Christianity has been around for a long time, and has influenced many of the systems that exist around the world. This class will trace the history of modern Christianity, beginning with the creation of the Holy Roman Empire. After the Roman Empire fell, people in Europe were seeking something to unify them, and the HRE was meant to fill that role, though it didn’t quite work the way they hoped! The HRE soon became quite separated from not only Rome, but the eastern Christians as well. It didn’t take very long for Christianity to take on regional variations that soon became intolerable to one another. 

From there, we will talk about the role of the Catholic Church in a world with two major Christian churches, and how a quest for control led to further divisions. We will discuss how the introduction of the printing press changed the nature of Europe and led to widely varying views in how the religion should be practiced. We will also discuss Christians taking advantage of governmental colonialism as they venture to North America, where views on Christianity further develop and change. 

This class is great for students who may be unfamiliar with the history of Christianity. Regardless of one’s religious beliefs, Christianity is entrenched in western perspectives and philosophies, and this class can be a tool to help students untangle that. They will gain a working vocabulary of the different kinds of Christianity that exist in the western world, as well as some of the main differences that separate doctrine. We will not be discussing personal religious or spiritual beliefs in this class. 

This class is strictly secular and does not promote any religion. The purpose of this class is to help students understand the differences between certain Christian groups beliefs and culture. We will not discuss the merit of any belief but rather the perspectives of groups within historical time and place and the things that concerned them. 




Class 1: The Holy Roman Empire
-Christianity as a unifier after Rome 
-Struggles of distance throughout Europe
-Development of Catholic systems (Papal authority, monasteries, clergy)

Class 2: The Crusades and the Great Schism
-Intolerable differences between the Churches
-The Crusades as a holy unifier 
-Russia’s fusion of government and Christianity 

Class 3: The Catholic Church in the Renaissance
-The introduction of the printing press
-Church corruption and quests for control as 
-Questions the authority of the church 

Class 4: The Protestant Reformation
-Martin Luther and the Diet of Worms 
-The Peace of Augsburg 
-New Protestant groups: Lutherans, Calvinists

Class 5: The Counter Reformation 
-The 30 Years War
-The Council of Trent 
-The Jesuits and missions in South America, Africa and further Catholic evolution 

Class 6: Protestants in the British Colonies in North America
-Intolerance within communities looking for tolerance 
-Maryland banning Catholics, hostile actions towards Native Americans
-Anabaptists, Quakers, Huguenots  

Class 7: Manifest Destiny and the Great Revival 
-The emergence of Mormonism 
-Victorian views on Christianity 
-Evolution as a challenge to Christian views 

Class 8: Project Presentations 
-Students will create a visual aid of their own design to compare and contrast the different views held by different Christian groups. This could look like an umbrella, a Venn diagram, or anything else.