History of Christianity

Program Description

Over the course of two years, students will undertake rigorous and critical study of the history of the Christian church as it interacted with biblical, theological, social, political, intellectual, economic, racial, gender, and cultural factors. Core courses will provide a comprehensive knowledge of Christian history and equip students with skills necessary for advanced historical work. Students will then have the foundation to progress in their understanding of the field through more in-depth seminar courses. To that end, students may choose to focus the program toward developing an expertise in one of the following concentrations:

Early Christianity (*)
Reformation Christianity
Modern Christianity

(*) Students in the History of Christianity program who select the concentration in Early Christianity are eligible to apply for the WCECS Research Fellowship.

Those who excel in the program will be prepared to undertake doctoral work in the history of Christianity, historical theology, and history.

In addition to the pursuit of academic excellence, skills for service in the church and society worldwide will be fostered as students are given the opportunity to think vocationally about the discipline of history and their contribution as Christians to the field.

The requirements for this program are:

24 hours in Historical Studies
- All students must complete:
  - BITH 576 History of Christianity to 1900 (4)
  - BITH 577 Modern World Christianity (4)
  - BITH 581 The Reformation (4)
  - BITH 585 History of Christianity in North America (4)
  - BITH 677 Topics in the History of Christianity (8)
    - Early Christianity concentration students choose either BITH 577 or BITH 585 and will complete 4 additional elective hours from BITH 677 or BITH 679.
    - Reformation concentration students are required to take one seminar (BITH 677) that corresponds with the Reformation concentration; one seminar must be taken from the Early or Modern concentrations.
    - Modern concentration students are required to take one seminar (BITH 677) that corresponds with the Modern period; one seminar must be taken from the Early or Reformation periods.
    - Students without a concentration must take seminars from two different periods, chosen from Early, Reformation, or Modern.
4 hours in Historical Theology
- All students must choose from the following:
4 hours in Biblical and Systematic Theology
- All students must choose from the following:
- Students with qualified coursework in this requirement and with permission from their advisor may choose instead from the following options:
  - BITH 674—Theology and the Liberal Arts (4)
  - BITH 625—World Christian Perspectives (2) and BITH 65X Historical Theology (2)
  - BITH 675—Advanced Systematic Theology (4)
6 hours in Historical Skills & Methodology
- All students must complete:
  - BITH 505—Language Reading Course (German, French or Latin) (4)
    - Students not planning to pursue doctoral work may receive permission from their advisor to use these hours towards their electives.
  - BITH 683—Historiography of the History of Christianity (2)
- Students planning to pursue doctoral work are strongly recommended to take:
  - BITH 684—Methods in Scholarship (0)
4 or 8 hours in Electives (8 if students opt out of BITH 505 with permission)
- All students are required to complete:
  - BITH 692—Graduate Comprehensive Exam(0)
    - Students should not take exams before they have completed 32 hours of the program.
- All concentration students are required to choose from the following:
  - BITH 695—Independent Study (4) in their concentrated subject, or
  - BITH 698—Thesis (4)