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BTI Consortium | Last Updated April 21, 2026 - 6:00PM
CHURCH HISTORY & HISTORY OF RELIGIONS
School
Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry
TMHC7026
History of Western Christianity I: 100-850
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
Through lectures and primary source readings, the course surveys the major cultural, institutional, and theological developments of ancient Christianity from the time of the persecutions to the break-up of the Carolingian empire and the rise of medieval Christendom.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Dunkle, Brian P, SJ
TR
10:00AM-11:30AM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry
TMHC7218
Introduction to Ignatian Spirituality
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
A study of the coherent theological vision and practical spiritual teachings of Ignatius of Loyola through his writings (e.g. Spiritual Exercises, Diary, and Testament). The course explores both the historical foundations for Ignatius's spiritual program and its subsequent interpretations by theologians and pastoral practitioners.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Brouillette, Andre, SJ
R
09:30AM-11:50AM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry
TMHC7285
Where Two or Three are Gathered: A History of Religious Life in the West
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
This course will consider broadly and in narrative fashion the existence of religious life and religious communities in the history of the church, primarily in the West. From the early days of the church, intentional communities have existed. Eventually, communities of desert monastics arose and monastic rules developed. Religious life came to be ordered in particular ways, eventually in what we would think of as religious orders with governing structures, but also in the form of confraternities and lay movements. This course will explore instances of religious life - lay, vowed and clerical - from the deserts to the cities, from patristic times through the medieval, modern, and postmodern periods. The course will consider not only arrangements and institutions, but also the spirituality of various groups and the attempt to follow Christ more closely by Christian women and men throughout time.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Molvarec, Stephen Joseph, Society of Jesus
R
03:30PM-06:20PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
(A previous church history or historical theology course is required.)(Free-Form Text); or (Permission of Instructor)(Workflow-Based)
School
Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry
TMHC8067
The Book of Job in the Middle Ages
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
Throughout the Middle Ages the Old Testament Book of Job attracted the attention, scholarly acumen, and artistic insight of a number of Christian clerics, exegetes, theologians, philosophers, historians, poets, and painters. This course surveys some of the most important medieval Christian engagements with and interpretations of Job, both in exegetical and theological works (e.g., the Moralia of Gregory the Great; the commentaries of Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, and Nicholas of Lyra; and commentaries on the Sentences of Peter Lombard), on the one hand, and in vernacular and popular works (e.g., artistic depictions, Old English literature, the sermons of John Wycliffe and his followers), on the other.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Harkins, Franklin T
W
01:00PM-03:50PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
(A course in History of Christianity.)(Free-Form Text)
School
Boston College Theology Department
THEO7070
Medieval Christology
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
This seminar will give careful, primary-text based attention to the developments and achievements of high medieval scholastic Christology, from Peter Lombard to Bonaventure, Aquinas, and Scotus. In particular, it will attend to such issues as the Primacy/Predestination of Christ, Exemplarism and Creation; the Metaphysics of the Incarnation; Devotion to the Humanity of Christ; Christs Consciousness; and the grace of Christ the Head.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Coolman, Boyd
T
10:00AM-12:25PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Boston University School of Theology
STHTH 702
Introduction to Global Christianity
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
This course introduces the history of Christianity as a world religion. It explores major turning points in the history of Christianity, from antiquity to the present. Selected thematic approaches highlight the historical interplay between local contexts and the self-consciousness of Christianity as global movement. As one of the core options for introduction to the history of Christianity, the course contents align with the key turning points, structure, and assignments in TH 701 History of Christianity.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Robert, Dana
TR
9:30-10:45 am, the class meets twice a week
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
Core class for IME Certificate
School
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary-Hamilton
CH/SF618
Medieval Spirituality
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
Medieval approaches to knowing God through mysticism, monasticism,�popular piety, sacraments, worship, art, music, architecture, symbolism; exploring relevance to spirituality�today. �
Professor
Class Day & Time
Adams, Gwenfair
W
6-9pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
Y
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 1561
The Self in Early Christianity
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
In conversation with Michel Foucault�s account of the complex relations between subjectivity and truth (and the importance of �techniques of the self�) in the ancient and late ancient worlds, this limited-enrollment seminar will explore various notions of the self in early Christianity. Focusing on the first four centuries of Christianity, we will investigate specific problems of theological anthropology (i.e., what it means to be human) that emerged for early Christian thinkers at the intersection between established modes of ancient thought and specifically Christian notions of scripture, creation, incarnation, resurrection etc.�In view throughout will be questions related to the �hermeneutics of the self� that proved richly generative for the Christian tradition in its formative moments�and continue to animate the tradition today.�This is a limited enrollment course. Please email the instructor (bdunning@hds.harvard.edu) with a short introduction including relevant background and reasons for wanting to enroll in the course. Students will be notified of acceptance before the enrollment deadline.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Dunning
T
03:00pm-04:59pm
Grading Option
HDS Student Option (LG/SUS/AUD)
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
This is a limited enrollment course. Please email the instructor (bdunning@hds.harvard.edu) with a short introduction including relevant background and reasons for wanting to enroll in the course. Students will be notified of acceptance before the enrollment deadline.
