Early Christianity through Late Antiquity

Test Two Guide Professor Hoerl History 110 Fall 24

Test Two—In Class Portion— (Identifications, Short Answers, Chronologies)

Test Two Take-home Essay due through Canvas

Take Home Essay On Early Christianity through Late Antiquity–30 points—

Submission will be as an ‘Assignment’ on Canvas Discuss Early Christianity from Jesus to Gregory the Great, discussing our readings in chapter 14 in the Documents book from the Gospel of Matthew, the “Letter of St. Clement”, and the Didache, from the Augustine of Hippo’s City of God PDF, and letters 2, 4, and 5 from the “Letters of Gregory the Great” PDF

Briefly trace the beginnings of Christianity, discussing its Jewish, and to a lesser degree, Roman context, the development of Christianity in the time of Jesus and his disciples to the spread, persecution, and legalization of the religion at the time Augustine of Hippo wrote, ‘picking up speed’ after the first century. You do not need to continue your summary of early Christianity beyond Augustine and the City of God in this first part of the essay, your discussion of the three letters from Gregory the Great noting where the Church was at the end Late Antiquity can stand on its own in the main section of the essay discussing the readings. Keep this summary of Early Christianity basic, it should not run more than about one double-spaced page. This part can come from the lectures and textbook, and I stress that you will want to keep this part simple and concise.

Then, more importantly, discuss the major ideas and themes of the Christian Bible, Early Christian sources, Augustine of Hippo, and Gregory the Great as reflected in our reading selections from The Gospel of Matthew, the “Letter to the Corinthians” of Saint Clement, the Didache, Augustine’s City of God, and the 2^nd, 4^th, and 5^th “Letters of Gregory the Great”. I would suggest the simplest approach would be in that order. Your discussion of the key Christian ideas in the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ and Augustine’s attempt to reconcile Christianity and the Roman past in the City of God will be the most substantial part of the essay, and you will want two or three specific, cited references for each. Your discussion of Clement’s letter and the Didache can be more succinct, with one specific reference for each, and you want to address a couple of points from Gregory’s letters. You may also include one point from the “Good Samaritan” story from the Gospel of Luke in place of one of your points for the Gospel of Matthew.

This is mostly a ‘reflection’ on these texts, it is not meant to be a polished paper, but it should flow logically as an in-class essay would. Style and even spelling only count within reason, if I get what you are trying to convey. You will want to refer to some specifics from the sources, but rules on citation are again just simple, MLA citation, with the work or author and page number from the PDF or Documents book in parenthesis, and no bibliography is necessary. I suggest that you refer to the texts and show some thought and understanding, without simply throwing parts of the texts together in a cut-and-paste method. The ’readings prompts’ I have provided for each set of readings are still there to help you along if you feel you need them, in the relevant modules. The main idea is to cover Matthew, the Didache and Letter of St. Clement, Augustine and Gregory, but I would suggest that either essay can be done well in about three double-spaced pages, less than one for background, about two for discussion of the readings.

*Remember that you are discussing these as historical documents, as objectively as possible! Your beliefs, opinions, and past exposure (or lack thereof) are important, but not the point here. As a matter of respect and proper mechanics, note that God, Jesus, and Allah are proper names and are capitalized, just like Matthew, Augustine of Hippo, or Gregory the Great.

I will also mention, without making too much of it since this is an informal essay, that this is an odd study on how to format titles when you use them in the text of your essay. Books of the Bible, either Hebrew or Christian, are somewhat unique in that they are capitalized, but unlike the titles of other books they are not italicized. So, Genesis, Exodus, Gospel of Matthew or just Matthew, and Acts of the Apostles, are capitalized but not italicized. As a short letter, Saint Clement’s piece goes in quotation marks, “Letter to Corinth”, and for Gregory the Great’s individual letters, “Letter to Augustine, Bishop of the Angles”. The two titles from longer works that you will use, italicized as titles of books should be, Augustine of Hippo’s City of God and the Didache. This is all worth knowing, but that said, following these guidelines carefully would add a couple of points, I will not penalize for understandably spending more time on the actual content. Finally, to avoid some potentially embarrassing confusion, note that Augustine of Hippo, the famous theologian, and Augustine of Canterbury, the famous missionary that asked Gregory for advice, are not the same person. On a related note, Marcellinus, for the IDs below, was a relatively obscure Roman soldier, so do not check Wikipedia and tell me he was a pope or bishop.

