FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY
Department of Religious Studies
REL 3530 PROTESTANTISM: From Luther to Barth
Fall 2011
______
Instructor: Mr. Daniel Alvarez Class Hours: MWF, 9:00-9:50 p.m. Office Hours: TBA Class Room: DM 110
Office: DM 458A Fall 2011
E-Mail Address:
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Surveys Protestantism from the Reformation to the present, including the formation of Protestant theology, the relationship of Protestantism to culture and contemporary developments.
TEXTBOOKS
John Dillenberger & Claude Welch, Protestant Christianity Interpreted Through its Developments, 2nd edition, Macmillan, 1988.
Students are encouraged to explore internet resources to supplement their reading and research. However, the quality of internet resources is highly uneven and the student must be very judicious in the use of such sources. A sample of such resources is given below.
COURSE STRUCTURE The course is divided into three sections:
I. 16th - 18th centuries
Rise of Protestantism: Luther, “Preface to the Epistle to the Romans”; Commentary on Galatians (Chapters 1 and 2); selection from the Treatises of 1520.
Reformed Protestantism: Calvin, Selections from Necessity of Reforming the Church.
Radical Protestantism: Selectin from Anabaptist writings; Roger Williams, selection from Bloody Tenet of Persecution; William Penn, selection from Primitive Christianity Revived.
Orthodox Protestantism: Selection from Protestant Scholastic writings.
Evangelical Protestantism: Jonathan Edwards, “Divine & Supernatural Light” and “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”
II. Enlightenment Rationalism and19th Century Liberalism
Liberal Protestantism: Selection from Schleiermacher, On Religion (First and Second Speeches); Martin Leberecht de Wette, Theodore, Volume II; Strauss, The Life of Jesus Critically Examined; Ernst Troeltsch, “Historical and Dogmatic Method in Theology.”
Transcendentalist Protestantism: William Ellery Channing, “Baltimore Sermon, 1819”; Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Divinity School Address, 1838.”
III. 20th Century
Ritschlian Protestantism: Walter Rauschenbusch, selection from A Theology of the Social Gospel, and Arthur Cushman McGiffert, “The Kingdom of God.”
Fundamentalist Protestantism: A. A. Hodge and Benjamin Warfield, “The Inspiration of the Bible”; Gresham Machen, selection from Christianity and Liberalism.
Neo-Orthodox Protestantism: Karl Barth (d. 1968), selections from Epistle to the Romans (1922), “Schleiermacher” (1926), “Schleiermacher” (1952), Paul Tillich (d. 1965), “The Recovery of the Prophetic Tradition by the Reformation.”
INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES
1. To expose the student to the seminal primary sources or "raw materials" for the study and understanding of Protestantism.
2. To facilitate the informed discussion of the nature of Protestantism in all its complexity and diversity.
3. To analyze selected primary documents essential for understanding the evolution of Protestantism from Luther to the present, with an emphasis theological development.
4. To provide the student with a comprehensive historical overview of the major voices and movements that shaped the Protestant tradition.
5. To make possible, for students who may be neither Western, Christian nor Protestant, a sympathetic understanding of a major and influential branch of the Christian religious tradition by situating Protestantism in the context of historical forces and factors that have their analogue and significant parallels in the other great world religions.
6. To equip the student with the categories, historical and conceptual framework, identity of the most important figures and movements of thought that will allow him/her to pursue and explore in greater depth through a research paper a particular topic or aspect of the Protestant tradition.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
1. A 30 Question multiple choice, true/false, short answer, fill in the blank exam #1 (30% of grade).
2. A 30 Question multiple choice/true-false/short answer/fill in the blank exam #2. (30% of grade).
3. A 40 Question multiple choice/true-false/short answer/fill in the blank exam #3. (40% of grade).
GRADE CRITERIA
A= 96-100
A-=91-95
B+=88-91
B=82-87
B-=79-81
C+=75-78
C=70-74
C-=68-69
D+=65-67
D=62-64
F=BELOW 62
COURSE OUTLINE
Week 1
Introduction: Syllabus, Requirements, Overview of course
I. 16th - 18th centuries
The Protestant Reformation: Martin Luther & John Calvin
Required Reading: Dillenberger, 23-52; Luther: Preface to the New Testament; selection from Commentary on Galatians 1, 2 (in Works of Martin Luther, Fortress Press); Reformation and Theological Writings: “Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation” (Dillenberger); “The Babylonian Captivity of the Church” (Dillenberger).
Luther, continued
Week 2
Movie: Martin Luther
Movie: Martin Luther, concluded
Week 3
The Protestant Reformation: John Calvin
Required Reading: Dillenberger, Calvin: “Necessity of Reforming the Church” (Reid).