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 1780
Infancy and Childhood in Ancient Greek Religion
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
As in all ancient societies, infants and children in ancient Greece were both uniquely vulnerable to early death and valuable as social beings. Children represented the future of family, polis, military, economy, and the worship of the gods. The survival of the culture depended on their religious protection and social incorporation. What do we know of ancient Greek ritual responses to this stage of life? What special roles did children play in cult? What space was created for children�s toys, games, beloved animals, and emotions? How do infants and children appear in art? What were the roles of gender, ethnicity, class, and caste? What did ancient Greek philosophers think of the first years of human life? How were young bodies buried, and early deaths commemorated? Through primary sources, including literature, iconography, and the archaeological record, as well as recent scholarship, we will consider how infants and children were nurtured, socialized, and initiated, with attention to themes of their liminality and mediating power. How should we read the many myths of abandonment, killing, consumption, or sacrifice of infants and children at the hands of adults, often at the gods� demand? We will also consider Roman and other ancient Mediterranean religions. Students will have an opportunity to develop their own research projects. Please write to Prof. Patton to express your interest: kpatton@hds.harvard.edu. Jointly offered with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as RELIGION 1323.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Patton
W
03:00pm-04:59pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
Please write to Prof. Patton to express your interest: kpatton@hds.harvard.edu.
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2187
Evangelicalism in America
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
This course focuses on the American evangelical movement from the 1740s to the present. Beginning with the rise of transatlantic evangelicalism in the eighteenth century, we will explore the role of evangelicals in the American Revolution, the revivals of the Second Great Awakening, the crisis caused by slavery, the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy in the early twentieth century, the emergence of Pentecostalism and the Charismatic Movement, the controversies created by neo-evangelicalism in the 1940s, the relationship between evangelicalism and the civil rights movement, the political activism of the Christian Right, and contemporary evangelical attitudes toward gender and sexuality. Readings will introduce students to both evangelical ideas and practices. Throughout the course, we will focus on the historical development of evangelicalism and the relationship between evangelicals and American culture. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 1497.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Brekus
TR
01:30pm-02:45pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3118
American Heretics
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
This course explores the rise and role "irreligion" and "irreligious" or "heretical" ideas and thinkers in American religious/irreligious history, including proponents of Deism, Freethinkers, Transcendentalism, and Spiritualism and extending forward into the present day to include the New Atheists, Secular Humanists, Spiritual-But-Not-Religious, �Nones,� and others who do not identify with traditional religious institutions. The course uncovers on the interactions of these groups with 1) their more religiously traditional neighbors, including Catholics, Mainline and Evangelical Protestants, Jews, etc. and 2) the government of the United States and various state laws and institutions. This course explores the history of anti-religious, a-religious, and multi-religious movements and their influence in American society today, including as a form of social critique within the abolitionist, suffragist, civil rights, feminist, and womanist movements. "Heretical" ideas often later become religiously normative (such as ordaining women), while others remain irreligious, and this course explores reasons for each. This course includes exploration of 'primary texts' from heretical authors and secondary academic historical analysis to create a portrait of a diverse and ongoing thread in American intellectual history.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Sanford
R
03:00pm-04:59pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
This is a limited enrollment course. Interested students should attend the first course meeting. If the course is overenrolled, a selection procedure will be described at that first meeting. Selected students will then be invited to enroll in the course by the second meeting day.