The Identifications, Short Answers, and Chronologies will be in class Wednesday, November 6^th. I will provide the test sheet and answer booklets, you just need a pen or pencil.

Identi>cations—30 points, 5 points each—Pick SIX of these FOURTEEN. Three to five sentences should be your guideline, and while you may use bullet-points instead, keep in mind that you will need more than three to five, since sentences will usually convey two or more important points. The first, basic step is to place each figure or topic into the main historical period or periods they represent, as well as the general country or region, and explain their historical significance. A good, basic definition of their importance, which can be covered in a couple of sentences, will reach 3 points with relative ease. The more you can flesh out this basic definition with any details that show that you read the relevant document, the closer you get to 5.

The next level of the Identifications is to connect each topic, person, or work with your basics from our primary source readings. Titles of main works from our readings are important, if it is a person or a topic, and any major figure attached to a document likewise. Ideally try to mention any major writings or works they are known for, even if they are not the works we have had for class, but most importantly, try to connect them to the readings we have sampled with one or two signi!cant details.

-Polybius -Life of Cato

-Marcellinus –Rule of St. Benedict

-‘Conversion of Clovis’ -Einhard’s Life of Charlemagne

–The Alexiad -The Quran

-Al-Mawardi -Ibn Battuta

-Tang & Song Poetry-include one poet from reading –-Samurai

–Thomas Aquinas -Dante

Short Answer—20 points, 2 points each—20 total-(Plus 2 questions=4 Extra Credit Points)-You answer all TWELVE, ten gets us to 20 points, plus two extra credit. This is where you can earn 4 extra credit points, or at least make up for any answers that are wrong or partially incorrect.

These are essentially fill-in-the blank, you only need one or two word answers, and within reason (as on all parts of the test) spelling does not matter. There will also be a surprise, 2 point extra credit question, the only thing you do not get ahead of time.

1.) , last of the ‘Five Good Emperors’ wrote down his

Thoughts (sometimes called Meditations).

2.) Which Hellenized former Jewish Pharisee wrote the letters, the epistles that are the earliest parts of what would become the Christian New Testament?

3.) We read about the ‘Missions of St. ’, who chopped down a ‘holy tree’ of some pagan Germans and was martyred by some others.

4.) were popular religious items that became a serious religious and political issue in Byzantium in the 700’s and 800’s?

5.) is the mystic strain within both of the main branches of Islam that sought union with Allah through prayer, contemplation, and sometimes ecstasy, and probably got their name through the rough clothes they wore.

6.) In West Africa, in what would become Ethiopia, King converted his kingdom to Christianity, from his capital at Axum, initiating almost 2,000 years of unique, independent history.

7.) ’s pilgrimage from his kingdom in West Africa to Mecca was described in one of our readings.

8.) ’s pilgrimage to India, to collect Buddhist knowledge and writing was another piece we had in our readings (from the same chapter)

9.) was the twelkh-century Confucian philosopher and scholar who created the ‘classic’ interpretation of Confucius that would be used in the exam system for centuries.

10.) of wrote the ‘Canticle to the Sun’ and

founded the Order of Friars Minor?

11.) (de Guzman) founded the Order of Friars Preachers, also known by his personal name.

12.) We read some of Joinville’s Life of St. , the ‘ideal French king.

Chronologies—5 pts each—20 total–there will be partial credit for any you put in correct order. No choices, all four (SEPARATELY—not asking for 20 in order). These are mixed up, on the test you will put them in correct chronological order.

Rome-Julio-Claudians, Flavians, ‘Five Good Emperors’, Republic, Etruscan Rule

(Sunni) Caliphs—Abbasids, Uthman, Ali, Abu Bakr, Umar

China—Age of Disunity, Mongols, Sui, Tang, Song

Byzantium-Leo III/Isaurians, Constantine, Macedonian Era, Justinian, Battle of Manzikert

One big hint for some of these is that the ‘Timelines’ at the end of each textbook chapter can be very helpful

Study from the textbook, lecture notes, the source book, and notes from your reading and discussions. Wikipedia may provide you with information that is not relevant to what I am asking for, in general, and I have specifically had identification answers based off Wikipedia that were just plain wrong. One extra credit Short Answer question is the only thing that will be on the test that is not here in the Guide, this is all the study guide you need to work with.