HISTORY
5393.02
Global
Christianity
Spring 2020
Baylor University
PHILIP JENKINS
INSTITUTE FOR
STUDIES OF RELIGION
Monday 2:30-5:15
Tidwell 205
407 Pat Neff (254) 710-7555
I check my e-mail regularly, so this is an
excellent way to get in touch with me if you have a quick question, or if you
want to make an appointment for a more substantial discussion.
THE
COURSE
Over
the past two centuries, the global spread of Christianity has been one of the
critical themes in world history, with revolutionary effects on Africa and Asia.
Meanwhile, Latin American faith has also been revolutionized by the spread of
new forms of Protestantism. The global movement also promises vast changes
within the Christian faith as it is practiced within Europe and North America.
In our time, Christianity, a religion born and nurtured in Asia and Africa, has
decided to return home.
Themes of the course include the reasons
for the success or failure of Christianity in different contexts; the
relationship between religious expansion and the fate of empires; the role of
globalization; the impact of culture on belief, practice, and theology; and the
changing relationships between the great world faiths. Among other recurrent
topics, we will touch on the impact of religious change on concepts of gender and family; and we will explore changing definitions
of modernity. As far as possible within the limitations of a single
course, we will strive for the widest possible global coverage.
As you will see, this is also a course
about different ways of doing history. We will explore a variety of different
studies, which are both top-down and bottom-up in their approach. Some
concentrate on vast global trends, others on the micro-history of particular
communities. Some are highly theoretical, others strictly nuts and bolts in
their approach. Some are more popular, other more academic. Some of the authors
will be reading explicitly think of themselves as historians, others are
sociologists or political scientists. We will discuss how historical fiction
can be used as a means of debating historical and theological truth.
I have a particular interest in the nature
of sources, and how historians employ diverse materials to draw conclusions. Throughout,
we will pay close attention to the use of documents and other forms of
evidence.
A glance at this syllabus will indicate my
own particular areas of interest, both themes and geographical areas. I am
however flexible towards accommodating other people's interests and areas of
expertise, and would encourage individuals to use their papers to pursue their
own particular projects. Ideally, I would like this class to provide a
foundation that you can build upon in your dissertation work.
Although this is primarily a history
course, I am open to a wide variety of other disciplines and approaches,
including theology, literature, art, and so on.
REQUIRED
BOOKS
The
study of global/world Christianity is currently a very lively field, with a
huge number of publications appearing year by year, and that is just counting
books, never mind journal articles. In selecting books for us to read, I want
primarily to give you a sense of the scope of what is out there, and what
people are working on right now. I am selecting from a possible range of
literally several hundred recent books, and it might be useful to explain my
selection criteria. Obviously, this list makes no pretense to be the absolute
best of what is out there, and other scholars would produce totally different
rosters. So why these books?
-Where
possible, each book should be strictly recent in date – half the books on this
list are from 2018.
-The
books’ emphasis should primarily fit within a History course, although there is
no reason why they should not draw on other disciplines, eg
anthropology, theology, sociology…. But they should be historical, rather than
contemporary surveys.
-There
should be a geographical balance of emphasis between different regions
(although in fairness, this course skews more to Asia than how I have done it
in the past!)
-There
should be a chronological balance between various periods.
-The
books should approach their subjects in a variety of different ways, to
illustrate the range of methodologies: microhistory, grand survey, biography, hagiography,
fiction…
-Ideally,
authors should tell their stories in innovative or creative ways.
-The
authors should be as diverse as possible in terms of race, gender, and national
origin.
With
all that in mind, these are the books that I have chosen:
Shusaku Endo, Silence (Taplinger,
1980)
ISBN: 0800871863, 978-0800871864
Henrietta Harrison, The
Missionary's Curse and Other Tales from a Chinese Catholic Village (Berkeley: University
of California Press, 2013).
ISBN: 0520273125,
978-0520273122
Philip Jenkins, The Lost History of Christianity: The
Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-and
How It Died (San Francisco: HarperOne
2008)
ISBN-10: 0061472816 ; ISBN-13: 978-0061472817
Melani McAlister, The Kingdom of God Has No Borders: A
Global History of American Evangelicals (New
York: Oxford University Press, 2018)
ISBN-10: 0190213426 ; ISBN-13: 978-0190213428
Mark
Noll, From Every Tribe and Nation
(Baker Academic 2014).
ISBN:
978-0-8010-3993-5
Dana L. Robert, Christian Mission: How Christianity Became a World Religion (New
York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009).
