Session 1: Examining Our Christian Heritage 1 Assignments due the first class session
Anaheim District Ministerial
Training Center
Examining Our Christian Heritage 1
Session 1 Assignments due the
first class session.
Email you response paragraphs to mboswith@hbcc.org the Sunday before each class
session no later than 5PM.
Location:
Huntington
Beach Community Church of the Nazarene
8101
Slater Ave Huntington Beach CA 92683
Course Dates:
COMPLETE SESSION 1 READING AND
WRITING BEFORE FIRST CLASS MEETING.
Familiarize
yourself with what is meant by Academic Honesty
Familiarize
yourself with how to write a paragraph
OUTLINE OF THE COURSE
All Assignments are due before the beginning of each
session. That includes Session 1—you have work to do in order to properly
prepare for the first class session.
Email your response paragraphs to mboswith@hbcc.org the Sunday no later than 5PM before
each class session.
Lesson 1 Intro to the Class and to
History of Christianity 1
Unit
1: Early Church (to 600)
Lesson
2: The Spread of Christianity
The Spread of Christianity Westward
The Spread of Christianity to the East
The Apostolic Fathers
Lesson
3: Early Church Doctrine and Persecution
Early Theologians
Early Church Persecution and Final Toleration
Gnosticism and Other Heresies
Lesson
4: Development of the Canon and Creeds
Development of the Cannon
Reason and Revelation: Early Christian Apologetics
The First Five Councils
Lesson
5: Ministry and Expansion of the Early Church
Ministry in the Early Church
Monasticism in the Early Church
The Expansion of the Church in Western Europe
Lesson
6: The Formation of the Papacy and Eastern Christianity
Augustine: Father of Western Theology
The Rise of the Papacy
The Rise of Eastern Christianity
Unit 2: Early Middle Ages
(600-1000)
Lesson
7: Early Middle Ages .
Church and Ministry
in the Early Middle Ages
The Spread of Christianity
Expansion Eastward
Unit 3: High Middle Ages (1000-1300)
Lesson
8: Interaction of Church and Culture
Reason
and Revelation: Scholasticism
The Crusades
Church and the Papacy
Lesson
9: Tensions Within the Church
The Schism: East and West Go Their Separate Ways
Monasticism and Spirituality
Lesson
10: The Rise of Scholarship
The Dominicans and Thomas Aquinas
The Rise of the Universities
Biblical Interpretation
Lesson
11: The Gospel and Culture Interact—East and West
Expansion of the Church in Europe
Inquisition: An Issue of Gospel and Culture
The Catholic Church in China and the Mongol Empire
Unit 4: Late Middle Ages (1300-1500)
Lesson
12: Late Middle Ages
Ministry and Worship
Church and State
Theology, Devotion, and Reform
Instructor:
Psy.D., American Behavioral Studies Institute, 2000; MA (Theology),
Trevecca Nazarene University, 1989; BA (Religious Studies), Trevecca Nazarene
University, 1985; AS (Physical Science), University of the State of New York
Regents, 1982. Pastor, Church of the Nazarene, 1988-Present [Huntington Beach
Community, Buena Park Crescent Ave, Victoria TX First], Associate Pastor,
Church of the Nazarene 1985-1988 [Memphis Calvary]. United States Navy,
1976-1983
REQUIRED TEXT:
Bruce Shelley, Church History in
Plain Language Fourth Edition Paperback – December 10, 2013
Examining Our Christian Heritage 1
Student Guide
Academic honesty
Academic
honesty boils down to three simple but powerful principles:
• When you say you did the work yourself, you
actually did it.
•
When you rely on someone else’s work, you cite it. When you use their words,
you quote them openly and accurately, and you cite them, too.
•
When you present research materials, you present them fairly and truthfully.
That’s true whether the research involves data, documents, or the writings of
other scholars.
While
it is often quipped that “it is better to apologize afterward than ask for
permission before,” this does not hold in academia.
How to Write a
Good Paragraph: A Step-by-Step Guide
Writing well composed academic paragraphs can be tricky. The
following is a guide on how to draft, expand, refine, and explain your ideas so
that you write clear, well-developed paragraphs and
discussion posts:
Here is the short answer. Your first sentence should tell me
what you are going to tell me. The second to fourth sentences you tell me what
you said you would tell me. In the last sentence, you tell me what you told
me. If that isn’t clear read on------
 |
Before you can begin writing, you need to know what you are
writing about. First, look at the writing prompt or assignment topic. As you
look at the prompt, note any key terms or repeated phrases because you will
want to use those words in your response. Then ask yourself:
·
On what topic am I supposed to be writing?
·
What do I know about this topic already?
·
If I don’t know how to respond to this assignment, where can
I go to find some answers?
