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For almost 2500 years, ROME has
been one of the most significant cultural and political centers of western civilization. In the history of religion, Rome has been equally important. Once it was the cultic center of the ancient Latin people and the residence of deified emperors. Later, it became a holy city for western Christians and the residence of the Catholic pope. Today over 1 billion Roman Catholics throughout the world are still influenced by the decisions made by church leaders who are based in the city. During the RENAISSANCE, Rome became a center of tremendous artistic achievement. Sponsored by the popes,the greatest Italian artists beautified the city with their painting, sculpture and architectural work. From the point of view of religious life, however, this was a very troubled period. There was considerable discontent about the roles the pope and other church leaders were playing in society. Some faithful believers also began to raise questions about the teachings of the church and its administrative structures. |
| In the sixteenth century, this
wave of dissatisfaction reached a climax in the development of the
REFORMATION which first appeared in Germany under the leadership
of a Catholic monk/priest named Martin Luther. A professor at the
University of WITTENBERG, it was his intention to reform the
church of which he was a part, but his excommunication led to the formation of a second branch of western Christianity. For centuries to come Roman Catholicism and Protestantism offered rival interpretations of the Christian faith. In recent years, however, relations between the two movements have become more cordial and the two church traditions are discovering a new appreciation of aspects of each other’s religious life. In this course, we will examine religious and cultural life during the Renaissance and Reformation.We will study the disputed issues that caused a split in the church at that time and will explore how topics of belief and practice are being reconsidered by Catholic and Lutheran theologians today. By experiencing life in the modern cities of Rome and Wittenberg, we will also be able to observe first-hand some important similarities and differences between Italian and German society. |
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| In our first week, we will study
why Rome became an important Christian center, starting in the days of
the Roman Empire, and will consider what made Christianity
different from rival forms of ancient religiosity. We will
explore the Roman Forum and other ancient sites and monuments,
visit museums, and consider what church styles can tell us about
the evolution of religious life. We will also highlight
some distinctive features of Roman Catholicism as it continued to
develop during the Middle Ages. |
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| From the first to the fourth
century, Christianity went from being a foreign persecuted religion to
the favored religion of the Empire |
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We will trace the development of the spiritual and political power of
the papacy (the Bishop of Rome) |
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We will trace the development of Catholic piety and correlate it with
changes in the styles of church buildings: |
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| We will spend time in the
Vatican area - to attend a papal audience, explore St. Peter's
basilica, visit the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel |
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| We will be living at the
centrally-located Hotel Adriano, attending some classes in Piazza
Navona and enjoying marvelous restaurants |
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| Usually there will be an
additional optional activity in the afternoon, after our class period -
to see such things as the following |
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| We will make an excursion to the mountains outside of Rome to visit the Benedictine monastery of Subiaco and Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli |
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| We will complete our overview of
the Italian Middle Ages and Renaissance by visiting the hill town of
Orvieto and art-city Florence |
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| We will fly from Florence to
Berlin and settle in for the next two weeks in Wittenberg. This
town pales in comparison to Rome in size and significance but it is
historically important as the place from which Martin Luther launched
the Protestant Reformation. We will be studying this
movement through classes and tours in Wittenberg and, on alternate
days, major excursions to other places of importance in the Reformation. While in Wittenberg, we will be living in the Leucorea, the renovated buildings of the old University of Wittenberg. We will have an affiliation with the Institute for German Language and Culture (Institut für deutsche Sprache und Kultur) |
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| Every other day we will travel
by train or bus to another city in Sachsen-Anhalt, Thüringen,
Sachsen amd Brandenburg/Berlin |
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| We will also study two modern
crisis periods in Germany: the Nazi and Communist eras - to bring the
story of East Germany up to date. We will visit the Buchenwald
concentration camp near Weimar and study church life in the DDR
primarily in Leipzig and Berlin |
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| We will end the program with a
couple of days exploring Berlin - past and present |
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