TTh 2:10-3:30

Kendra Eshleman
Ladd 209, x5462
office hours
MW 2:00-3:30



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Thursday, 9/7

Introduction

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Tuesday, 9/12

Diversity & Self-Definition in the Gospels

Primary Readings

Secondary Readings

Questions

  1. Try to answer the following questions for each of the gospels:

    1. What is the ideal relation of the followers of Jesus to Jewish scripture, ritual & ethical practice, and non-Christian Jews?
    2. What is the ideal relation of the followers of Jesus to the Gentile world?
    3. Who is Jesus?
    4. What must we do to be saved? What does salvation entail?
    5. What is this text's attitude to the human body? What sexual ethics does it prescribe?
    6. What role does this text envisage for women in the kingdom of heaven?
    7. Is this text aware of (future) disagreements among followers of Jesus? If so, can you tell what the substance of those disagreements will be? How (according to the text) will disagreements arise? What is the correct response to them?
    8. Could the texts support more than one answer to any of these questions?

  2. How similar are these gospels? How compatible are they? How do they compare to John, as Pagels analyzes it?
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Thursday, 9/14

Conflict & Identity-Formation in the First Generation

Primary Readings (in order of composition/suggested reading order)

Secondary Readings

Questions

  1. According to Paul and the author of Acts, what were the major points of conflict and/or debate for Jesus' earliest followers? How did these conflicts arise? Why do these questions matter so much?

  2. Try to reconstruct the other sides of these arguments. How do you think Paul's opponents would have described or defended their positions?

  3. What response to these conflicts do these texts recommend, explicitly or implicitly?

  4. For each author, what is the ideal relation of the followers of Jesus to Jewish scripture, ritual & ethical practice, and non-Christian Jews? To the Gentile world?

  5. Where might the "Thomas Christians" have come out in these debates? What about the writers/readers of Matthew or John?

  6. Can you see any traces of the self-definitional strategies that Markus describes in these texts?

  7. Worth noticing for later:

    1. How do the Christian communities of these texts seem to be organized? Where do they meet, how do they worship, who leads them? Is the situation presupposed in Paul's letters the same as the one described in Acts?
    2. What's the role of women in those communities?
    3. What does conversion entail in these texts/Acts? What must we do to be saved, and what does salvation mean?
    4. Who is Jesus? What's the core of his message (or the message about him)?
    5. Don't miss Simon Magus (Acts 8). What's wrong with him in this passage? Watch for him; he'll be back.

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Tuesday, 9/19

Heresy & Conflict in the House Church

Primary Readings

Secondary Readings

Questions

  1. For each primary text, try to answer the following questions:

    1. What's the situation behind this text? What's the problem? Can you analyze the relationship of the people involved (e.g. author, addressee[s], opponents) in light of Hopkins' description of house churches?
    2. What seem to be the points at issue (theological, ethical, ritual, personal, etc.)? Why do these things matter?
    3. What is the author's rhetorical strategy? What practical response(s) does he advocate? Are the two related?
    4. As always, try to imagine the other side: How might the author's opponents have responded?

  2. How do the Christian gatherings of Paul and Acts (mid-to-late 1st cen.) compare to the organizational situation(s) that these (late 1st/early 2nd-cen.) texts presuppose?

  3. Why so much disagreement and conflict? Is there a connection between the organization of these communities and diversity?
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Thursday, 9/21

Ignatius and the Invention of Heresy

Primary Readings

Secondary Readings

Questions

  1. What are the false opinions (heterodoxia, haireseis) and wrong behaviors with which Ignatius is concerned?

  2. What's wrong with those views, in his opinion? Why do these disagreements matter so much to him?

  3. How does Ignatius construct heresy — its origin, nature, location? Based on the evidence available to you, how accurate is this picture?

  4. What solution does Ignatius offer to the problem of heresy? What seem to be the theoretical and/or rhetorical underpinnings of this solution? How well do you think it would work?

  5. Try to reconstruct the other side of this argument. If you asked the "heretics," how would they describe the situation or defend their views? How would they respond to Ignatius?

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Tuesday, 9/26

Jewish Christianity, from Mainstream to Margin

Primary Readings

Secondary Readings

Questions

  1. For each of these texts, what is the ideal relation of the followers of Jesus to Jewish scripture, ritual & ethical practice, and non-Christian Jews?