·
What does this assignment mean to me? How do I relate to it?
After looking at the prompt and doing some additional
reading and research, you should better understand your topic and what you need
to discuss.
 |
Before
writing a paragraph, it is important to think first about the topic and then what you want to say
about
the topic. Most often, the topic is easy, but the question
then turns to what you want to say
about the topic. This concept is sometimes called the controlling idea.
Strong paragraphs are typically about one main idea or topic,
which is often explicitly stated in a topic
sentence. Good topic sentences should
always contain both (1) a topic and
(2) a controlling idea.
The topic – The
main subject matter or idea covered in the paragraph.
The controlling idea – This idea focuses on the topic by providing
direction to the composition.
Read the following topic sentences.
They all contain a topic (in orange)
and a controlling idea (in purple).
When your paragraphs contain a clearly stated topic sentence such as one of the following, your reader will know
what to expect and, therefore, understand your ideas better.
Examples
of topic sentences:
·
People can avoid plagiarizing
by taking certain precautions.
·
There are several
advantages to online education.
·
Effective
leadership requires specific qualities that
anyone can develop.
 |
After
stating your topic sentence, you need to provide information to prove,
illustrate, clarify, and/or
exemplify
your point.
Ask
yourself:
· What examples
can I use to support my point?
· What
information can I provide to help clarify my
thoughts?
· How can I
support my point with specific data, experiences, or other factual material?
· What
information does the reader need to know in order to see my point?
Here is a list of the kinds of
information you can add to your paragraph:
·
Facts, details, reasons, examples
·
Information from the readings or class discussions
·
Paraphrases or short quotations
·
Statistics, polls, percentages, data from research studies
·
Personal experience, stories, anecdotes, examples from your life
Sometimes, adding transitional or
introductory phrases like: for example,
for instance, first, second, or last can
help guide the reader. Also, make sure you are citing your sources
appropriately.
 |
After
you have given the reader enough information to see and understand your point,
you need to explain why this information is relevant, meaningful, or
interesting.
Ask yourself:
· What does the
provided information mean?
· How does it
relate to your overall point, argument, or thesis?
· Why is this
information important/significant/meaningful?
· How does this
information relate to the assignment or course I am taking?
 |
After
illustrating your point with relevant information, add a concluding sentence. Concluding sentences link one paragraph to the
next and provide another device for helping you ensure your paragraph is
unified. While not all paragraphs include a concluding sentence, you should
always consider whether one is appropriate. Concluding sentences have two crucial roles in paragraph writing:
First, they draw together the
information you have presented to elaborate your controlling idea by:
·
Summarizing the point(s) you have made.
·
Repeating words or phrases from the topic sentence.
·
Using linking words that indicate that conclusions are being
drawn (e.g., therefore, thus, resulting).
Second, they often link the current paragraph to the
following paragraph. They may anticipate the topic sentence of the next
paragraph by:
·
Introducing a word/phrase or new concept which will then be
picked up in the topic sentence of the next paragraph.
·
Using words or phrases that point ahead (e.g., the
following, another, other).
 |
The
last step in good paragraph writing is proofreading and revision. Before you
submit your writing, look
over your work at least one more time.
Try reading your paragraph out loud to make sure it makes sense. Also, ask yourself
these questions:
·
Does my paragraph answer the prompt and support my thesis?
·
Does it make sense? Does it use the appropriate academic voice?
Two types of Paragraphs for this course: Big
Idea and Personal Opinion
a. Based on your reading: A “big idea” is what you think the
author would want you to walk away with regarding what he/she wrote. This is
not an exercise in listing the subtitles in the chapter. Narrow down the
author’s presentation into one important thought, or “big idea.” Then write a
short paragraph to express that big idea.
It may be helpful to imagine that you are responsible for teaching the material
in the assigned text. What would you deem the most important concepts of the
chapter to be? One would assume that your choice will differ from your cohorts.
b.
Personal Opinion Paragraph is an expression of your own ideas in answer
to
questions you will find in your homework
assignments.
Rubric: 100 points
Topic sentence 20 pts
Three to Five supporting sentences 20 pts
Concluding sentence 20 pts
Content 40pts
Papers
are to be Times New Roman, Font 14 double spaced.
Paragraph Rubric
Name: ________________________________ Date: ______________
#________
Type/Title ____________________________________
Elements Needed Points
Possible Points Earned
Topic Sentence 20 __________
(Punctuated correctly)
Supporting Sentences 20
__________
(Punctuated correctly)
Content 40 __________
(Punctuated
correctly)
Closing Sentence 20 __________
(Punctuated
correctly)
Total Points Earned __________
Session 1
Introduction
to the History of Christianity
Introduction
to lesson:
What is church history? While church
history deals with the history of faith and faithful Christians, it relies upon
historical methods.