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3154
Religion in Mesoamerica: Codices, Colonialisms, and Cosmovision
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
This seminar is a deep dive into the history and study of religious expression in the cultural area known as Mesoamerica from prehispanic times to the present. Utilizing a diverse array of primary and secondary materials with special use of pictorial and alphabetic codices (some found in Tozzer Library), we will examine the themes of cosmovision, miracles, the human body, gender, death, and the soul in Mesoamerican cultures. The course will focus on the development of beliefs, practices, and religious structures (in Mexica, Maya, and other cultures) such as ceremonial centers, spiritual geography, sacred architecture, divination and the ritual calendar, sacrifice, and imperial ideologies, in light of a range of interpretive approaches to the study of myth, sacred time and space, ritual performance, syncretism, and transculturation. Particular attention will also be given to regional and cultural variations, continuities and changes over time, and the impact and implications of conquest, colonialism, and the advance of modernity. Students will leave the course with a solid grasp of primary and secondary sources for understanding religion in Mesoamerica as well as the ability to contribute to the organization of new knowledge about codices, colonialisms, and cosmovision. Students should bring some working knowledge of Mesoamerican religions into the course. We will utilize the methods and theories developed by Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, Elizabeth Boone, Charles H. Long, Marcel Mauss, Mircea Eliade, Barbara Munday, J.Z. Smith, Alfredo L�pez Austin, Paul Wheatley, William B. Taylor, Max Weber, Doris Heyden, among others. Among the codices to be examined are Florentine Codex, Mapa de Cuauhtinchan #2, Codex Mendoza, Borgia Codex, Dur�n Codex. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Anthropology 2317.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Carrasco
W
03:00pm-05:45pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
Students should bring some working knowledge of Mesoamerican religions into the course.
School
Holy Cross Greek Orthodox
CHST 5011 Z1
Church History I/Ecum. Patriarchate
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
This course offers a general introduction to the history of the Church up to the year 787. Emphasis will be laid on the main ecclesiastical and theological issues and personalities and on the study of certain key texts. Special attention will be given to the history and role of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Dr. James C. Skedros
ASYNC
ASYNC
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
Y
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Holy Cross Greek Orthodox
PATR 5011 Z1
Patrology
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
This introductory core-course serves as a general introduction to the Fathers and the main periods of Patristic Literature from post-apostolic times to the end of the fourth century. The course combines an introduction to the central Fathers of this period, with attention not only to the doctrinal issues, but also the literary, historical, and cultural context of this period.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Rev. Fr. Demetrios Bathrellos
ASYNC
ASYNC
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
Y
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
I-V
School
Holy Cross Greek Orthodox
PATR 6032 Z1
St. Gregory of Nyssa
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
The Second Council of Nicaea (787) proclaimed St Gregory of Nyssa the "Father of Fathers." The biological brother of St Basil the Great and the self-professed disciple of his sister St Makrina, Gregory is remembered as the most speculative of the Cappadocian Fathers. In this course, we explore Gregory's dogmatic writings (especially his seminal contributions to the doctrine of the Trinity) as well as his exegetical sermons and mystical treatises. Through a close reading of the primary sources, students will have the opportunity to encounter this gifted and complex theologian directly and in his own words.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Dr. Tikhon Alexander Pino
M
6:30-8:50 PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
Y
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
St Gregory of I-V
School
Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry
TMHC7166
Popes and the Papacy: From Peter to the Present
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
A survey course on the papacy from St Peter to Francis I with attention to spiritual, theological, and institutional contexts. We will explore issues such as papal primacy, ground-breaking teachings and councils, influential women, controversies including the crusades, Protestant Reformation, church expansion in the global South, infallibility, the Holocaust, racial and social justice concerns, the role of the laity, womens ministries, and gender topics. Papal relations with the Jesuits receive special attention. Lectures with regular opportunities to discuss primary source readings and their relevance today.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Mooney, Catherine
M
10:00AM-12:20PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry
TMHC7228
Introduction to Thomas Aquinas
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
This course provides an introduction to the theology of Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274) in its historical, intellectual, and institutional contexts, with a focus on reading and understanding the primary texts of Thomas (in English translation). The course considers Thomas�s treatment of central theological topics including the nature and extent of theology, the status and interpretation of Sacred Scripture, the existence and essence of God, divine providence and predestination, God�s triune nature, creation, human nature, evil and sin, grace and its effects, merit, faith and its relationship to reason, the Incarnation, Christ�s passion and death, His resurrection and ascension, and the sacraments. Throughout attention will be given to Thomas�s assumptions and working method as a scholastic master and the uses he makes of various authorities (scriptural, patristic, philosophical, etc.) in the development of his theology.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Harkins, Franklin T