  2. How do the attitudes exhibited by these texts compare to the ones we've already encountered?

  3. Is there any connection between Christian attitudes toward Judaism/the Jews and the status of Jewish Christianity?

  4. According to the Letter of Peter and the Homilies of Clement, how does false teaching arise? What solutions do these texts offer? How do their picture of heresy and their proposed solutions compare to those of Ignatius?

  5. Which of these texts do you find the most convincing? Why?

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Thursday, 9/28

The History of Heresy

Primary Readings

Secondary Readings

Questions

  1. What are the main rhetorical strategies that Justin, Hegesippus, Irenaeus, and Tertullian use to define and marginalize heresy?

  2. What do their approaches have in common with the tactics we've encountered so far? How are they different?

  3. Which of these strategies seems to you particularly effective? Why?

  4. Have you seen any of their methods or presuppositions reproduced in the secondary scholarship we've read so far?

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Tuesday, 10/3

Conflicts about the Creator I: Marcion

Primary Readings

Secondary Readings

Questions

  1. What is Marcion's view of the divine? Who is the (true) God? Who is the Creator, and what is his character?

  2. What would you say is the driving force behind this theology? How do you think Marcion would have supported his arguments?

  3. According to Marcion, how did false belief arise among Christians? How does his explanation compare to those of Ignatius, Justin, or Irenaeus? How plausible do you find this scenario?

  4. For Marcion, what seems to be the ideal relation of the followers of Jesus to Jewish scripture, ritual & ethical practice? How does his approach to Jewish scripture compare to those of Justin, Barnabas, and Tertullian?

  5. What might Marcion's followers have found attractive or convincing about his teachings? Why do you think they were so upsetting to men like Justin, Irenaeus, and Tertullian?

  6. Questions for later: According to Marcion, who was Jesus? What was the purpose or result of his appearance on earth? What is required for salvation, and what does salvation entail? What seems to have been the relation between Marcionites and other Christians? What was Marcionite worship like?

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Thursday, 10/5

Conflicts about the Creator II: Some Gnostic Views

Primary Readings

Secondary Readings

Questions

  1. What view(s) of the divine do these texts express? Who is the (true) God? How did the Creator come into being, and what is his character?

  2. How does the theology of these texts compare to Marcion's?

  3. What approaches do these texts take to the Hebrew Scriptures? To Christian tradition (oral or written)? How do their approaches compare to those of Justin, Barnabas, Tertullian, Marcion?

  4. If someone asked you to describe Gnosticism, how would you answer?

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Tuesday, 10/10

Questions about Christology: The Body of Christ

Primary Readings

Secondary Readings

Questions

  1. For each text, try to answer the following questions:

    1. Who is Jesus? Is Jesus the same as Christ, and if not, what is the relation between the two?
    2. What kind of body did Jesus/Christ have? Did he really suffer? Die? If so, in what sense?
    3. What was the purpose (or result) of Christ's incarnation and/or death, whether real or apparent? What do you see as the strengths and weaknesses of this explanation?
    4. What (if any) implications might this view of Christ's body, death, and resurrection have for our understanding of our own physical existence?
    5. Why might someone have objected to this view of the incarnation, death, and/or resurrection of Christ (or the believer)?

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Thursday, 10/12

The Body of the Believer I: The Christian Body in Society

Primary Readings

Secondary Readings

Questions

  1. For each text, try to answer:

    1. What is this text's attitude toward the human body and sexuality? What role does the human body play in salvation? Is the behavior suggested or prescribed here necessary for all Christians, or only for the hardcore few?
    2. How does this text compare to contemporary Greco-Roman attitudes (as Brown describes them)?
    3. How does this text's view of sex and the body compare to the other two? Where does fit among the Christian attitudes described by Brown?
    4. What view of women's activity in the church does the text offer? (Tertullian condemned Thecla as a heretical forgery; why, do you think?) Is there a correlation between attitudes toward the body and women's participation in church life?

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Tuesday, 10/17

The Body II: The Radical Consensus

Primary Readings

Secondary Readings

Questions

  1. How does the attitude toward the human body and sexuality expressed by the Acts of Thomas compare to the ones we looked at on Tuesday? What seems to be the reasoning behind them? How do they compare to those of Marcion (either the attitudes themselves or the underlying rationale)?

  2. According to the Acts of Thomas, what must we do to be saved? What does salvation entail?

  3. Where do these attitudes fit among contemporary Greco-Roman attitudes?

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Thursday, 10/19

The Body III: Body & Salvation

Primary Readings

Secondary Readings

Questions

  1. What attitude(s) toward the human body and sexuality do these texts reflect? How does this attitude compare to the others we've considered?