ISBN: 0631236201 ;
978-0631236207
Brian Stanley, Christianity in the Twentieth Century: A World History (Princeton
University Press, 2018).
ISBN-10: 0691196842 ; ISBN-13: 978-0691196848
R. S. Sugirtharajah, Jesus in Asia (Harvard University Press,
2018).
ISBN-10: 0674051130 ; ISBN-13: 978-0674051133
Karin Vélez, The Miraculous Flying House of Loreto:
Spreading Catholicism in the Early Modern World (Princeton University
Press, 2018)
ISBN-10: 0691174008 ; ISBN-13: 978-0691174006
Xi
Lian, Blood Letters: The Untold Story of Lin Zhao,
a Martyr in Mao's China (Basic Books 2018)
ISBN:
1541644239; 978-1541644236
I
could easily have used lots more collections of documents, readings, etc., but
an unimaginably vast range of texts is available for free on the Internet.
These cover every conceivable topic you might be researching. I would draw your
attention to two resources in particular, namely the History of Missiology site at Boston
University and the Dictionary of
African Christian Biography. Early in the course, please get to know your
way around the resources they offer.
A Note on
Reading Required Books
I
also offer the following list of questions that apply to any and all of the
prescribed books – or indeed, to some extent, to any academic book that you
might encounter:
1. First, obviously, what is
the book about, and what is its central theme or point?
2. Does the author make
his/her case well and clearly? Is the book well-written and well-argued? (the
two points are not necessarily the same!) If not, why not?
3. The fact that the book was
published indicates that somebody thought it made an important and innovative
point – there’s no point in just rehashing old familiar arguments, or so we
would think. What’s new about this book? Is it a controversial study?
4. What did the book tell us
that was not previously known? What can we learn about how the book fits into
the existing literature, yet advances beyond previous knowledge? What earlier
or established position is it arguing against?
5. Why are people studying
this kind of topic right now? What does this tell us about the state of
historical writing and scholarship?
6. Does the author push the evidence
to make it fit into contemporary concerns and obsessions? How?
7. What major questions and
issues surface that relate to the topics of the present course?
8. Is the book of any interest
or significance beyond the immediate scope of the study addressed?
9. Are there questions that
you would like to ask that the author does not deal with, or covers poorly?
10. What can we learn from the
footnotes and acknowledgments about how the author went about his/her research?
SYLLABUS
OF CLASSES
1. JANUARY 13 Introduction
Introducing
themes, concepts and debates: a chronology of Christian history
JANUARY 20: NO CLASS (MLK DAY)
2. JANUARY
27 The
West and the Rest
How
Christianity’s center of gravity has shifted through its two thousand year history;
how the faith has been shaped the various cultures with which it has
interacted.
DISCUSS: Jenkins, Lost
History of Christianity
3. FEBRUARY
3 Missions
The forces
driving mission through history, and factors making for success and failure.
Past and present debates over the concept of mission.
DISCUSS: Robert, Christian Mission.
See discussion questions at
http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/j/p/jpj1/robert.htm
4. FEBRUARY
10 Converting
the World
Christian
expansion during the Early Modern period, and the first era of globalization:
its triumphs and disasters.
DISCUSS: Karin Vélez The Miraculous Flying House of Loreto
I NEED TO KNOW THE TITLE AND TOPIC OF YOUR TERM PAPER TODAY,
PLEASE
5. FEBRUARY 17 The
Empires Strike Back
Different ways
of telling the global story.
DISCUSS: Stanley, Christianity
in the Twentieth Century
6. FEBRUARY 24 Voices
from the Past
Reconstructing
China’s Christian history.
DISCUSS: Henrietta Harrison, The Missionary's Curse.
See the discussion questions at
http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/j/p/jpj1/curse.htm
7. MARCH 2 Hagiography
as history
Reading the
lives of saints and martyrs as history
DISCUSS: Discuss:
Xi Lian, Blood Letters
MARCH 7-15 SPRING BREAK, NO CLASSES
8. MARCH 16
Learning and
Teaching
What Global
Christianity teaches us about the larger story of Christianity; implications
for teaching.
DISCUSS: Noll,
From Every Tribe and Nation
9. MARCH 23
Global
and American
How Western
evangelicalism went global, and how it was itself transformed in the process
DISCUSS: Melani McAlister, The
Kingdom of God Has No Borders
PAPER DRAFTS ARE
DUE TODAY
10. MARCH 30
Fresh Eyes on
the Bible
How new African
and Asian churches read and apply the Bible, and how new cultural contexts
shape their religious experience.
