Continuity and Change: the Two Millennia Dance of Church and Culture
David Goa invites you to register for credit or as an auditor to the course he is teaching:
Date: 31 May – June 4, 2021
Title: Continuity and Change: the Two Millennia Dance of Church and Culture
SSC 521, “Introduction to Church History”, Saint Stephen’s College, Edmonton
In this introduction to the history of Christianity we will do two things by taking the history of the church more seriously than cultural historians normally do and taking culture more seriously than church historians normal do.
First, we will explore how the various epochs of Christian history (Jaroslav Pelikan, Jesus through the Centuries) drew from the pallet of the Gospels an anchoring image of Jesus Christ (for example, “the Rabbi”, “The Light of the Gentiles” “The King of Kings”, “The Divine and Human Model”, “The Poet of the Spirit”, the “Liberator” and “The Man Who Belongs to the World”) to shape and reshape the presence of the church within the culture(s) of the period. A wide variety of cultural creations, art, architecture, music, poetry, along with philosophical and theological works and writings on the spiritual life will be drawn forth.
Second, responding to recent historical studies that argue theology can no longer be written solely from the perspective of Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, Wittenberg, Geneva, and Canterbury, we will engage the reshaping of the tradition and the church that has emerged from Asia, Africa, Latin America and various other indigenous communities of faith (Martin Marty, The Christian World). Our thinking will endeavor to hold together themes of continuity and change and explore what is meant by the doctrine of the Church, the Ecclesia, in all its dynamism.
Contact the St. Stephen's College Registrar at
st.stephens@ualberta.ca | 780.439.7311
This course will be available on Zoom.