OVERVIEW

This course aims at providing a general understanding of the major issues of the history of Christianity from its origins to the contemporary age, by outlining the evolution of religious cultures and highlighting how church institutions have been changing in relation to society. Particular attention will be paid to some turning points in the development of Western Christianity: the establishment of the Roman Catholic model (11th-13th centuries); the Reformation and the affirmation of the Tridentine paradigm (16th-18th centuries); the response of Christian churches, and in particular of Catholicism, to the transformations brought by secularisation, the Industrial Revolution, bourgeois revolutions, totalitarianisms and globalisation (18th-21st centuries).

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course investigates the process of Christianisation in the West starting from Late Antiquity, the relationships between Christianity and the other monotheistic religions, and its contribution to the making of Western culture.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

AIMS

The course aims at:

- transferring knowledge of the outline of the history of Christianity, focusing in particular on the modern and contemporary age;

- valuing the relevance and specificity of the historical-religious dimension, in its links with political, cultural and social history;

- promoting the contextualisation of Christian cultures in a long-term diachronic perspective;

- providing an overview of the main historiographical themes and interpretative categories of the history of Western Christianity;

- introducing students to the analysis of sources for religious history (press, documents, images, audiovisual sources).

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, the student will be able to:

a) demonstrate a basic knowledge of the great issues and methods pertaining to the history of Christianity;

b) understand the essential secondary literature, in order to unambiguously navigate the issues addressed by the course;

c) apply the acquired knowledge to the analysis of some specific cases (ability to highlight connections between the historical-religious processes concerned);

d) recognise the nature of the sources for the history of Christianity and identify their meaning in the light of the related historiographical issues;

e) give value to a critical approach, while being aware of historiographical categories, and avoiding apologetic or polemical judgments;

f) understand and clarify the historical evolution of religious and theological doctrines;

g) use an appropriate disciplinary language in order to illustrate his/her own point of view (oral communication skills).

PREREQUISITES

None.

TEACHING METHODS

The teaching will mainly consist of lectures, though including discussion sessions, text reading and analyses of iconographic sources. The dialogue with the professor and other students is a key part of the teaching methods and aims to promote a critical approach, consolidate knowledge and acquire the language of the discipline. Regular attendance is therefore recommended.

Lectures will be held in person. Only those who expressly request it at the beginning of the course will be allowed to take the class remotely. Please note that these will be considered as non-attending students in all respects (including for the purposes of the syllabus).

All information and teaching materials will be available on Aulaweb.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

This course provides the critical tools needed for understanding the features of Christianity as a plural, multifaceted and changing phenomenon over time. Lectures will mainly focus on the modern and contemporary age.

The introduction of the course will deal with the definition of the scientific field of the history of Christianity and of the churches, by recalling its development as a discipline free from a theological-denominational stance. A second introductory part will frame the mythographic process that transformed Yehoshua, a Jewish preacher from Nazareth, into Jesus Christ, i.e. the founder and object of a new religion, Christianity. Such a highly creative process has over the centuries produced intrusive images, aesthetic forms and moral precepts, intertwining sacred and profane, storytelling of the past and new meanings for the present.

In retracing the stages of this two-thousand-year experience, a thematic-chronological line will be followed. While adopting a diachronic perspective, this will highlight some distinctive elements of the Christian presence in the long term: liturgy, cults and devotions; patterns of sainthood; the relationship between ecclesiastical institutions and political power; government of the churches and, in particular, of the Catholic Church; manifestations of dissent; and gender characterisation.

The following topics will be covered:

1. When was Christianity born? The debate on the origins.
2. Church /churches: the institutionalisation of the Christian presence.
3. Orthodoxy vs. heresy: the development of religious and theological doctrines.
4. From martyrs to persecutors: the Constantinian Age and the Christianisation of Europe.
5. Medieval Christianitas between history and legend.
6. "Holy Father": the Gregorian paradigm and the genesis of Roman Catholicism.
7. A long Reformation? Before and after Luther.
8. The Tridentine paradigm: Catholic Reformation, Counter-Reformation, confessionalisation.
9. The churches and the Modern World: a pivotal historiographic theme.
10. The shock of 1789: the French Revolution and the rise of intransigent Catholicism.
11. Religious 19th century, between Christian revival and secularisation.
12. Church vs. bourgeoisie: Christianity, national modernity and industrial capitalism.
13. The globalisation of faiths: missionary apostolate, evangelical expansion, and religious internationals.
14. "New Catholicism": modernity, modernisation, modernism.
15. Churches, racisms, anti-racisms.
16. The sacralisation of politics and totalitarian modernity.
17. American modernity: Christianity, the Catholic Church, and religious freedom in the United States.
18. The Times They Are a-Changin'? Religious cultures and anxieties of renewal in the long post-WW2 period.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