  2. According to these texts, what does salvation entail? What must we do to be saved? What role does the human body play in salvation?

  3. Do you see a connection between the christology of these texts and their understanding of salvation and the human body?

  4. What implications might the Valentinian understanding of gender have had for real-life female Christians?

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Tuesday, 10/24

Conflicts over the Canon I: What to Read

Primary Readings

Secondary Readings

Questions

  1. How did Christians go from relying on the Hebrew Scriptures + oral traditions about Jesus to using a fixed canon of "Old Testament" + "New Testament" scriptures? And why these particular books? What seem to you to be the important steps in this process? Does anything about this process (or the final result) strike you as odd or unexpected? Could it have turned out another way?

  2. What does Papias contribute to our understanding of the formation of Christian scripture?

  3. How do Irenaeus, Origen, and Eusebius go about determining the authorship, authenticity, and canonicity of texts? How do their methods compare to Papias'?

  4. Where do texts like Gos. Thom., Gos. Phil., Gos. Truth, Ap. John, Orig. World, Treat. Seth, Exeg. Soul, or the Acts of Thomas fit into this story? On your reading, are these texts intended to be scripture or something else? What texts do they themselves treat as authoritative?

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Thursday, 10/26

Conflicts over the Canon II: How to Read

Primary Readings

Secondary Readings

Questions

  1. Based on your reading so far, do you agree with Williams' argument? Could it apply to gnostic exegesis of Christian scriptures as well?

  2. On the whole, how fair do you think Irenaeus' and Tertullian's characterizations of gnostic approaches to scripture are? How do you think their opponents would have responded?

  3. Could Williams' analysis apply to the Gospel of Judas (not yet published in 1996)?

  4. How would you describe Judas' relation to or attitude toward the (future) canonical Christian scriptures? How independent is it of them? Does this text seem designed to compete with, to replace, to complement, or to explicate those?

  5. How would you describe the relation between the author/readers of Judas and mainstream Christianity? How does this compare to the attitudes expressed by other gnostic texts we've read?

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Tuesday, 10/31

Conflicts over Authority I: Church Office and the Sociology of Heresy

Primary Readings

Secondary Readings

Questions

  1. Compare the church practices described by Justin, Tertullian, and the Apostolic Tradition to the late 1st-/early 2nd-cen. organizational structures we considered earlier. What's changed? What remains the same?

  2. Where should we imagine the authors or readers of the various gnostic texts we've read fitting into this picture? Could any of them belong to (a system of) congregations like the ones described by Justin, Tertullian, and the Ap. Trad.? How? Are any of them obviously incompatible with this system? Why?

  3. How does Pagels answer those questions? In your view, does the picture she paints fit the evidence? Why or why not? If not, how else could that evidence be interpreted?

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Thursday, 11/2

Conflicts over Authority II: Montanus and the New Prophecy

Primary Readings

Secondary Readings

Questions

  1. What impression do you get of the New Prophecy from the oracles? What seem to be its distinctive features? How did the Prophets understand their activity?

  2. If the New Prophecy was theologically orthodox, why did its opponents object to it?

  3. What strategies or arguments did the opponents of the New Prophecy use against it? How does this debate compare to others we've seen?

  4. Irenaeus is strangely silent about Montanism, except for one possible reference to its opponents at AH 3.11.9 (= Heine #27). Why, do you think?

  5. What do you think Tertullian found attractive and convincing about the New Prophecy? What strategies or arguments does he bring to bear in support of it?

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Tuesday, 11/7

Conflicts over Authority III: Women in Authority

Primary Readings

Secondary Readings

Questions

  1. What impression do you get of the organization and leadership of the Roman church in Paul's day from Rom. 16 (note: same in Paul's other letters & Acts)? What roles do women play in this church? How do you square Paul's tacit acceptance of their activity with his comments at 1 Cor. 11.2-26?

  2. What kind of authority does Perpetua exercise among the Christians of Carthage? What seems to be the basis for her authority?

  3. What kinds of religious activity does Tertullian consider appropriate for women? What kinds does he find problematic? Why, do you think? Reading between the lines, did everyone in Carthage agree with him? How might Tertullian's opponents have defended their position?

  4. Where does the Gospel of Mary fit into this picture?

  5. On the basis of these texts, how would you characterize the status of women in late-2nd-cen. Christianity?

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Thursday, 11/9

Conflicts about the Trinity

Primary Readings

Secondary Readings

Questions

  1. How would each of these figures (Hippolytus, Callistus, Tertullian, Paul of Samosata, Origen, Dionysius) have answered these questions:

    1. Who is Christ?
    2. Is he divine? If so, in what sense?
    3. What is the relation between him and God the Father?

  2. If you asked these men if there was ever a time when the Father existed but the Son didn't, or if the Father and Son were of the same substance and fully equal, what do you think they would say?