F
09:00AM-12:00PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry
TMHC7303
Screening Saints & Sanctity
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
This course explores saints as they are depicted in award-winning films, primary sources by or about the saints, and scholarly sources regarding the saints and their subsequent portrayals by film directors. These latter figures modern hagiographers contribute toward constructing a given saints image as the saint is popularly understood. Exploring the historical contexts of both the saint in question and his or her later interpreter will illuminate the pressing theological, religious, ecclesial, social, and political concerns in their respective eras. The course aims to elevate teaching and preaching regarding these multi-layered perspectives on saints and notions of sanctity.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Mooney, Catherine
W
10:00AM-12:20PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry
TMHC8145
Reforms and Reformations
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
Church reformers often harken back to a real or imagined pure or golden period at various times in the history of the Christian community and attempt to reform and direct the life of the Church based on that image. This course will examine significant episodes of reform in the Church from the early medieval period (6-9th centuries) until the present day. Notably, it will treat extensively the Protestant and Catholic reform(ation)s of the 16th-century, as well as the reform of the mid-20th century, but also the Carolingian Reforms and the Gregorian Reform, among others.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Molvarec, Stephen Joseph, Society of Jesus
T
03:30PM-06:20PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
(Previous courses in Church History.)(Free-Form Text); or (Permission of Instructor)(Workflow-Based)
School
Boston College Theology Department
THEO7505
Christian Manuscripts, Texts, and Exegesis
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
The interpretation of Christian writings from antiquity often involves the use of modern translations or critical editions, but how did these translations or editions come about? This course considers various aspects of early Christian manuscripts and issues related to the early transmission of the New Testament, along with the relevance and significance of these aspects and issues for exegesis. As the course will often be working with digital images of ancient manuscripts or modern critical editions, some knowledge of New Testament Greek is required.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Roth, Dieter T
M
04:30PM-06:50PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
Greek
School
Boston University School of Theology
STHTT 732
History of Christian Theology in Philosophical Perspective
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
In its nearly two-millennium long history, Christian theology has been shaped by its dynamic engagements with (and in) various traditions of philosophical reflection. In this course, students will examine how four such traditions-- Platonic, Aristotelian, Kantian/Phenomenological, and Marxist/Critical--have influenced (and been influenced by) theological questions, concepts, and modes of discourse. Thinkers from ancient, medieval, Reformation, modern, and postmodern periods will be studied, with emphasis on historical and social settings. Students are encouraged to take STH TF 701 or 702 before registering for this course.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Maia, Filipe
M
3:30-6:15 pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary-Hamilton
CH501
The Church to the Reformation
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
A general survey of the history of the Christian church from its�founding at Pentecost to the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century. ��� �
Professor
Class Day & Time
Sunquist, Scott
M
1:30-4:30pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 1724
Early Christian Demonology
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
This course will introduce students to the theory and practice of demonology in early Christianity. The course will begin with the sudden explosion of interest in demons in ancient Judaism in the 3rd c. BCE, the role of demons in the Christian New Testament, and their role in early Christian thought, especially in the writings of Origen of Alexandria (d. 185-253 CE). The course will then move into early monastic demonology and focus on such figures as Antony the Great, Athanasius, Evagrius Pontus, Pachomius, Shenoute, and others, and such texts as the various collections of apophthegmata patrum, or "Sayings of the Fathers." Among other things, the course will question of the category of "demon" understood as an evil spirit or entity, its relationship to the pre-Christian notion of the daim_n, and how demons were understood to be related to angels and humans. If time permits, the course will look at the development of Christian demonology in early medieval Eastern Christianity.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Stang
W
01:00pm-02:59pm
Grading Option
HDS Student Option (LG/SUS/AUD)
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2121
Trends in World Christianity, 1900�2050
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
