5129 NW 53rd Avenue - Gainesville, Florida 32653 - Phone: (352) 371-7258

Father Peter Kastaris, Protopresbyter

(863)-294-7494 (Home) - (863)-651-9225 (Cell)

E-mail: StElizabethGai@mail.goarch.org
http://stelizabeth.fl.goarch.org

 
   When Orthodox Christians recite the Creed during the Divine Liturgy, they cross themselves at the words "Believe in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church." The gesture is more than just a matter of ritual, for the significance of these words has to do with identity and with membership in the Kingdom of God. The Church is not just an institution, but a mode of life and a way of being in the world. As such, it has a history, which is often understood as the history of Christianity as a whole. Indeed, the foundation of the Church was laid by Jesus Christ Himself. Following His death and Resurrection, the Church evolved and grew into what we know today as Orthodoxy. However, although Jesus founded only One Church, we now see a multitude of churches, all of which define themselves as Christian and successors of the Church established by Christ. Understanding the history of Christianity is therefore a critical element in understanding the role of Orthodoxy and the historical significance of the Holy Orthodox Church in both past and present times. In an era of constantly blurring distinctions between false and true teachings, an examination of the historical background of our Orthodox heritage may also strengthen our belief in the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
    This course is designed as a chronological and topical introduction to the history of the Church, from the beginning to the present. Since this is a two semester hour survey, it is impossible to cover everything. Instead, the course will offer a selection of representative topics from a much larger possible list. We will examine some of the key concepts of theology that had historical significance, the political circumstances leading to the separation of various churches, and the main aspects of Christian life throughout history. Our focus will be on Orthodoxy, but we will also take quick glimpses at some other churches, especially at the Roman-Catholic church. Anyone with enough curiosity and desire to learn is welcome. There are no pre-requisites and no special recommendations for this course.

Textbooks

    There are numerous books about the history of Christianity, and even more literature on the history of the Church. Not all of them are available and even fewer can be used successfully in a survey course like this. There is a tendency in the literature published in English to shift the focus to the Roman-Catholic church after ca. 800 A.D., thus leaving out some of the most important developments in the history of Orthodoxy, which we will discuss in this course. Such books are therefore of little use to us, no matter how detailed or accurate their coverage of Western developments may be. In the absence of any single, completely trustworthy textbook, I decided to recommend to you only a few that you may wish to procure, if the pace at which we will move or the problems that we will discuss become a little bit too difficult to follow. You will be well served by Brian Moynahan's The Faith. A History of Christianity (New York: Doubleday, 2002). If you would prefer a somewhat shorter and much more readable account, your best choice may be Father George Nicozisin's The Orthodox Church. A Well Kept Secret, 2nd edition (Minneapolis: Light and Life Publishing, 1997). Father Kallistos Ware's Orthodox Church (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1972) is long out of print. John Meyendorff's Orthodox Church. Its Past and Its Role in the World Today (New York: Pantheon Books, 1962) remains a classic, but it is hard to find nowadays in its first edition. You may be more successful with its fourth edition edition (1996), published in Crestwood, N.J., by the St. Vladimir's Seminar Press. A fair coverage of all Orthodox churches, their history, traditions, and customs is given in John Binns's Introduction to the Christian Orthodox Churches (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). This is a much better representation of Orthodoxy than Victoria Clark's Why Angels Fall: A Portrait of Orthodox Europe (London: Macmillan, 2000), which ignores the substantial number of Orthodox Christians outside Europe. Irrespective of your choice, the teaching approach in this course will be  broad enough to accommodate all learning skills and strategies. The format will be a combination of lectures and discussion and much of what we will read as "primary sources" will be available online, from the links indicated below.

Week 2:               Christianity spreads to the Jews. Early Christian Church.
                                    for an example of Judaic religious practices of the first century A.D., see a description of the rituals prescribed for the sacrifices on the
                                                Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) in the  Mishnah
                                    see a reconstruction of the Temple of Solomon on the basis of its description in the Bible
                                    for the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, see the account of Flavius Josephus
                                    for the Essenes, see the Dead Sea scrolls
                                    for the early Christian rites of baptism and Eucharist, see the Didache