Introduction to Culture and Literature of Eastern Christianity

Bachelor 2021/2022

Category 'Best Course for Broadening Horizons and Diversity of Knowledge and Skills'

Category 'Best Course for New Knowledge and Skills'

Type: Compulsory course (Ethiopia and the Arab World)

Area of studies: Asian and African Studies

Delivered by: Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies

Where: Faculty of Humanities

When: 2 year, 3, 4 module

Mode of studies: offline

Open to: students of all HSE University campuses

Instructors: Anna Alexeyevna Rogozhina

Language: English

ECTS credits: 3

Contact hours: 60

Full Syllabus

Abstract

This course is aimed at providing students with a wide-range critical knowledge of the formation and development of early Christianity and its doctrine in general and various regional Christian cultures in particular. It focuses on the history and the rich heritage of Eastern Christianity, both literary and material (images, architecture, religious practices). We will also look at how this heritage has been shared and preserved in the past, and how it is transformed and transposed in the present. The course will offer a scholarly and accessible introduction to the variety of topics comprising the research field of Eastern Christian Studies. It will also teach students the analytical and critical skills necessary to engage with academic subjects at university level and to learn to think independently, to reflect on relevant issues of method, to develop the ability to identify, understand and apply key concepts and principles in the texts studied during the course. By the end of the course students will have a good awareness of the nature and scope of Eastern Christian studies, be able to independently assess and evaluate ideas and theories, understand and use appropriate methodology, critically read and analyze relevant texts, communicate their own views and ideas clearly and logically.

Learning Objectives

To provide students with a comprehensive knowledge of the main stages of the spread of Christianity in the Middle East and Central Asia and its influence on the social, cultural and political development of the Middle East.
To inform students on the origins and patterns in the development of specific Christian cultures in the Middle East and Central Asia and the main factors determining this development.
To acquaint students with the main personalities and sources associated with the religious and cultural life of the Christian communities of the East in the period of Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Early Modern period.
To develop enhanced understanding of how primary evidence is employed in philological, textual, historical and literary analysis and argument through work with relevant primary and secondary literature, and to demonstrate the role of interdisciplinary research (in the fields of philology, philosophy, archeology, art history) in the study of late antique and medieval culture.

Expected Learning Outcomes

Defines the key events and tendencies in the history of the Middle Eastern Christian communities in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Demonstrates knowledge of the key features and authors of the formative period of early Christianity
Demonstrates knowledge of the main groups of Christian apocrypha and their characteristic features.
Demostrates knowledge of the key features and personalities in the history of Arabic Christian communities.
Demostrates knowledge of the key features and personalities in the history of Egyptian Christianity.
Describes the main figures and events in the history of the Christian Caucasian states.
Describes the main tendencies and developments in the field of Syriac studies.
Names and explains the main characteristics of gnostic systems, defines differences between various gnostic groups.

Course Contents

Spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire and beyond.
Christianity in Egypt.
Gnosticism. Hermetic corpus. Magic and Christianity. Manichaeism.
Apocrypha.
Syriac (Aramaic) Christianity.
Christianity in the Caucasus.
Arab Christians.
The fate of Christians in the Middle East

Assessment Elements

Seminar activity
Active participation is required and actively encouraged. If, due to an emergency, students are not able to respond to a discussion prompt in the week it is assigned, they must contact the instructor by e-mail and will be expected to present their homework in the following week. It is expected that all assignments will be submitted on time (by midnight the day they are due). However, if there are circumstances that prevent them from doing so, students should contact the instructor in advance. Since the class will be structured around discussion, completion of readings and all class assignments is crucial.
Essay
Test
Short quiz tests at the beginning of each seminar, full-text tests with essay questions at the end of each of the course sections.
Exam

Interim Assessment

2021/2022 3rd module
0.2 * Essay + 0.4 * Seminar activity + 0.4 * Test
2021/2022 4th module
0.4 * Exam + 0.2 * Test + 0.4 * Seminar activity

