98987 - History of Cristianity in the Early Modern World (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

After completing the course, students understand the main theoretical, methodological and technical tools of the historical-religious disciplines of the social sciences that address the study of the history of Christianity in the early modern world. They critically evaluate the socio-cultural matrix of the main religious traditions and history of at least one of the great world religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism). They are able to critically examine materials, bibliographic and documentary sources of different types, in order to conduct historical-religious investigations. They focus attention on the socio-political implications of the interaction among groups in complex societies in the modern era. They apply investigative methodologies to address analysis of issues relevant to the discipline. They explain and communicate the contents learned and formulate valid judgments in the historical field and are able to give form to the results of their own research in the field of Early modern Christianity, documenting accurately the information on which they base their conclusions and giving an account of the methodologies of investigation used. They know how to apply the tools of communication and digital data in the editorial and publishing field.

Course contents

The course will cover the history of Christianity from the late 15th century to the early 19th century. Particular attention will be paid to the transformations of Christianity in early modern Europe, the global expansion of Christianity during early colonisation, and relations with non-Christian cults.

These are some of the topics that will be covered in the first part of the course:

The Christian West: from the conciliarist crisis to the rise of the papal monarchy

Christian Europe, Jewish communities and the relationship with Islam

The Orthodox world after the fall of Constantinople

Reformation: the division of Christian Europe

Conflicting denominations: the early modern age

The Tridentine Church

The Protestant world

Transformations in theology and religious discipline

The idea of mission: global expansion, violence and hybridisation

The origins of secularisation

In the second part of the course the topic of conversions in the early modern age will be addressed from a global perspective.

Readings/Bibliography

All students should prepare for the exam on the following texts:

Storia del cristianesimo, vol. 3: L’età moderna (secoli XVI-XVIII), a cura di Vincenzo Lavenia, Roma, Carocci 2015 (solo i capp. 2-5, 8, 10-12, 14 e 16);

Vincenzo Lavenia, Storia della Chiesa, vol. 3, L’età moderna, Bologna, Edb, 2020;

Vincenzo Lavenia, Sabina Pavone, Chiara Petrolini, Sacre metamorfosi. Racconti di conversione tra Roma e il mondo in età moderna, Roma, Viella, 2022 (introd. plus a choice of three parts).

They will also have to choose one of the following texts:

Guido Dall’Olio, Martin Lutero, Carocci, Roma 2013

Alister McGrath, Calvino. Il riformatore e la sua influenza sulla cultura occidentale, Claudiana, Torino 2009

Mario Biagioni, Lucia Felici, La Riforma radicale nell’Europa del Cinquecento, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2012

Adriano Prosperi, Il concilio di Trento: Una introduzione storica, Einaudi, Torino 2001

Ronnie Po-Chia Hsia, La Controriforma: Il mondo del rinnovamento cattolico (1540-1770), Il Mulino, Bologna 2001

Giovanni Pizzorusso, Governare le missioni, conoscere il mondo nel XVII secolo. La Congregazione pontificia de Propaganda Fide, Sette Città, Viterbo 2018

Cesare Santus, Trasgressioni necessarie. ‘Communicatio in sacris’, coesistenza e conflitti tra le comunità cristiane orientali (Levante e Impero ottomano, XVII-XVIII secolo), École Française de Rome, Rome 2019

Daniele Menozzi, La Chiesa cattolica e la secolarizzazione, Einaudi, Torino 1993

Rudolf Schlögl, Fede e mondo moderno. La trasformazione del Cristianesimo europeo tra 1750 e 1850, ed. it. a cura di M. Cavarzere, New Digital Press, Palermo 2017

Non-attending students should add the reading of:

John Bossy, L’Occidente cristiano 1400-1700, Einaudi, Torino 1990

Teaching methods

The teacher will use texts and images to get the students able to reading the sources and to understanding the representations in history. Any teaching materials will be made available online in the appropriate section of the University's website

Assessment methods

Students who attend at least 75% of the lessons are considered to be attending. The oral examination will take place in the exam sessions provided at the end of the course.To evaluate the exam, the teacher will take into account the student's ability to master the contents of the course, to understand the historical concepts, to orientate himself in the bibliography, to know how to read a source, to connect the informations acquired, to expose what he has learned in a synthetic way and with an appropriate language. The student who will meet these demands will have an excellent mark. The student who will simply repeat the informations acquired in a mnemonic way and with a language not entirely adequate will have a discreet evaluation. The student who will show that he knows the contents superficially and with some gaps, using an inappropriate language, will have a sufficient evaluation. The student unprepared and incapable of orientation in the subject will have a negative evaluation.

Instead of studying the texts adopted for the exam, attending students can choose to write a paper (max 30,000 characters) on a topic covered in this course. The evaluation of the essay will depend on its originality and its critical depth.

Teaching tools

Attendance of the course may also include participation in seminars promoted by the teacher and visits to archives and libraries to contact the sources on the subject kept in the city of Bologna and its surroundings. The Internet will be used to access sites that contain manuscript sources, images, texts and materials of interest.

Office hours

See the website of Vincenzo Lavenia