Pre-requisites: Nil

Exclusions: Nil

Aims:

• To give candidates a survey of major developments in the history of the Christian Churches, so that they develop a fuller appreciation of major streams of Christian faith;
• To introduce candidates to selected topics in the life and thought of the Christian Churches, so that they come to appreciate the problems, opportunities and attitudes of past Christians in their interaction with the societies in which they lived;
• To promote training for candidates in the use of primary documents and begin the more specialised study of particular movements, issues and periods.

It should be noted that these are survey subjects.  Students are required to study the whole syllabus, which includes selected key people or case studies for more focussed study (listed in italics in the Subject Outline) and two special topics per subject.  Assessment procedures shall allow for a certain amount of specialisation, so that candidates are not expected to study each general topic in detail.

Subject Outline:

Section A: Reform and Revolution

1. Reformation: national church or gathered community? England and Scotland (1533-1588); Anabaptist groups.
   Thomas Cranmer or John Knox or Menno Simons
2. Revolution: Puritan-Anglican struggles (1563-1662); Deism and Socianism.
   Oliver Cromwell or John Locke or Richard Baxter
3. Revolution from outside: the challenge of the Enlightenment and political radicalism. Christianity and France (1789-1815).
4. Renewal: Methodists, Evangelicals, and Tractarians.  Christian Social movements.
   John Henry Newman or William Booth or Frederick Maurice
5. Revolutionary learning: Historical critical method; science and religion.
   Bishop Westcott or Charles Darwin
6. Special topic: A study of ONE aspect of John Wesley:
   
   1. Evangelist and preacher
   2. Leader of a lay movement
   3. Relations with Anglican Evangelicals
   4. His experiential theological method

Section B: The Church Universal

1. Christianity in the USA (1783-1925): Frontier religion; slavery; fundamentalism.
   Moody or BB Warfield or Francis Asbury
2. Christianity as a world religion: main features of the missionary and ecumenical movements.
   William Carey or John Nevius or John Mott
3. Christians in a totalitarian state: the church in Germany (1931-1950) OR Russia (1917-1990)
   Dietrich Bonhoeffer or Alexander Solzhenitsyn
4. Rome and the winds of change: Vatican I; Modernism; the Liturgical movement; Vatican II.
5. Special Topic: For the period 1550 to 1950 ONE of
6. Missionary expansion in ONE major region
   
   1. Patterns in Christian household and family life
   2. Patterns of ordained ministries
   3. Theological method: the role of reason
7. A sketch of the history of the Church in Australia to 1890

• Lecturer: Phil Gale
• E-Coach: Bill James