ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIAN CULTURE

Christianity played a crucial role in both preserving and transforming classical Greek and Latin culture throughout the Mediterranean region and as far as Central Asia.
This was not only because, as is well known, the texts of classical antiquity survived almost exclusively thanks to the copying efforts of Christian scribes and scholars during the Middle Ages and beyond, but also because ancient Christianity—whether Latin, Greek, or Middle Eastern—deeply absorbed classical culture at every level: literary, philosophical, artistic, and scientific. Classical greco-roman culture has come down to us not only in its original form, through the books copied by Christians, but also—and perhaps more importantly—in the form that Christians gave it over the centuries.
Finally, Christian culture, despite its historical and geographical diversity, is itself a “classical culture” of Europe and the world, whose presence has profoundly shaped, for better or worse, the intellectual and artistic development of many vastly different cultures.
Therefore, one cannot fully understand the endurance—and thus the relevance—of the classical tradition in Europe and the modern world without a knowledge of the foundations of Christianity and, in particular, of its relationship with ancient cultures.

By the end of the course, you will be familiar with the fundamentals of Christian history, particularly of its origins; you will have a solid understanding of the Christian assimilation of Greco-Roman classical culture and of the reasons behind the preservation and transmission of that culture; and you will possess the basic tools to decipher Christian iconography, which permeates all of late antique, medieval, and modern European art.
In this way, you will be able to better understand a series of crucial turning points in the history of what is considered "classical" in European culture and in various other parts of the world reached by Christianity. Moreover, the goal will not simply be to learn certain aspects of Christian history, but also to grasp its complexity: the main objective of the course is precisely to provide you with a nuanced, critical, and non-monolithic perspective on this religion, which is too often identified solely with its contemporary manifestations.

No prerequisites are required.

The course will be divided into three parts.
In the first part, we will address the origins of Christianity, beginning with a brief overview of the great complexity of early Christian literature collected in the New Testament—especially the four Gospels and their non-unitary nature; the thought of the apostle Paul; and the historical figure of Jesus as reconstructed through critical analysis of the Gospels.
This will be followed by an outline of the major historical developments in early Christianity: the formation of the biblical canon, persecutions and forms of martyrdom, the early councils, and the birth of monasticism.

In the second part, we will examine the dynamics of confrontation and interaction between Greco-Roman classical culture and Christian culture, focusing on how Christians between the 2nd and 5th centuries engaged in processes of assimilation and selective appropriation. These centuries—described by modern scholars as the preparatory and the core period of Late Antiquity—were the time during which the defining traits of Christian culture took shape. As an appendix to this section, we will also briefly consider how, at the end of antiquity, Christians organized the preservation of ancient knowledge.

Finally, the third part of the course will offer a general overview of Christian art. We will begin by focusing on Early Christian art and its distinctive way of interpreting the Bible through images. Then we will learn how to read and decode medieval and modern Christian art, especially through the lens of what became the go-to manual for generations of European artists: The Golden Legend (Legenda Aurea) by Jacobus de Voragine.

Any modern edition of the Bible.
Short selected readings from:
R.L. Wilken The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity, New Haven: Yale University Press 2013.
P. Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200-1000, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell 2013.
For the brave: A. Deconick, Comparing Christianities: An Introduction to Early Christianity, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell 2023.

Short selected readings from:
Basil, Letters, Volume IV: Letters 249-368. On Greek Literature, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press (constantly reprinted).
J. Daniélou, A History of Early Christian Doctrine Before the Council of Nicaea. 3 Vols. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1972.
K. Pollmann, The Baptized Muse: Early Christian Poetry as Cultural Authority, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2017.
H. Rahner, Greek Myths and Christian Mystery, Cluny Media, 2021.
For the brave: Ernst Robert Curtius, European Literature and the Latin Middle Age, Princeton: Princeton University Press 2013.

Selected reading from:
Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend: Selections, London: Penguin 1999.

The exam is exclusively oral and will last a maximum of 25–30 minutes.
The instructor will ask four questions: two on historical topics, based on what was discussed in class and on the reference texts; one on a text read in class; and one on a topic related to Christian art.

oral

30 e lode: excellent
30-28: very good
27-26: good
25-23: fair
22-18: poor

The course will be conducted primarily in a lecture format, with the instructor presenting historical information and engaging in shared reading of texts. At least two educational visits to important Early Christian sites are also planned.