History of Christianity: the Contemporary Period

Teacher(s)

Gay Jean-Pascal;

Language

French

Main themes

To achieve its objectives, the course will address the following themes:
- the relationships of the Christian Churches with the contemporary world resulting from revolutions, from the end of the 18th century to the 21st century;
- the evolution of ecclesial institutions (under the impact of key events) and the role of people who compose them (individuals or communities);
- the evolution of the practices and languages of the Christian faith;
- the universalization and regionalization of Christianity;
- the relationship of the Christian churches to their social, economic, political and geopolitical environments;
- The course will include a practical introduction to the use of the working tools of the historian of this period and a commentary of historical documents.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	At the end of the course, the student will be able: - to situate the main chronological landmarks in the history of Christianity from the beginning of the 19th century; - to explain the challenges that the Christian churches faced with the ideological movements and currents of these two centuries; - to profitably use the instruments of the historian; - to comment on a historical document on the history of contemporary Christianity.

Content

The course alternates a sequence of knowledge acquisition and a sequence of implementation of the knowledge gained from the study of cross-cutting issues. The sequence of knowledge acquisition is organized into three chronological sub-sequences (from the early 19th century in Vatican I / Vatican I to Vatican II / since Vatican II). The sessions in this framework are thematic and related to the major issues that cross the history of Christianity and especially of the Catholic Church on each of these periods.
The knowledge implementation sequence examines both the religious dynamics at local level in Belgium and the dynamics at work on a more general scale (churches and globalization, interfaith and interreligious relations, the history of theology and theologians). In these sessions, the work is mainly based on documentary studies.

Teaching methods

The course will operate on the principle of flipped classrooms on the basis of a syllabus for the first 10 sessions of knowledge acquisition. The syllabus is repeated and commented on during the first part of the course. In the second part of the course, the knowledge is applied to the study of a document.

Evaluation methods

The evaluation consists of two exercises:
- submission of a written commentary of the document and its presentation and discussion within the framework of the course;
- an oral examination on the course including an open-ended question, a series of course questions and the student's presentation of a historical document and its issues.

Other information

without object

Faculty or entity

TEBI