In 1900, 82% of all Christians in the world lived in Europe and North America (defined by the United Nations as the "global North") and 18% of Christians lived in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania ("global South"). However, by 2020, only 33% of Christians lived in the global North, and 67% lived in the global South. As a result, a "typical" Christian today is a woman of color living in the global South with lower-than-average socioeconomic status and physical safety. This represents a vastly different typical Christian than that of 100 years ago, who would have been a White affluent European. The demographic shift of World Christianity is poised to continue and has brought to the surface many long-standing tensions in Christian communities related to power, money, interpretation, and influence.This course covers past (twentieth century) and present (twenty-first century) trends in World Christianity from historical and social scientific perspectives. It explores many of the tensions in World Christianity today related to, for example, colonial/post-colonial realities, contextual theologies, race/racism, and global issues such as the climate crisis and religious freedom. This course has a particular focus on gender in World Christianity, where women make up the vast majority of churches worldwide yet are often denied leadership roles and decision-making opportunities. The course addresses topics unique to each continent (with a global South focus) as well as major Christian traditions -- Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, Independents, Evangelicals, and Pentecostals/Charismatics. Students will interact with relevant literature, debates, methods, and conversations in World Christianity studies and have the opportunity to write a research paper on a topic of their choice with professor approval.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Zurlo
M
03:00pm-05:45pm
Grading Option
HDS Student Option (LG/SUS/AUD)
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2431
Nineteenth-Century Religious Thought: Theology, Critique and the Philosophy of Religion
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
The nineteenth century formulated many of the questions and frameworks that continue to dominate religious reflection in the West. This course considers the developing interplay between modern Christian theology (largely continental) and key philosophical and social critiques and constructions of religion in the nineteenth century. Topics include human nature, religion, the divine-human relationship, religious knowledge, the social, and historicity. Readings from Lessing, Schleiermacher, Hegel, Emerson, Feuerbach, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Mueller, Peirce and others. Taught in seminar format, enrollment limited. See Canvas site for application instructions; applications due the Friday before classes begin. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 1543.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Lamberth
TBD
TBD
Grading Option
Letter, P/F
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
See Canvas site for application instructions; applications due the Friday before classes begin. BTI students contact HDS Xreg
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3142
Coming of Age: American Religious History through the Novel
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
This course surveys American religious history, using a series of coming-of-age novels as its primary sources. It begins with Catharine Sedgewick's Unitarian take on Puritanism in Hope Leslie, and moves through Harriet Wilson's tale of an indentured Black girlhood in Our N--, Harold Frederic's narrative of a Methodist fall from grace in The Damnation of Theron Ware, James Baldwin's Pentecostal wrestle in Go Tell It on the Mountain, Rudolfo Anaya's borderland intertwining of Indigenous spirituality and Catholicism in Bless Me, Ultima, Chaim Potok's classic exploration of Jewish identity in The Chosen, and Ayad Akhtar's portrait of a midwestern Muslim boyhood in American Dervish. Students will situate these novels as artifacts of their time and place, consider their capacity to illustrate both historical phenomena and authorial perspective, and critically engage their artistic expression of religious experience. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 2468.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Holland
TBD
TBD
Grading Option
Letter, P/F
Credits
4
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Holy Cross Greek Orthodox
CHST 5011
Church History I/Ecum. Patriarchate
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
This course offers a general introduction to the history of the Church up to the year 787. Emphasis will be laid on the main ecclesiastical and theological issues and personalities and on the study of certain key texts. Special attention will be given to the history and role of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Dr. James C. Skedros
MW
2:10-3:30 PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Holy Cross Greek Orthodox
PATR 5011
Patrology
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
This introductory core-course serves as a general introduction to the Fathers and the main periods of Patristic Literature from post-apostolic times to the end of the fourth century. The course combines an introduction to the central Fathers of this period, with attention not only to the doctrinal issues, but also the literary, historical, and cultural context of this period.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Rev. Fr. Demetrios Bathrellos
F
2:10-4:30 PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
I-V
School
Holy Cross Greek Orthodox
PATR 5020
Orthodox Christianity
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
A basic introduction to the history, theology, and spirituality of the Orthodox Church. Emphasis will be placed on the theology of the Ecumenical Councils, the writings of the Church Fathers, and classic works of Orthodox spirituality.
This course is limited to students in the Youth/Young Adult Ministry and Leadership Certificate program.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Rev. Dr. Philip Zymaris
F
1-2:10 PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
1.5
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
St John's Seminary
CH501
Church History I
BTI Category
Semester
Church History/History of Religions
FA26
This survey course aims to introduce students to the history of the Catholic Church from the first century through the fifteenth century. Through an examination of the historical narrative, including its key periods, movements, and figures, students will come to a deeper understanding of the history of the Catholic Church in the early and medieval periods.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Dr. Coughlin
MF
M 10:30-11:45 AM; F 9-10:15 AM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Online?
N
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
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