Week 4
Calvin, continued
Radical Protestantism
Required Reading: Dillenberger, 53-62; 108-111. Radical Protestantism: Selection from Anabaptist writings; Roger Williams, selection from Bloody Tenet of Persecution; William Penn, selection from Primitive Christianity Revived.
Week 5
Orthodox Protestantism
Required Reading: Dillenberger, 73-91; selection from Protestant Scholastic writings.
Evangelical Protestantism: Jonathan Edwards
Required Reading: Dillenberger, Protestant Christianity, 91-108; 111-127; Edwards, “Divine and Supernatural Light” and “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”
Edwards, concluded
Week 6 II. Enlightenment Rationalism and the 19th Century
Liberal Protestantism
Required Reading: Dillenberger, Protestant Christianity, 136-143; Martin Leberecht de Wette, Theodore, Volume II.
De Wette, continued.
De Wette, continued.
Week 7
Schleiermacher and the Emergence of Liberal Protestantism
Required Reading: Dillenberger, 161-176; Schleiermacher, On Religion (1799), 1st Speech.
Schleiermacher, 2nd Speech.
Week 8
Schleiermacher, concluded..
Transcendentalist Protestantism: Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Divinity School Address” [1838] (Smith & Handy, 136-140).
Week 9
The Rise of Biblical Criticism in the 19th Century: Strauss and Troeltsch
Required Reading: Dillenberger, 177-200; selection from Strauss’ Life of Jesus (1835).
Week 10
Troeltsch, “Historical and Dogmatic Method in Theology” (1898); Dillenberger, 208-211.
Troeltsch, concluded.
Week 11 III. 20th Century
Ritschlian Protestantism: Dillenberger, 211-233; Walter Rauschenbusch, selection from A Theology for the Social Gospel [1917] (Smith & Handy, American Christianity, 401-407); Arthur Cushman McGiffert, “The Kingdom of God.”
Fundamentalist Protestantism
Required Reading: Dillenberger, 200-208; A. A. Hodge and Benjamin Warfield, “Biblical Inerrancy” [1881] (from Smith & Handy, 324-332); J. Gresham Machen's Christianity and Liberalism [1923] (Smith & Handy, American Christianity, 345-349).
Week 12
Neo-Orthodox Protestantism: Dillenberger, 233-257; Karl Barth (d. 1968), selections from Epistle to the Romans (1922).
Barth’s Romans, continued.
Barth’s Romans, continued.
Week 13
Barth’s “Schleiermacher” (1926), in Theology and the Church; “Schleiermacher” (1952), in Protestant Theology in the 19th Century.
Barth’s “Schleiermacher,” continued.
Week 14
Barth, concluded.
Paul Tillich (d. 1965), “What is Wrong with the “Dialectic” Theology?” (1935).
Tillich, continued.
Week 15
“The Recovery of the Prophetic Tradition in the Reformation” (1950), from Hauptwerke: Theologische Schriften (1992), Band VI.
Tillich, continued.
Tillich, concluded.
Week 16
FINAL EXAM
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR THE STUDY OF PROTESTANTISM
Van Harvey, The Historian and the Believer.
Edward Farley, Ecclesial Reflection.
Peter Hodgson, The Formation of Historical Theology: A Study of Ferdinand Christian Baur.
Otto Pfleiderer, The Development of Theology in Germany Since Kant.
E. C. Moore, An Outline of the History of Christian Thought Since Kant.
A. C. McGiffert, Protestant Thought Before Kant.
Langdon Gilkey, Naming the Whirlwind.
Robert Mcaffie Brown, The Spirit of Protestantism.
William Hordern, A Layman’s Guide to Protestant Theology.
George W. Forell, The Protestant Faith.
Wilhelm Pauck, Heritage of the Reformation.
Claude Welch, Protestant Thought in the 19th Century (2 volumes).
C. Stephen Evans, The Historical Christ and the Jesus of Faith (specially, 1-46; 184-202; 302-355).
Reinhold Seeberg, Textbook of the History of Doctrine.
Philip Schaff, Creeds of Christendom.
Philip Schaff, The Spirit of Protestantism.
William Stacy Johnson & John H. Leith, Reformed Reader: 1519-1799, Volume 1.
George Stroup, Reformed Reader: 1799-Present, Volume 2.
B. J. Kidd, Documents of the Continental Reformation.
Williston Walker, A History of the Christian Church.
Paul Althaus, The Theology of Luther.
Martin Brecht, Martin Luther, 3 Volumes.
Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther.
Heiko Oberman, Luther.
A. M. Hunter, The Teaching of Calvin.
Wilhelm Niesel, The Theology of Calvin.
Edward A. Dowey, The Knowledge of God in Calvin’s Theology.
Horton Harris, David F. Strauss.