Session
Objectives
• understand the goals and
purposes of the historical study of Christianity
• discuss church history’s
relevance to their Ministries
• articulate how a Wesleyan
perspective upon church history might be
different from others
Assignments
to be done before class
A. Read: Shelley, Church History in Plain Language, Prologue
Write
a Big Idea paragraph from your reading of Shelly. [A big idea paragraph is what
you consider to be the most important idea in the Shelly reading]
B. Read the following articles and give a one paragraph
answer to the question asked.
1. A Wesleyan Perspective on Church History
What is the Wesleyan perspective on Church
History?
2. The Historical Method
Why
is the study of church history relevant to my ministry?
C. Write in your journal. Reflect on and respond to the
following:
AUGUSTINE’S CONFESSIONS, READING `1
A Wesleyan Perspective on Church History
History is crucial to Christians. The Bible is the history
of salvation. Through it, we come to understand how God works. He created all
that is in time. He established His covenants with Abraham and the Hebrews in
history. In the “fullness of time” God gave His only Son for the redemption of
the world. Christ was incarnated in history.
God works to save us
in and through history, not around or in spite of it. Based on the Bible’s
descriptions of God’s acts, Christianity possesses a chronological or linear
understanding of time. God’s great acts were and are historical. He interacts
with human beings in particular contexts, circumstances, and situations. At the
same time, God works toward goals and ideals.
Historians can only speak of the human response to God, not
about God’s doing. This is because we are not privy, as the inspired prophets
and apostles were, to God’s specific acts. Because evangelicals hold the Bible
to possess a higher authority, they cannot say with the same certainty as they
can about God’s acts among the Israelites or in Christ, “this is how God acted”
when it comes to, for instance, the councils or the Reformation.
History answers many of the questions as to why things are
as they are; why things are done as they are done; what the original purposes
and meanings were for a practice or a belief. History brings a form of
self-knowledge to the Church and to individuals.
Church history helps to define what has been considered
biblical and essential to faith, and what has been considered either
nonorthodox or nonessential to faith. Using church history, persons are better
able to assess present-day trends.
For accuracy and objectivity, church history must be built
upon primary sources. These are materials created geographically and
chronologically near the events or persons being described. Though history aims
to tell a story, to have a plot, it is based firmly upon sources. Historians
interpret and organize sources, which are themselves interpretations of the
events being described. Though history cannot be considered objective in the
same way as the natural sciences, its aim is to be as accurate as possible,
based on the sources at hand, and to have no hidden agendas or preconceived
notions about the course of events. Historians, nevertheless, have to decide on
relations between events. These are beyond the comprehension of their sources.
Historians have to weigh the evidence and make conclusions.
Though there are heroes in church history, its purpose is to
understand the past, not to venerate ancestors. Church historians do not fear
the truth being told about people and events in the past.
The church historian can only describe the outward response
to, not the inner workings of the human interaction with the divine. Some, even
in the Church, responded to the Holy Spirit’s promptings selfishly and
sinfully. Students of church history learn from the mistakes as well as the
successes of the past. At the same time, there is much good to be told. The
Church has helped men and women cope with everyday existence and has positively
influenced society. The Church is less “incarnate” than Christ. It is fully
human, and not in its earthly state “fully divine.”
Church historians look for interrelationships between
religious ideas and behavior. They look for ways in which Christianity has
helped shape family life, political structures, moral codes, and economic
systems, and look, in turn, to how each of these aspects of society influenced
Christianity. When church historians analyze ideas, they want to see the ideas
in their cultural and historical context. Church history cannot be seen apart
from “secular” world history.
Church history reveals how faith has been applied in various
places at various times. Though there were historians who interpreted religion,
including Christianity, as being in decline, victim to rationalism and
secularism, in truth Christianity has ebbed and flowed, sometimes growing, sometimes
receding. Neither its advance nor its decline has been historically inevitable.
Just when the demise of Christianity is announced, some new popular religious
movement comes along to claim the faith of the masses.
Christianity has been influenced by culture, but just as
great, Christianity, like any religion, has greatly influenced culture. If
Christianity has at times sanctioned slavery and racial prejudice, it also has
defended women and produced antislavery and other social reforms. Church history
illuminates the processes by which Christianity interrelates to culture and how
it functions in culture.
Refer to Resource
1-1 in the Student Guide.
The historical method is congenial to the Wesleyan’s
understanding that God works dynamically, by the gentle promptings of grace,
and with human response—rather than by manipulation. The voluntary cooperation
of human beings to God’s intentions is the way in which God interacts with
creation. Wesleyans possess a philosophy of history that sees God as the Great
Persuader. Wesleyan historians will note the many human and even environmental
variables and contingent factors that go into the making of history, and not
ascribe all that has been solely to God.
