Module description
The modules offered in each academic year are subject to change in line with staff availability and student demand: there is no guarantee every module will run. Module descriptions and information may vary between years.
This module aims to introduce students to one of the most persistent and important historiographical issues in early Christian studies and Roman history - the so-called persecution of the Christians.
Perhaps the most prolific early Christian writers were those describing, explaining and condemning the mistreatment of Christians at the hands of Roman authorities in the first three centuries AD.
Students will study how scholarship over the last century has moved step-by-step towards a ‘minimalist’ view of the Roman ‘persecutions’, where a new model of local and sporadic episodes of violence against Christians has replaced the older idea of an Empire-wide witch-hunt of an outlawed sect in the scholarly imagination.
Students will learn both how to piece together a wide variety of ancient sources - literary, epistolary, papyrological etc. - to reconstruct the reality of Christian experience on the ground in the Roman provinces, as well as how to apply modern theoretical tools to understand how and why this experience was memorialised as persecution.
Assessment details
Coursework
1 x 5000 word essay (100%).
Teaching pattern
10 x 2 hour seminars (weekly)