Religion and Society: From Constantine to Muhammad

Course

URL study guide

https://studiegids.vu.nl/en/courses/2024-2025/L_OAMAOHS014

Course Objective

(1) Insight into the development of ancient religions, with an emphasis on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, in their socio-historical context in the period from 300 to 650 CE. (2) Familiarity with various sources, such as texts and archaeological remains, as well as sociological and anthropological theories.

Course Content

After the Emperor Constantine ended the last persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire, the number of conversions started rising. But the fourth and fifth centuries saw more major changes: Christianity became a state religion and it started institutionalizing. New phenomena came up, such as pilgrimage and monasticism. Christianity got its own literary culture, adapting existing genres to its own needs. At the same time, other religions reacted and developed in their own way. Religions and society became different. This course tries to understand what happened by going into questions such as: What was the relation between Christianity and the Roman state and why did emperors—with the notable exception of Julian ‘the Apostate’—support Christianity in this way? How did people react? Many converted, but what did this mean? Many others chose to remain pagan or Jewish: what was their point of view? Is the institutionalization of Rabbinic Judaism in any way related to this, and what about the ‘Last Pagans of Rome’(the title of a recent book)? What societal changes did monasticism and pilgrimage bring about? How did the literary cultures and art of pagans, Jews, and Christians relate to each other? Was this the end of the classical tradition and free thought, or simply the beginning of new developments on old foundations? We will see that it makes sense to speak of ‘Late Antiquity’. Next we will discuss the growing apart of the western and eastern parts of the Roman Empire, and developments in the Middle East. In the sixth century, it also appeared that the state-sponsored movement towards unity in Christianity was unsuccessful. Among Christians in the Middle East there was strong opposition against decisions taken in the centre of the Empire. These developments in Late Antique society and culture form the backdrop to a new movement: that of the prophet Muhammad in the early seventh century.

Teaching Methods

Seminar. Students will present during one of the sessions and are required to take part in discussions.

Method of Assessment

Students will give a presentation during one of the classes, which will be graded on the criteria of content and presentation skills (30%) and they will write a final exam (70%). All sources are presented in translation, but students who master one of the classical languages may write a research paper of 4000 words (excluding bibliography) instead of the exam. Students in one of the Research Master programmes do both the exam and a short paper of some 2500 words (presentation: 20%; exam 50%; paper 30%).

Literature


- Stephen Mitchell, A History of the Later Roman Empire AD 284–641 (2nded.; Chichester: Wiley Blackwell, 2015)
- Various articles to be found on Canvas.

Target Audience

MA students and Research Master students in History, Classics & Ancient Civilizations, Theology & Religious Studies, Archaeology.

Additional Information

Classes will take place in weeks 2-7 and the exam will be in week 8; the first week of the course is for self-study, for which you will find an assignment on Canvas.
Academic year1/09/2431/08/25
Course level6.00 EC

Language of Tuition

  • English