Through this introductory course, taught by Bill J. Leonard at Wake Forest School of Divinity, students will:
- Become familiar with the basic developments in Christian history from the 17th century to the beginning of the 21st century. This includes an examination of Post Reformation Protestantism, Roman Catholicism from the Council of Trent through Vatican Council II, and representative expressions of Christianity in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the United States.
- Explore the impact of modernity/postmodernity on Christian beliefs and institutions as shaped by questions of faith and reason, nature and grace, ecclesiastical authority and denominational development, science and the Enlightenment, religious freedom and religious experience, and fundamentalism/liberalism.
- Encounter specific information and insights as offered by various “voices” in the modern world, including Sor Juana de la Cruz, Mexican poet and proto-feminist; Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement; and Martin Luther King, Jr., Baptist preacher and Civil Rights leader.
- Through lecture, class discussion, and personal research become better analysts of the church’s contemporary context in light of the legacies of its past.
Seminary: Wake Forest School of Divinity
Keywords: Church history, Christian history, theological debates, physics
