and Heretics RELS U 185-001 MTWR 8:00-9:50 AM

Elizabeth A. Goodine, Ph.D. Email: [email protected] Ph: (504) 237-7308 (before 10 PM only please) Office Hours (Bobet 440): Monday – 10:15-11:00; Weds. – 10:15-11:00; and by appointment

Course Description: Using a systems approach, this course focuses on “,” both as a broad concept and as a particular manifestation that has arisen throughout the history of the Christian Church. Spanning the time period from the beginning of Christianity to the Reformation, the course focuses on those forms of Christianity in which beliefs and/or practices were deemed outside the acceptable parameters of the orthodox Church while simultaneously paying close attention to the relationship of these heretical groups to orthodox tradition. Such a study necessitates an examination of the nature of heresy, raising questions such as the following: How is heresy to be defined? What is its relationship to orthodoxy? How might perceptions of the heretical differ according to historical time and place? What patterns, if any, might be detected in the labeling of movements as either “heretical” or “orthodox” throughout the ages? What value, if any, might the heretic be to the building up of orthodoxy? And finally, how essential, if at all, is orthodoxy to the sustaining of group and the prevention of dissolution? Throughout the course, a variety of readings centered on major “heretics” and “heretical” movements throughout Christian history will be utilized in order to reflect on and discern the impact of political, historical and spiritual forces on perceptions of truth and the development of Christian doctrine.

Required Texts: Richard M. Hogan, Dissent From the Creed, Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, 2001.

You will also need access to a Bible . I recommend the New Revised Standard Version but a number of translations are acceptable. Please do not use the King James Version or the Living Bible .

Course Requirements: 1. Careful, thoughtful reading of all assignments prior to the class for which they are assigned . You are expected to actively engage the texts and to be able to discern key themes and viewpoints of the various writers. 2. Punctual attendance and active participation in all class sessions. This class meets early. You are expected to stay awake and to contribute thoughtfully to group discussions. If you need to miss class due to illness or emergency, it is your responsibility to inform the instructor, to gather any missed information from a fellow student. Remember this is a short intensive, thus one absence is roughly the equivalent of 2 regular classes. Any absence will affect your grade. 3. Three exams. The third will be the final exam and is comprehensive.

NOTE: If you have special needs (i.e. alternative testing) please speak with me and contact Disability Services in the Academic Resource Center, Monroe Hall 405, (865-2990).

Grading (200 point total): 30 points -- Class Attendance and participation 100 points – Two tests (50 points each) 70 points -- Final Exam Grading Scale (based on points accumulated) 184 -200 A range 164-183 B range 140-163 C range 120-139 D range Below 120 F

Course Outline and Reading Schedule: (Subject to change as necessary. Please note: Readings are to be read prior to the day on which they are scheduled)

Week 1 (May 8-May 11) M -- Introduction to course; syllabus presentation Conformity, difference and an essential tension i.e. A look at the fish-tank! – Handout provided: “Burnout” by Rabbi Edwin Friedman Initial definition of terms – Christianity: a Jewish “heresy:” T – (Blackboard) Leonard George, Crimes of Perception, “Introduction: The Value of Heresy,” xi-xix Bible : Acts 10:1-11:18 and Acts 15 W -- Hogan, pp. 15-27 (Preliminary Remarks) R -- Hogan 29-35 (“God as One and Triune” and “The Judaizers”)

Week 2 (May 15-May 18) Repeating patterns in the construction of orthodoxy and heresy: M -- See notes on Blackboard (Patterns) Early threats to unity of faith and order Nature of God: T – Hogan 57-60 ( and Modalism); Hogan 43—50 () W – Test #1 R – Hogan 53-56 (); Hogan 61-66 (Manicheism)

Week 3 (May 22- May 25) M – Hogan 67-76 & 105-112 (Controversies on Baptism…Novatianism…) Relationship of Father and Son: T -- Hogan, pp. 51-52 (); pp. 79-100 () W -- Hogan 101-103 (Apollinarianism) and 123-132 ( and ) R – Test #2

Week 4 (May 29-June 1) Nature of the Human Will: M -- Hogan 113-122 () Medieval threats to unity of faith and order T -- Hogan 181-189 ( and Joachim of Fiore) W -- Hogan 171-180 (Cathars) R -- Hogan 191-202 (Wyclif and Hus)

Week 5 (June 5-June 8) M -- Hogan 203 - 231 (Luther) T -- (Blackboard) -- Excerpts – Book of Concord , “The Augsburg Confession” W – Hogan 233-257 (Zwingli, The Anabaptists, Calvin) R – Final Exam!