  3. Why do these questions matter?!?

  4. How do the methods employed in these debates compare to the ones used in other conflicts we've examined?

  5. Pay attention to Origen's approach to the canon, both the texts he treats as authoritative and the way he handles those texts. How does his method compare to that recommended by Ptolemy in his Letter to Flora?

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Tuesday, 11/14

Mani

(Reading tip: start with the secondary readings, for historical background, overview of Mani's teachings, and important primary sources, then read "On the Origin of His Body" for Mani's own account of his call and early ministry.)

Primary Readings

Secondary Readings

Questions

  1. What continuities do you see between Manichaeanism and other forms of Christianity that we've studied? What's new here? Where is this stuff coming from?

  2. According to the Cologne Mani-Codex, what was the basis of Mani's authority?

  3. According to the Cologne Mani-Codex, what disturbed Mani's fellow Elchasites most about his teaching? Why that, do you think?

  4. What do you think was the appeal of Manichaeanism?

  5. Why do you suppose polytheist and Christian emperors (e.g. Diocletian & Valentinian) alike reacted to it so negatively?

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Thursday, 11/16

Martyrdom & Schism: The Donatist Controversy

(Suggested reading order: Start w/ secondary sources, then primary, in chronological order: NE #266, 269-74; App. 5; NE #275; App. 8, 6, 7; NE #276-9; App. 9-10; Letter 93.)

Primary Readings

Secondary Readings

Questions

  1. Based on the evidence available to you, what caused the Donatist schism? What kind of conflict was this?

  2. How do the arguments and strategies employed by the two sides in this debate compare to other conflicts we've considered?

  3. How do you explain the willingness of both sides to appeal to the authority of the emperor as early as 313? In your opinion, how much of a difference did imperial involvement make to the development of the conflict?

  4. Constantine's suspension of persecution of Donatists in 321 didn't end the schism — or imperial involvement in it. Optatus alludes to a failed attempt by the emperor Constans (337-50) to impose peace on the African church, which resulted in the death of at least 2 Donatists, an event that was clearly still raw in Donatist memory when Optatus wrote, c. 384; Augustine mentions a Donatist attempt to solicit the intervention of the emperor Julian (the Apostate; 361-3). From Augustine's letter, what was the situation in N. Africa in the early 5th century?

  5. Try to summarize Augustine's argument in favor of persecuting schismatics/heretics in your own words. How convincing is this argument?

  6. What is the point of Augustine's allusions to "holiness" v. "toleration" in §14-5? Which side does he come down on? What about the Donatists/Rogatists? Why? What difference does it make?

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Tuesday, 11/21

Nicaea

Primary Readings

Secondary Readings

Questions

  1. According to Arius and his supporters, who is Christ? Is he divine, and if so, in what sense? What's the relation between him and God the Father?

  2. As far as you can tell, where does this view come from? What do you see as its advantages (if any)? What are its disadvantages (if any)?

  3. How would Arius' opponents answer the same questions? What do you see as the advantages and disadvantages of their position (if any)?

  4. Why do these questions matter?

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Thursday, 11/23

Happy Thanksgiving! (No class!)

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Tuesday, 11/28

The Rhetoric of Orthodoxy after Nicaea

Primary Readings

Secondary Readings

Questions

  1. In your opinion, what are the most important moments in the development of the Arian controversy up to 353? Why?

  2. How do the tactics and rhetoric of this conflict compare to those employed in conflicts up to this point?

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Thursday, 11/30

Emperors & Orthodoxy

Primary Readings

Secondary Readings

Questions

  1. In your opinion, what are the most important moments in the development of the Arian controversy from 353 to 381? Why?

  2. How does the solution finally (more or less) agreed on at Constantinople compare to the positions represented at the Council of Nicaea? In your opinion, how satisfactory is this solution?

  3. In what ways did the various emperors participate in the process of defining orthodoxy in the 4th century? In your opinion, how important was their involvement?

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Tuesday, 12/5

Presentations

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Thursday, 12/7

Presentations

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Tuesday, 12/12

Presentations

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Monday, 12/18

Final Exam (1:30-4:30PM)

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Skidmore College Classics Department
Skidmore College Classics Dept. 2006

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