Jewish and Christian Works (WCIV1100)

Ancient Judaism

This lecture will explore the origins, history, and founding stories of Judaism from the 2nd millennium BCE to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05

The Pentateuch: Genesis

In this tutorial, students will explore the primeval history of divine creation in the first book of the Pentateuch, as well as the ancestral history of Abraham's covenant with God, and discuss the significance of Genesis for Western thought and culture.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05

Rabbinic Judaism

This lecture will examine the history of Rabbinic Judaism from the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE to the early Middle Ages.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05

The Ketuvim: The Book of Job

In this tutorial, students will read The Book of Job, exploring its major theme of theodicy - the problem of human suffering and divine justice in the world - and discuss its significance for Western thought and culture.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05

Historical Jesus

This lecture will explore the origins, history, and stories of Christianity from the birth of Jesus to the composition of the Gospels.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05

The New Testament: The Gospel of Matthew

In this tutorial, students will read the Gospel of Matthew, compare the canonical text to the gnostic Infancy Gospel of Thomas, and discuss questions about the authorship and canonicity of the Gospels.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05

Church & Empire

This lecture will explore the emergence of a catholic form of Christianity in the first four centuries CE, along with the growth of churches in the Mediterranean and Christianity's fateful alliance with the Roman Empire in 312 CE.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L05

Anonymous: Beowulf

In this tutorial, students will read the Old English epic poem Beowulf, the only surviving manuscript of which was thought to have been composed between c. 975-1025 CE. Attention will be paid to the way that this pagan oral narrative was Christianised by the anonymous scribe who composed it.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L05

Heaven, Hell & Purgatory

This lecture will examine the historical development of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory from Late Antiquity to the High Middle Ages.

Learning outcomes: L01, L03, L05

Dante: Inferno

In this tutorial, students will read the first part of Dante's Divina Commedia, the Inferno, the journey of Dante and his guide Virgil through the nine levels of Hell, and discuss its themes as well as its context and later importance.

Learning outcomes: L01, L03, L05

Medieval Eve

This lecture will explore the place of women in European society during the Middle Ages, the types of religious misogyny they faced, as well as some early responses to antifeminism.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L05

Pizan: The Book of the City of Ladies

In this tutorial, students will read Christine de Pizan’s 1405 defence of women’s contribution to Western culture through her literary construction of an allegorical city.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L05

The Renaissance

This lecture will explore the fortunes of Christianity in the Renaissance, including the emergence of criticism of the Roman Catholic Church from John Wycliffe, Jan Hus, and the movement known as the Devotio moderna.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L05

Erasmus: In Praise of Folly

In this tutorial, students will read the work that anticipated Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses (1517) and the start of the Reformation, Erasmus’s In Praise of Folly, and discuss its method and critique of late medieval and Renaissance culture.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L05

Protestantism

This lecture will explore the theology and impact of reformer Martin Luther, as well as the early spread of Protestantism in Germany and Switzerland.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L05

Milton: Paradise Lost (Part 1)

In this tutorial, students will read books I-VI of Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667), an epic poem that retells the biblical fall of Adam and Eve in light of God’s war against Satan.

Learning outcomes: L01, L03, L05

The English Reformation

This lecture will chronicle the history of the Reformation in England from the 1520s to 1660s, with a particular focus on the influence of Calvinism.

Learning outcomes: L01, L03, L05

Milton: Paradise Lost (Part 2)

In this tutorial, students will read books VII-XII of Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667), an epic poem that retells the biblical fall of Adam and Eve in light of God’s war against Satan.

Learning outcomes: L01, L03, L05

Mid-Semester Break

Course Reading Week

There will be no lecture or tutorials this week in WCIV1100.

The Soul

This lecture will examine debates about the soul, paying particular attention to the role that the newly discovered force of electricity acquired in religious debates of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03

Shelley: Frankenstein

In this tutorial, students will read Mary Shelley’s story of the young Victor Frankenstein’s creation and its repercussions in Frankenstein, and discuss the importance of Jewish and Christian themes to secular literature and culture.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03

The Holocaust

This lecture will explore the history of antisemitism in the West, the rise of Nazism, and the Holocaust (1941-1945).

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04

Levi: If This is a Man

In this tutorial, students will read Primo Levi's recollection of his time in the Auschwitz concentration camp, and discuss the Holocaust's significance for Judaism and the role of God in the face of unspeakable acts of evil.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04

The Death of God

This lecture will explore Nietzsche’s claim that 'God is dead', followed by an exploration of existentialism and Christianity’s response to it.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L05

Tillich: The Courage To Be

In this tutorial, students will read Lutheran theologian Paul Tillich’s 1952 classic The Courage to Be, a response to the existential anxiety experienced in the wake of the world wars.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L05