Building a Church: Christianity and Imperium in the First Millennium (CH1002Z)

Content

This unit introduces students to the development of the Christian Church during the first millennium, examining how Christianity moved from marginal communities to institutions embedded in political, cultural, and religious power structures. It explores key historical moments, figures, and movements shaping the Church between c.100 and 1000 C.E., including the Roman and Byzantine worlds, monasticism, and emerging centres of Christian life across Europe, North Africa, and the Eastern Mediterranean. Through engagement with primary sources and historical scholarship, students consider how theological ideas, social contexts, and historical change influenced the formation of early Christian identity and practice.

Learning outcomes

Unit sequence

This unit is a prerequisite for second and third year units in church history.

Pedagogy

Synchronous and asynchronous lectures and text-based tutorials

Indicative Bibliography

Cameron, Euan. Interpreting Christian History: The Challenge of the Church’s Past. Blackwell, 2005.

Comby, Jean. How to Read Church History. 2 vols. Crossroads, 1988.

Fletcher, R. A. The Barbarian Conversion: From Paganism to Christianity. University of California Press, 1999.

González, Justo L. The Changing Shape of Church History. Chalice Press, 2002.

Herrin, Judith. Margins and Metropolis: Authority Across the Byzantine Empire. Princeton University Press, 2013.

Ludlow, Morwenna. The Early Church. I.B. Tauris History of the Christian Church, vol. 1. I.B. Tauris, 2009.

MacCulloch, Diarmaid. Christian History: An Introduction to the Western Tradition. SCM Press, 2012.

McGrath, Alister. Christian History: An Introduction. Blackwell, 2013.

Muir, Elizabeth Gillan. A Women’s History of the Christian Church: Two Thousand Years of Female Leadership. University of Toronto Press, 2019.

Threlfall-Holmes, Miranda. Essential History of Christianity. SPCK Publishing, 2012.

Assessment