Description

 

This is the syllabus for the first half of a two-semester survey of the history of Christian ethics and religious social criticism.  It is followed by R375/575 in the spring.  Students are not required to take both courses.  The survey has three objectives.

 

First, the course aims to give an overview of major thinkers in key periods of Christianity and to acquaint students with different genres of ethical literature.  The underlying argument of the course is that the tradition of “Christian ethics” is not a single, monolithic entity.  It is rather a patchwork of subtraditions that have produced literatures, arguments, and standards for human conduct in response to problems that have emerged in different cultural, social, and institutional contexts.  We will explore that variety in this course.  Materials for the first semester will draw from biblical sources and early Christian teachings, the patristic period, Augustine, Bernard of Clairvaux, Abelard, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, radical reformers, and Spanish Scholasticism. (In addition to these primary sources, all students will read Wayne Meeks's The Moral World of the Early Christians and graduate students will read assigned sections of Ernst Troeltsch's The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches.)

 

Second, the course will examine intellectual changes that emerged in the last third of the twentieth century, giving rise to a more comparative and diversified discipline of religious ethics.  I call this “religious social criticism.”  It has important connections to and differences from Christian ethics, which we’ll note during the last part of the second semester.   

 

Third, given the diversity of materials we study, we will examine the idea of a “tradition,” and will ask what a tradition comprises.  That is to say, we will step back from the survey and ask which materials seem obvious to include in a tradition of Christian ethics, and what those decisions suggest about how a tradition is constructed (and revised). 

 

 

Readings

 

Books ordered for purchase:

 

Wayne Meeks, The Moral World of the Early Christians

Cyril Richardson, ed., Early Christian Fathers

Augustine, The City of God (trans. Bettenson)

Peter Abelard, Ethical Writings, trans. Paul Vincent Spade

Thomas Aquinas on Politics and Ethics, ed., Paul Sigmund

Martin Luther: Three Treatises

Spiritual and Anabaptist Writers, ed., George Williams

Francisco de Vitoria, Political Writings, ed. Anthony Padgen and Jeremy Lawrence

Bartolomé de Las Casas, The Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account, trans. Herma Briffault

 

 

I have not ordered copies of the Bible, but you may access the assignment passages on-line or use one of a number of translations, e.g., the New Revised Standard Version. 

 

The remaining reading assignments are in the R374/574 Reader on e-reserve. 

 

 

Requirements

 

There will be three written assignments, each worth 20%: one short paper (7-9 pages), one take-home exam; and one annotated bibliography.  The first is due September 30; second is due November 11; the third is due December 9.  Late assignments are docked 1/3 grade for each day late.  I will spell out specifics for each requirement before it is due.

 

There will be a cumulative final exam, worth 20%, on December 14, 10:15am-12:15pm.

 

Attendance and participation count 15%.  These may well include occasional quiz scores, which I might include to ensure that we’re all keeping up with the reading. 

 

In addition, each student is required to make at least one office visit before the second writing assignment, which is due on November 11.  That way I can get to know you and your interests, and answer questions that you have about course material.  This requirement counts for 5%.  My office hours are posted at the top of the first page of this syllabus.

 

About attendance: Only excused, documented absences are acceptable.  If you have 4 or more unexcused absences, you cannot score higher than a B in this class; 6 or more, no higher than a C; 8 or more, no higher than a D; 10 or more, no higher than an F.

 

 

Summary:

Short Paper (7-9 pp):	20%
Take-home exam:	20%
Annotated bibliography:	20%
Final exam:	20%
Attendance & participation:	15%
Office visit(s):	5%

 

 

N.B. Graduate students will have additional meetings, separate from R374, which we will schedule during the first week of classes. 

 

 

Format, Communication, and Expectations

 

During the first week I will discuss course logistics and will provide some background for the class.  Starting the second week, our format will be lecture-and-discussion.  After taking class attendance, I will make some focused comments on the reading – either to identify and analyze some key themes or passages, or to provide some background information about the author, the reading assignment, or secondary source material.  I will then turn to you for questions, comments, and discussion.  To help you prepare for that part of the class, I will regularly send out questions over email to focus your readings and to provide a framework for discussion.  You will need to consult your email on a regular basis, and you must come to class willing to participate or be called on for comments.  I do not use OnCourse but will communicate instead with an email listserve.  Attendance, keeping pace with the reading assignments, and participating in class are keys to success in this course. 