STUDENTS OF HISTORY

Required readings for students attending the course:

A. Reference texts

• G. Filoramo (ed.), Cristianesimo, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2007 (chapters by G.G. Merlo, P. Ricca, D. Menozzi and F. Ferrario).
• G. Miccoli, Il mito della cristianità, edited by D. Menozzi, Pisa, Edizioni della Normale, 2017.

B. Course materials, slides e texts shared on Aulaweb.

C. One book or one group of essays from the following ones:

• M. Al Kalak, Mangiare Dio. Una storia dell’eucarestia, Torino, Einaudi, 2021; M. Paiano, Culto eucaristico e restaurazione di una società cristiana: «L’Aurora del secolo del Sacramento» sotto il pontificato di Leone XIII, «Rivista di storia del cristianesimo», II, 1, 2005, pp. 95-131.
• P. Cozzo, In cammino. Una storia del pellegrinaggio cristiano, Roma, Carocci, 2021.
• A. Prosperi, Tribunali della coscienza. Inquisitori, confessori, missionari, Torino, Einaudi, 2009.
• R. Po-chia Hsia, La Controriforma. Il mondo del rinnovamento cattolico (1540-1770), Bologna, il Mulino, 2009 [The World of Catholic Renewal, 1540-1770, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2011].
• V. Lavenia, Un’eresia indicibile. Inquisizione e crimini contro natura in età moderna, Bologna, EDB, 2015; F. Torchiani, Il «vizio innominabile». Chiesa e omosessualità nel Novecento, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2021.
• T. Caliò, La leggenda dell’ebreo assassino. Percorsi di un racconto antiebraico dal Medioevo ad oggi, Roma, Viella, 2007.
• M. Caffiero, Profetesse a giudizio. Donne, religione e potere in età moderna, Brescia, Morcelliana, 2020; L. Gazzetta, Virgo et Sacerdos. Idee di sacerdozio femminile tra Ottocento e Novecento, Roma, Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 2020.
• D. Menozzi, Il potere delle devozioni. Pietà popolare e uso politico dei culti in età contemporanea, Roma, Carocci, 2022; D. Menozzi and R. Rusconi (eds.), Contro la secolarizzazione. La promozione dei culti tra Pio IX e Leone XIII, monographic section of «Rivista di storia del cristianesimo», II, 1, 2005 (articles by R. Rusconi, Devozione per il pontefice e culto per il papato al tempo di Pio IX e di Leone XIII nelle pagine di «La Civiltà cattolica», pp. 9-37 and A. Scattigno, Per il papa, per la Chiesa cattolica, per le donne italiane. La devozione a Caterina da Siena ai tempi dell’apostasia del mondo moderno, pp. 69-93).
• M. Paiano, Liturgia e società nel Novecento. Percorsi del movimento liturgico di fronte ai processi di secolarizzazione, Roma, Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 2000.
• G. Miccoli, Antisemitismo e cattolicesimo, Brescia, Morcelliana, 2013.
• G. Vian, Il modernismo. La Chiesa cattolica in conflitto con la modernità, Roma, Carocci, 2012; D. Menozzi, I papi e il moderno. Una lettura del cattolicesimo contemporaneo (1903-2016), Brescia, Morcelliana, 2016.
• M. Caponi, Una Chiesa in guerra. Sacrificio e mobilitazione nella diocesi di Firenze, 1911-1928, Roma, Viella, 2018.
• L. Ceci, L’interesse superiore. Il Vaticano e l’Italia di Mussolini, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2013.
• R. Perin, La radio del papa. Propaganda e diplomazia nella seconda guerra mondiale, Bologna, il Mulino, 2017.
• P. Naso, Martin Luther King. Una storia americana, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2021; M. Rubboli, I battisti. Un profilo storico-teologico dalle origini a oggi, Torino, Claudiana, 2011.

