Purpose: The purpose of this course is to trace the development of Christianity from the Reformation to the present.

The Association of Theological Schools standards for the Master of Divinity Degree and for the Master of Arts in Religion stress the need for a thorough study of the Christian religious tradition. In almost all seminary classes, the instructor refers to Christian history, to particular thinkers, people and movements in that history, or to the general course of Christian development. The Christian Movement courses are designed to provide a student with the foundational knowledge that will help a student use historical studies in their larger educational program. This major goal breaks down into two emphases:

• To provide a narrative outline of the development of the church broad enough to enable the student to locate significant persons, places, events, in their historical context.
• To help the student develop those historical skills that are useful in many areas of the theological curriculum.

In the first semester, the primary emphasis is on learning skills in the critical reading and interpretation of texts. In this semester, while the emphasis on critical reading continues, the primary emphasis is on learning to do and present historical research. One of the "products" of the course will be a paper that can be included in the student’s Portfolio as evidence of their ability to study Christian history critically.

Class Structure: Each weekly session is divided into two lecture sessions of fifty minutes each, divided by a fifty minute discussion of texts.

Readings: Each student is expected to read a standard historical survey of the period. There are three that are especially recommended:

Williston Walker, A History of the Christian Church.
Adrian Hastings: A World History of Christianity.
Glenn Miller: The Modern Church.

In addition, I have chosen some readings for each class that illustrate part of the theological development of the church. These texts have been selected because of their representative character. The reading assignments are on a separate page.

Writing and Preparation:

Each student is expected to be prepared to participate in the weekly discussion sessions. The discussion sessions are an integral part of the course and are considered in the final grade.

The primary written assignment for the semester is a research paper. The paper should be between 12 and 20 pages in length, 12 point, double-spaced, and either submitted electronically or with broad left margins. While the student may use traditional endnotes (no footnotes please), students are urged to use a sociological notation in which brief identifiers are inserted in the text and a full entry is only listed in the bibliography. (Miller, 26), (Walker, Creeds, 34) (Jones, web page), etc. The paper will count 50 % of the grade. The paper is due the last day for work to be submitted in the official seminary calendar.

Every student will take the Midterm examination. The exam will be a take home with a question from one section required and other questions optional. (25% of the grade). The examination will be distributed March 19 (Bangor) and March 21 (Portland) and due one week later.

In addition, a student must do one of the following:

1. Take the final take home examination. This will distributed the last day of class and is due the last day for work to be submitted.
2. Participate in an electronic seminar in which they submit written responses to the readings every week via email and receive responses. Hopefully, students will communicate with each other as well as with the instructor in this format. For credit to be given, at least, 10 email exchanges with the instructor are required.

Almost all of these texts are available in many forms, including some that are reproduced on the web. Since the only book that is read in its entirety is the Luther volume, some of you may find it more economical to use library copies or to share books with one another. However, all of these books were chosen with a personal library in mind. In that sense, they are all worth having.

Grading: Graduate Level Work:

B- =Work is on a graduate level, but the paper requires polish or much more thorough research. Usually, specific suggestions for improvement are made.

B=Good work on a sound graduate level. This is work that is clearly on a graduate level, and the instructor believes that it would be recognized as such anywhere.

B+=Not an "almost A" as some suppose. This is a paper which has demonstrates a sound understanding of the subject and hard work. Usually, there is some area of the paper that the instructor believes was particularly worthy of consideration, such as effective presentation or sound research. It is this special feature that sets the paper above a B paper.

A-=Very sound work but generally needed more attention in some area, such as grammar or research. Often an A- paper is one that presents the common wisdom about a subject but which does not explore that common wisdom too deeply

A= Excellent work, demonstrates a grasp of the material and the capacity to express that grasp in writing. Ordinarily, an A reflects work with a modicum of grammatical problems, clearly argued, and richly researched. Papers that demonstrate individual interpretation are often rewarded with an A grade.

Grading: Not Graduate Level Work, but has enough quality to be rewritten and resubmitted.

Since both the Master of Divinity and the Master of Arts require B- level work, grades beneath a B- indicate serious problems. At a minimum, they reflect work that needs major overhaul and which would benefit from a rewrite.

C+=This work is close to meeting the mark. The student, however, needs to do some serious rewriting before the paper is at a graduate level. The student may wish to meet with the professor for a discussion of C+ work and see if it is possible to do a rewrite of the assignment or part of the assignment.

C=This work is seriously deficient in academic quality. It represents a failure to work on a seminary level. The student should make an appointment with the instructor and perhaps with their advisor to see if the problem can be identified and solved. Most C work can be rewritten.

Grading: Not Acceptable for Credit

C-=The paper barely merits credit. The problems with the paper are so serious that a rewrite would probably not improve the final result.

D=The D grade is never given in history courses.

F=Work is either very bad or never completed. An F represents failure. If the work is so seriously lacking as to fail, it probably will not benefit from a rewrite or other such measures. If this is a semester course, the student should repeat the course. If the problem is the failure to submit work, the remedy is obvious.

Electronic Submission: Many students prefer to submit their work electronically, either as an email or as an enclosure to an email. The professor finds such work easier to grade and return as he can put it in his word processor and type in comments. (My handwriting is notoriously bad). I have learned that I make more comments on electronic submissions. In general, I tend to very sympathetic to people who try to email their work and have problems so doing, and it is a real advantage for you to know that your work is safely on my hard drive and has not been lost or eaten by Hamlin, my attack cat.

Mail to: Gmiller@bts.edu

Late Work: It happens. I try to be as generous as possible, but if your work is not completed by the last day for submitting work on the official seminary calendar, then you must file for an incomplete with the Dean. Unfortunately, late work frequently arrives at a time when other work is pressing, so it often does not receive as many comments as it might have received, were it submitted in a more timely fashion. (That is a terrible sentence—mark him down for it).