Horton Harris, The Tubingen School.
A. H. Smith, Church and State in the Middle Ages.
Justo L. Gonzalez, A History of Christian Thought, Volume III.
Williston Walker, A History of the Christian Church.
Paul Tillich, The Protestant Era.
Paul Tillich, A History of Christian Thought.
Paul Tillich, 19th and 20th Century Protestant Theology.
Karl Barth, The Theology of Schleiermacher (lectures from the 1920s period).
Karl Barth, Theology and the Church (selected essays of the early, pre-1932 Barth).
Karl Barth, Protestant Theology in the 19th Century (essays on Tholuck, Hengstenberg, Strauss, Schleiermacher, among many others).
Karl Barth, Protestant Thought in the !9th Century (abridged version of the above, with fewer essays).
Richard R. Niebuhr, Schleiermacher on Christ and Religion.
Richard Brandt, The Philosophy of Schleiermacher.
H. R. McKintosh, Types of Modern Theology (with lengthy essays on Schleiermacher and Barth).
George H. Williams, The Radical Reformation.
George Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture: ... 1870-1925.
George Marsden, The Search for Christian America.
George Marsden, Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism.
George Marsden, Reforming Fundamentalism.
George Marsden, The Soul of the American University.
George Marsden, The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship.
Anson Stokes & Leo Pfeffer, Church and State in the United States.
J. S. Whale, The Protestant Tradition.
Karl Adam, The Spirit of Catholicism (strongly anti-Protestant).
Harold J. Grimm, The Reformation Era: 1500-1650.
A. G. Dickens, Reformation and Society in 16th Century Europe.
A. G. Dickens, The English Reformation.
A. G. Dickens, The Counter Reformation.
A. G. Dickens, The Age of Humanism and Reformation: Europe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th Centuries.
Henry Bettenson, Documents of the Christian Church.
Henry Gee & W. J. Hardy, Documents Illustrative of English Church History.
Charlex Maxon, The Great Awakening in the Middle Colonies.
Edwin Gaustad, The Great Awakening.
Elizabeth Ola Winslow, Jonathan Edwards.
Perry Miller, Jonathan Edwards.
Peter Gay, The Enlightenment.
Walter H. Conser, Jr., Church and Confession.
John W. Rogerson, W. M. L. de Wette, Founder of Modern Biblical Criticism.
John W. Rogerson, Old Testament Criticism in the 19th Century: England and Germany (invaluable for the rise of historical criticism as it affects the Old Testament).
William Baird, History of New Testament Research: From Deism to Tubingen, Volume 1 (same as the above for the New Testament).
Robert M. Bigler, The Politics of German Protestantism.
William O. Shanahan, German Protestants Face the Social Question.
Walter Bauer, Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity.
Bart Erhman, The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture.
Gerd Lüdemann, Heretics.
The following encyclopedias are authoritative on all aspects of Protestantism:
James Hastings, editor, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics.
Encyclopaedia Britannica (available online to subscribers).
New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (available online free, see below).
Mircea Eliade, editor, The Encyclopedia of Religion.
Cross Reference to English and German editions of Luther’s Works:
Vogel, Heinrich J., Vogel's Cross reference and index to the contents of Luther's works : a cross reference between the American edition and the St. Louis, Weimar, and Erlangen editions of Luther's works (Milwaukee, Wis.: Northwestern Pub. House, 1983).
Some Online Resources are given below. The articles by Berger and the Catholic Encyclopedia are important and legtimate, and I assume the same is true of the article by Landow.
“Protestantism,” Catholic Encyclopedia. www.newadvent.org/cathen/12495a.htm
“Examining Protestantism: A Defense of the Catholic Church.” www.shasta.com/sphaws/mainmenu.html
History of Protestantism. By. Dr. J. A. Wylie LL.D., in 3 volumes. Dr.Wylie's Monumental History was first published in 1878. www.reformation.org/wylie2.html
“Protestantism and the Quest for Certainty,” by Peter Berger. www.religiononline.org/cgibin/relsearchd.dll/showarticle?item_id=239
The Doctrines of Evangelical Protestantism,” by George P. Landow, Professor, Brown University. http://65.107.211.206/religion/evangel2.html
The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religiouis Knowledge. http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/encyc/encyc13/htm/TOC.htm
Selected Works of Martin Luther.
http://www.tparents.org/Library/Religion/Christian/Luther/0-toc.html
Martin Luther Resources
http://dmoz.org/Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/Christianity/Church_History/The_Reformation/Lutheran_Reformation/Luther,_Martin/Writings/
John Calvin Resources
There are numerous “Reformed Theology” sites on the internet which have uploaded a significant number of Calvin’s works, including the Institutes of the Christian Religion and freely available to the student.