Students NOT attending the course

In addition to the above-mentioned assignments, students not attending the course will study an additional book or group of  essays from section C.

STUDENTS OF PHILOSOPHICAL METHODS

Required readings for students attending the course:

A. Reference texts

• G. Filoramo (ed.), Cristianesimo, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2007 (chapters by G.G. Merlo, P. Ricca, D. Menozzi and F. Ferrario).

B. Course materials, slides e texts shared on Aulaweb.

C. One book or one group of essays from the following ones:

• M. Al Kalak, Mangiare Dio. Una storia dell’eucarestia, Torino, Einaudi, 2021; M. Paiano, Culto eucaristico e restaurazione di una società cristiana: «L’Aurora del secolo del Sacramento» sotto il pontificato di Leone XIII, «Rivista di storia del cristianesimo», II, 1, 2005, pp. 95-131.
• P. Cozzo, In cammino. Una storia del pellegrinaggio cristiano, Roma, Carocci, 2021.
• A. Prosperi, Tribunali della coscienza. Inquisitori, confessori, missionari, Torino, Einaudi, 2009.
• R. Po-chia Hsia, La Controriforma. Il mondo del rinnovamento cattolico (1540-1770), Bologna, il Mulino, 2009 [The World of Catholic Renewal, 1540-1770, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2011].
• V. Lavenia, Un’eresia indicibile. Inquisizione e crimini contro natura in età moderna, Bologna, EDB, 2015; F. Torchiani, Il «vizio innominabile». Chiesa e omosessualità nel Novecento, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2021.
• T. Caliò, La leggenda dell’ebreo assassino. Percorsi di un racconto antiebraico dal Medioevo ad oggi, Roma, Viella, 2007.
• M. Caffiero, Profetesse a giudizio. Donne, religione e potere in età moderna, Brescia, Morcelliana, 2020; L. Gazzetta, Virgo et Sacerdos. Idee di sacerdozio femminile tra Ottocento e Novecento, Roma, Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 2020.
• D. Menozzi, Il potere delle devozioni. Pietà popolare e uso politico dei culti in età contemporanea, Roma, Carocci, 2022; D. Menozzi and R. Rusconi (eds.), Contro la secolarizzazione. La promozione dei culti tra Pio IX e Leone XIII, monographic section of «Rivista di storia del cristianesimo», II, 1, 2005 (articles by R. Rusconi, Devozione per il pontefice e culto per il papato al tempo di Pio IX e di Leone XIII nelle pagine di «La Civiltà cattolica», pp. 9-37 and A. Scattigno, Per il papa, per la Chiesa cattolica, per le donne italiane. La devozione a Caterina da Siena ai tempi dell’apostasia del mondo moderno, pp. 69-93).
• M. Paiano, Liturgia e società nel Novecento. Percorsi del movimento liturgico di fronte ai processi di secolarizzazione, Roma, Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 2000.
• G. Miccoli, Antisemitismo e cattolicesimo, Brescia, Morcelliana, 2013.
• G. Vian, Il modernismo. La Chiesa cattolica in conflitto con la modernità, Roma, Carocci, 2012; D. Menozzi, I papi e il moderno. Una lettura del cattolicesimo contemporaneo (1903-2016), Brescia, Morcelliana, 2016.
• M. Caponi, Una Chiesa in guerra. Sacrificio e mobilitazione nella diocesi di Firenze, 1911-1928, Roma, Viella, 2018.
• L. Ceci, L’interesse superiore. Il Vaticano e l’Italia di Mussolini, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2013.
• R. Perin, La radio del papa. Propaganda e diplomazia nella seconda guerra mondiale, Bologna, il Mulino, 2017.
• P. Naso, Martin Luther King. Una storia americana, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2021; M. Rubboli, I battisti. Un profilo storico-teologico dalle origini a oggi, Torino, Claudiana, 2011.

Students NOT attending the course

In addition to the above-mentioned assignments, students not attending the course will study an additional book or group of  essays from section C.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

MATTEO CAPONI (President)

GURI SCHWARZ

ENRICA ASQUER (Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

21 February 2023.

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Oral exam.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The oral exam will assess the achievement of the training objectives, and in particular the following points: a) knowledge of the topics covered; b) degree of critical awareness; c) ability to apply knowledge to a specific topic; d) use of the specialized language of the discipline.

Exam schedule