 

 

Schedule

 

Note:  The Troeltsch assignments are for graduate students only.

 

Week 1

Aug 29:           Introduction: Terminological and Methodological Remarks

 

Aug 31:           Surveying the surveys:  a review of secondary sources

 

                        Reading: Wayne Meeks, The Moral World of the Early Christians, Introduction,

                        Chaps. 1,2, 3; begin New Testament readings listed in Week 2.

 

Week 2

Sept. 5 &

Sept 7:             The New Testament:               

                        Matt 5-7, 25

                        Luke 4:16-19; 6:17-49

            Romans 5-7, 12-14

                        I Corinthians 8,13

                        Galatians 3:21-29

            Ephesians 5-6:20

            I Thessalonians 4-5

            James

            I Peter 2:9-22

            I John 4:13-21

            Revelation 13    

            Wayne Meeks, The Moral World of the Early Christians, chaps. 4,5, afterword

 

Week 3

Sept. 12:          Early Christianity

Troeltsch I: 89-155; 161-65

Early Christian Fathers, Richardson, ed.:                                                

I Clement                                           

Didache               

                        

Sept. 14:          Early Christian Fathers, Richardson, ed.,                                                                                                     "                      

Justin Martyr, Apology I

“The Martyrdom of Polycarp”

 

 

Week 4

Sept. 19:          Clement of Alexandria, “On Marriage,”                                                                                                        "                   

(required); “On Spiritual Perfection” (skim);

in Reader

 

Sept. 21:          Tertullian, “On Idolatry,” in Reader                                                                                                               "                           

 

 

Week 5

Sept. 26:          Augustine, “The Good of Marriage,”                                                                                                            "

at http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF1-03/npnf1-03-32.htm#P3736_1760974

and “Of the Morals of the Catholic Church,”

in Reader

 

Sept. 28:          Augustine, City of God, Bk. 1, pars. 1-11,                                                                                                    "

16, 20-30, 36 (skim the rest);                                         

Bk. 12, pars. 7-8;  

                        Bk. 14, pars. 1-2, 6-14, 23-28;

 

Friday, September 30: First assignment due at 5:00pm in my mailbox, Sycamore 230

 

 

Week 6

Oct. 3:             City of God, Bk. 19, pars. 4-14, 17, 23-28

 

Oct. 5:.            Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons on the Song                                                                                                   "

of Songs, IV, pp. 85-96 (recommended);

157-215 (required); in Reader

 

Week 7

Oct. 10 & 12:  Abelard, Ethics, Book I, pp. 1-50

 

Week 8

Oct. 17            Aquinas, Summa contra Gentiles

Troeltsch I: 257-272

                        Book 3: nos. 2, 3, 25, 27, 32, 37, 48    

(as excerpted in Sigmund, ed.)

 

Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I-I

Q. 12, a. 12, 13 (knowing God)

Q. 20, a. 2 (divine love) as excerpted in Sigmund, ed.

Q. 92, a. 1 (women)

Q. 96. a. 3, 4 (equality)

Q. 98, a. 2 (sex and procreation)

 

Oct. 19:           Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I-II                                                                                                                "

Q. 5, a. 3 (happiness)

Q. 21, a. 4 (acts) as excerpted in Sigmund, ed.

Q. 62, a. 3 (virtues)

            Q. 90-95, a. 2 (law: eternal, divine, natural, human)

Q. 109, A. 2 (grace)                            

 

Week 9

Oct. 24:           Aquinas, Summa Theologiae,  II-II                                                                                                               "

Q. 40, a. 1 (war)

Q. 42, a. 2 (sedition)

Q. 57, a. 3 (justice) as excerpted in Sigmund, ed.

Q. 64, a. 3, 5, 7, 8 (homicide)

Q. 66, a. 1, 2, 7 (property and theft)

Q. 78, a. 1 (usury)

Q.. 110, a. 3 (lying)

 

Oct. 26:          Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II

Troeltsch I: 343-382

On Charity:

Q. 23, a. 1-3,

Q. 24, a. 2, 3, 4 in Reader                              

Q. 25, a. 8

Q. 26, a.10 (skim the rest of q. 26)

 

 

Week 10

Oct. 31:.          Luther, “On the Freedom of a Christian”                                                                                           Troeltsch II, 465-515       

Luther, “On Secular Authority” (recommended, in Reader)