way in which Christianity came to have such an idiosyncratic view of sex
and sexuality, read this. Brown is his usual scholarly and brilliant self.)
P. Brown. Augustine of Hippo
(The biography of Augustine in English. Virtually all Christians are
Augustianian in their dogma, either following his system or reacting aganist it.)
P. Brown. Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity: Towards A Christian
Empire
H. Chadwick. Augustine
(An excellent, short biography.)
D. Christie-Murray. A History of Heresy
(Guess what? We are all heretics!! An excellent survey of
Christian dogma and theology.)
M.S. Enslin. Christian Beginnings
D. Knowles, O.S.B. Christian Monasticism
C.H. Lawerence. Medieval Monasticism
J. Leclercq, O.S.B. The Love of Learning and the Desire for God: A Study of
Monastic Culture
R. MacMullen. Christianizing the Roman Empire
H. Maccoby. Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity
(A thought-provoking
analysis of Paul by a recognized Talmudic scholar. For those of you who preface "Paul" with "the blessed apostle", perhaps
you ought to take a look at this one.)
A. Malherbe. The Social Aspects of Early Christianity
W. Meeks. The Moral World of the First Christians
(A good study by a recognized (and
Baptist) scholar, of early Christian morality. He intended to be a scholarly antidote to all the televangilists and conservative
moralizers of the late 20th century....and he says so...indicating that he has no respect for them or their propaganda.)
W. Meeks. Early Christian Morality
(A bit more of the same.)
H.C. Kee. Miracles in the Early Christian World
E. Pagels. The Gnostic Gospels
E.Pagels. The Gnostic Paul
E. Pagels. Adam, Eve, and the Serpent
(Another impressive work on the Augustinian thought and
the origins of Christian ideas about sex and sexuality.)
U. Ranke-Heinemann. Putting Away Childish Things
(A student of Bultmann. For those of
you who believe every word of the N.T. as literally true, someone who takes the opposite opinion, and who will explain it to
you.)
G. Ricciotti. The Age of Martyrs
(A good, readable history by, as I recall, a Catholic cardinal,
martyrdom, with incidental info on why most "persecutions" and "martyrs" simply did not exist.)
J.B. Russell. A History of Medieval Christianity: Prophecy and Order
M. Sordi. The Chrisitans and the Roman Empire
R.W. Southern. Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages
R.L. Wilken. The Christians as the Romans Saw Them
(If you want to be accurately
informed about the Roman view of early Christians, as, say the "Sunday school version" of the Romans, read this.)
H.B. Workman. The Evolution of the Monastic Ideal
J. Ziesler. Pauline Christianity
A much larger bibliography Bibliography of Ancient Religions
In addition: The History Department's webpages have additional links
related to all of these subjects at:
http://www.etsu.edu/cas/history/religion.htm
Last updated: Ides of August 2005