Be familiar with the history of intertestamental Judaism within the context of the Hellenistic Mediterranean.

Know the various sects within Judaism in the first century, and related Christianity to each of them.

Be able to explain the synoptic problem and know the purpose and method of textual, form, and redaction criticism.

Describe the various movements within the early church that figured in the Apostolic Conference of 48 CE. Explain the reasons for and significance of the triumph of the Pauline movement.

Consider Paul’s conversion to Christianity as typical religious experience.

What was the appeal of Christianity to the Jews of the diaspora and pagans of the Greco-Roman world. How did early Christian leaders spread the message?

What were the problems of unity of belief and practice in the first-century church? How did the fathers address these problems?

Why is Eusebius so important for our knowledge about the early church?

Explain the apologetic movement and know about some of the important apologists.

What varying attitudes did the apologists have toward pagan thought?

What are some of the important contributions of the apologists to Christian theology?

What features of Greco-roman philosophy did the Christians adopt? What features did they reject?

Consider the third century as a time of crisis not only for the Roman empire in political, social, and economic terms but also for the pagan mind in psychological terms. What gaps opened up in pagan life and thought and how did the church move in to fill the gaps?

Be familiar with the main features of Greco-Roman art and architecture and show how the Christians adopted or adapted them to meet their particular needs.

How do developments in Roman art reflect the crisis of the third century?

Chronology of the Persecutions: Orosius’s 10 phases; shift from sporadic, local incidents to general, empire-wide policy as church organization became more visible

Paganism: polytheism as patronage; polytheism as civic participation; polytheism as action not belief; ritual not creed

Causes of Persecution: general (Christian secrecy, isolationism, obstinacy) and specific (personal animosity, official exasperation, scapegoating)

Conversion of Constantine: the sources (Eusebius, Eunapius, Zosimus) and modern evaluations; Diocletian’s new empire; the biography; Constantine’s vision and the Battle of the Milvian Bridge 28 Oct 312

Constantine’s Imperial Policy about Christians: patronage and privileges; doctrinal schism and the search for uniformity (Donatism, Arianism); the Council of Nicaea

The Christian Empire: Dynasties of Constantius, Valentinian, Theodosius; authority of Christian emperors (councils, Eusebian principle, dynastic principle, military victory)

Julian and the Pagan Reaction: rural vs urban paganism; Julian’s biography; pagan reforms and their failure

Theodosius the Great and Ambrose: relation between church and state

Early Heresies: Docetism, Libertinism, Logos Theology, Gnosticism (Valentinus, Marcion)

Asceticism and Church Organization (Anthony, anachoresis, influence of hermits, episcopal control): Anchorites, Cenobites, Laura

Trinitarian Controversy: Monarchism (Dynamic and Modalist or Adoptionist and Sabellian); Tertullian’s 2 personae in 1 substantia

Council of Nicaea: Arius, Alexander, religious gangsterism; orthodoxy (homoousios: 1 ousia in 3 hypostaseis); imperial position

Christological Controversy: Apollinarianism (divine not human); Alexandrian position (hypostatic union: divine not human; Monophysitism; Theotokos); Antiochene position (two persons, human and divine; Theodochos); Two Nature theology, (fully two natures in three periods: preexistence, kenosis, exaltation)

Council of Ephesus 431: reaffirm Nicene orthodoxy, Alexandrian Christology; Theotokos

Council of Chalcedon 451: condemn Alexandrian monophysitism and extreme Antiochene dualism (two natures not two persons); theotokos; role of Pulcheria

The Church in the West: Augustine (biography, conversion)