DISCUSS: R. S. Sugirtharajah, Jesus in Asia
11. APRIL 6 History as Fiction
Literary fiction
as a means of presenting historical and theological interpretation
DISCUSS: Endo, Silence. See
discussion questions at
http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/j/p/jpj1/silence.htm
APRIL
13: NO CLASS – EASTER
12. APRIL 20 CLASS PRESENTATIONS
13. APRIL 27 CLASS PRESENTATIONS
Hard
copies of final paper drafts are due at my office in Pat Neff by Wednesday, May
6 at 10am.
In most cases, you cannot submit papers electronically. An
exception can be made in rare circumstances, eg if,
say, you live 40 miles out of town and driving in especially to deliver the
paper would be a major personal inconvenience. (P.S. most of you do not live 40
miles out of town).
Grading
Paper
70%
Attendance and Participation
20%
Presentation
10%
100%
REQUIREMENTS
AND CLASS POLICIES
The course will take the format of a
reading and research seminar.
Each week, students will come to class
having read an assigned book or document. Each student should come to class
with open-ended questions growing out of the general theme, around which the
discussion of the readings should be organized. In each case, I will supply
beforehand a general list of questions and prompts that will guide you in
making your way through the readings.
Participants
will write a substantial research paper on a topic of their choice. Possible topics could include issues raised by the course
readings, or any other themes of interest in the history of global
Christianity. Students should base their research on primary sources from the
period and scholarly secondary sources, either books or journal articles. I am
flexible about possible themes, and am happy to assist you in developing a
workable topic and a list of sources. I discuss this
issue of paper topics in more detail here.
By the week of February 3, I need to know the title and topic of
the paper you will be writing. Obviously, I need to approve your choice before
you proceed with writing it.
Undergraduate
papers should be between 5,000 and 6,000 words, including footnotes. Graduate
student papers would be between 6,000 and 8,000 words, including footnotes. You
should follow Kate Turabian’s A Manual For Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations as
a style guide. Grading will of course take account of issues such as grammar
and punctuation.
By the week of March 23, I will expect you to submit a preliminary
draft, which I will then discuss with you on an individual basis during office
hours. The draft by the way, is a full-length version of the paper, fully
referenced, as opposed to a two or three page “concept paper”, and it should
thus be in connected prose, not in point form. This draft will then be revised
to create a final version due for presentation in the final examination period.
That gives you plenty of time to do any necessary fine-tuning.
Choosing
a Paper Topic
This is an important theme that I have addressed at some length at
this page:
http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/j/p/jpj1/5393topics.htm
Do please consult that. I have also included suggestions for
presentations, when that time of the semester rolls around.
Policies
Deadlines matter, and I intend to enforce
them strictly. If you miss a deadline without getting an extension in advance,
you get a grade of F on that particular paper or project. Do not get in touch
with me after the fact to explain why you missed a deadline, unless you produce
a proper medical note or other documentation. Valid reasons include medical
problems and the like.
“Attendance and participation" carry
a substantial 20 percent of the grade. I expect you to do the readings for
every class, and I reserve the right to call on people individually through the
term to comment or respond on particular texts, or issues arising from them. If
you do the readings, and take a full and regular part in class discussions,
then that will have a major positive impact on your grade. On the other hand,
consistently not participating, not doing the readings - or repeatedly being
absent from discussions - is equivalent to failing to do the term paper.
I don’t necessarily expect a 100 percent
attendance rate, but repeated absences or consistent non-participation will
have serious consequences. It does not just mean that you will receive a
slightly lower grade: just like refusing to do a paper or an exam, it means
that you would simply have not completed the class, and would therefore receive
a grade of F for the entire course. It's important to spell out that
expectation from the outset. If you are not prepared to do the readings and
participate fully, then please drop the class now.
Plagiarism or any form of
cheating involves a breach of student-teacher trust. This means
that any work submitted under your
name is expected to be your
own, neither composed by anyone else
as a whole or in part, nor
handed over to another person for complete
or partial revision. Be sure to document
all ideas that are not your own. Instances
of plagiarism or any other
act of academic dishonesty will be
reported to the Honor Council and
may result in failure of the
course. Not understanding plagiarism
is not an excuse. I expect you to be
intimately familiar with
the Honor Code at: http://www.baylor.edu/honorcode/
Any student
who needs academic accommodations related to a documented disability
should inform me
immediately at the beginning of the
semester. You are required
to obtain appropriate documentation
and information regarding
accommodations from the Office of Access and Learning Accommodation (OALA). Contact Information: (254) 710-3605 - Paul L. Foster Success
Center, 1st floor
on the East Wing of Sid Richardson.
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