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

Bart Ehrman, & Zlatko Plese. (2011). The Apocryphal Gospels : Texts and Translations. Oxford University Press.
Buzi, P. (2018). Egypt, crossroad of translations and literary interweavings (3rd-6th centuries). A reconsideration of earlier Coptic literature. Italy, Europe: Edizioni Università di Trieste. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.B1E8F4CC
Eastern Christianity, , 2006
Genocide in the Ottoman Empire : Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks, 1913-1923, , 2017
Guirguis, M. V. (DE-588)1192029313, (DE-627)1670498913, aut. (2018). The Coptic Christian minority in contemporary Egypt since the Arab Spring Max Guirguis. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edswao&AN=edswao.1670499537
Liliya R. Frangulyan. (2018). Elements of (Auto) Biography in the Context of Coptic Hagiography, 7 th –8 th Centuries. Studia Litterarum, (4), 40. https://doi.org/10.22455/2500-4247-2018-3-4-40-57
Millar, F. (1987). Empire, community and culture in the Roman Near East : Greeks, Syrians, Jews and Arabs. Journal of Jewish Studies, 38(2), 143–164. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsram&AN=edsram.000008116
Paganism and Christianity in Egypt, Scott-Moncrieff, P. D., 2013
Petikean, A. A. (1963). The golden age in the fifth century. An introduction to Armenian literature in perspective.
The Syriac World. (2019). Taylor & Francis.
Манихейство : по ранним источникам, Смагина, Е. Б., 2011

Recommended Additional Bibliography

Aaron Michael Butts, & Robin Darling Young. (2020). Syriac Christian Culture : Beginnings to Renaissance. Catholic University of America Press.
Andrew Gregory, & Christopher Tuckett. (2005). Trajectories Through the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers. OUP Oxford.
Art and the Christian apocrypha, Cartlidge, D. R., 2001
Between Empires : Arabs, Romans, and Sasanians in the Late Antiquity, Fisher, G., 2011
Christianity in the land of the pharaohs : the Coptic Orthodox Church, Kamil, J., 2012
Early Christianity in Asia Minor and Cyprus : from the margins to the mainstream, , 2019
Fisher, G. (2015). Arabs and Empires Before Islam. Oxford: OUP Oxford. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1081348
Papazian, S. (2019). The Cost of Memorializing: Analyzing Armenian Genocide Memorials and Commemorations in the Republic of Armenia and in the Diaspora. https://doi.org/10.18352/hcm.534
Pierluigi Piovanelli, Tony Burke, & Timothy Pettipiece. (2015). Rediscovering the Apocryphal Continent : New Perspectives on Early Christian and Late Antique Apocryphal Texts and Traditions. Mohr Siebeck GmbH & Co. KG.
Quispel, G. (1992). Hermes Trismegistus and the origins of Gnosticism (Vol. 46). Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsram&AN=edsram.000361045
Sergey Minov, & Flavia Ruani. (2020). Syriac Hagiography : Texts and Beyond. Brill.
Seta Dadoyan. (2021). The Fatimid Armenians : Cultural and Political Interaction in the Near East. Brill.
The cult of the saints : its rise and function in Latin christianity, Brown, P., 1982
Vacca, A. (2017). Non-Muslim Provinces Under Early Islam : Islamic Rule and Iranian Legitimacy in Armenia and Caucasian Albania. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1613535
Моисеева, С. (2011). Первые Памятники Арабо-Христианской Житийной Литературы И Их Связь С Византийской Агиографической Традицией. Вестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского Гуманитарного Университета. Серия 3: Филология, 26.
Смагина, Е. (2010). К Вопросу О Жанре Трактата “Кефалайа” В Контексте Иудейской И Раннехристианской Литературы. Вестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского Гуманитарного Университета. Серия 3: Филология, (22). Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsclk&AN=edsclk.14160910

Course Syllabus