The Wesleyan theological framework puts emphasis on the
human response to God. There is a dynamic interrelationship between the
graciously given human freedom to respond to God’s luring and persuading. With
freedom, God has granted an open-endedness to the events of history. For
Wesleyan historians, it is not necessary to understand culture as a dichotomy
of sacred and secular. The Wesleyan concepts of the preveniency and
universality of grace erase the difference.
By showing how
Christians in the past have responded to all sorts of issues and problems, church
history allows ministers and laypeople to find a broader basis or context for
making decisions and sound judgments. It helps Christians to have stronger
rationale for defining and confronting theological and moral errors. It enables
Christians to separate what is really essential to faith from what is temporal
and transient.
The Historical
Method
The historical
method is congenial to the Wesleyan’s understanding that God works dynamically,
by the gentle promptings of grace, and with human response—rather than by
manipulation. The voluntary cooperation of human beings to God’s intentions is
the way in which God interacts with creation. Wesleyans possess a philosophy of
history that sees God as the great Persuader. Wesleyan historians will note the
many human and even environmental variables and contingent factors that go into
the making of history, and not ascribe all that has been solely to God.
The Wesleyan
theological framework puts emphasis on the human response to God. There is a
dynamic interrelationship between the graciously given human freedom to respond
to God’s luring and persuading. With freedom, God has granted an open-endedness
to the events of history. For Wesleyan historians, it is not necessary to
understand culture as a dichotomy of sacred and secular. The Wesleyan concepts
of the preveniency and universality of grace erase the difference.
AUGUSTINE’S
CONFESSIONS, READING 1
BOOK ONE
In God’s
searching presence, Augustine undertakes to plumb the depths of his memory to trace
the mysterious pilgrimage of grace that his life has been— and to praise God
for His constant and omnipotent grace. In a mood of sustained prayer, he
recalls what he can of his infancy, his learning to speak, and his childhood
experiences in school. He concludes with a paean of grateful praise to God.
CHAPTER I
1. “You are great, O Lord,
and greatly to be praised; great is your power, and infinite is your wisdom.”
And man desires to praise you, for he is a part of your creation; he bears his
mortality about with him and carries the evidence of his sin and the proof that
you resist the proud. Still he desires to praise you, this man who is only a
small part of your creation. You have prompted him, that he should delight to
praise you, for you have made us for yourself and restless is our heart until
it comes to rest in you. Grant me, O Lord, to know and understand whether first
to invoke you or to praise you; whether first to know you or call upon you. But
who can invoke you, knowing you not? For he who knows you not may invoke you as
another than you are. It may be that we should invoke you in order that we may
come to know you. But “how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
Or how shall they believe without a preacher?” Now, “they shall praise the Lord
who seek him,” for “those who seek shall find him,” and, finding him, shall
praise him. I will seek you, O Lord, and call upon you. I call upon you, O
Lord, in my faith that you have given me, which you have inspired in me through
the humanity of your Son, and through the ministry of your preacher.
Home Work for Session 2
A. Read
Bruce L Shelley, Church History in Plain Language Chapter 1-3 and 8
Write Big
Idea paragraph concerning why you think Christians today do
not follow
Jewish customs.
B. Read the following articles:
1.
The Places The Apostles Evangelized
2. The
Spread of Christianity Westward.
3. Growth of the Church in the Roman Empire
4. The Growth of the
Church in the West Outside of the Roman Empire
5.
The Spread of Christianity Eastward
6.
Poignant features of Thomas’s work in India
7. Why the Phenomenal Spread of Christianity?
8.
Didache—
C. Be
prepared to discuss the following from your study of the Didache:
Chapters 1-4 What is expected
of a child of Yahweh?
Chapter 5 What
is the underlining cause of behaviors inconsistent
with discipleship?
Chapter’s 6 and 11 How do you know you are dealing with a false prophet or
teacher?
Chapter 7 Why
would fasting be a part of the baptism ritual?
Chapter 8 What purpose is served by
reciting the Lord’s Prayer 3
times
a day?
Chapter
9, 10 and 14
1. For what purpose does this liturgy serve?
2.
What is the main purpose of celebrating the Lord’s
Supper?
Chapters 12 and 13 What is the criteria for one who is worthy
of support and one who is not?
Chapter 15 What would speaking amiss about
someone consist of?
Chapter 16 What
is the early churches understanding of suffering in the Last
Days?
D.
Write in your journal. Reflect on and respond to the following:
AUGUSTINE’S
CONFESSIONS, READING `2
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