RELT20031 Making Sense of Christ I: From Lessing to Harnack

 

Meeting times: Autumn 2008, Wednedays 9 - 10.50am

Instructor: Timothy Stanley, timothy.stanley@manchester.ac.uk, Samuel Alexander WLG5

Course requirements: assigned readings, two 2500 word essays, worth 40% of your overall grade, one two hour final exam worth 60% of your overall grade, mandatory attendance to all seminars and lectures as per university policy. 

Key texts: Each week I will be handing out a brief set of readings which will be discussed in the following week's seminar. A key text to provide background support for each lecture's topics is John Macquarrie, Jesus Christ in Modern Thought. (London: SCM, 1990). For further reading on this course a brief bibliography of library texts can be found by clicking here.

Overview:  Each of the 11 weeks of this first semester course are made up of both a seminar and lecture component. In the first week I will give a brief lecture outlining and introducing the course as well as handing out the first seminar reading. Then, in all subsequent weeks, we will begin with a seminar discussion of the reading which was handed out in the lecture from the previous week. The seminars are in the morning for one hour, and the lectures immediately follow for one hour.

Aims and Outcomes: The aim of this course is to introduce students to the Christological debates of the late eighteenth to early twentieth centuries and to equip students to begin interpreting primary and secondary sources in early modern Christology. On completion of the course you should have: a) gained an understanding of the thought of leading writers on Christology; b) gained an awareness of the controversies that underlie and give rise to early modern Christological debate; c) gained an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of leading theories concerning the person and work of Christ; d) developed your essay writing skills; and f) engaged in exchanging ideas with fellow students in small groups.

 

Week by Week Guide to the Course

 

Introductory Lecture

  • Wed, Oct 1, 9-10.50pm,  Lecture: What is Christology?, Christology of the New Testament, and Christology of the Early Church

Rationalist Christology I: Lessing

  • Wed, Oct 8, 9-10.50pm, Lecture: The Enlightenment and its impact on Christology and the Rationalist Christology of Lessing (background reading John Macquarrie, Jesus Christ in Modern Thought ch 8).

Rationalist Christology II: Kant

  • Wed, Oct 15, 9-9.50am, Seminar: Reimarus, Fragments, paragraphs 53-55; Lessing, On the Proof of the Spirit and of Power
  • Wed, Oct 15, 10-10.50pm, Lecture: The Rationalist Christology of Kant. (background reading, Macquarrie, ch 8)

Romanticist Christology: Schleiermacher

  • Wed, Oct 22, 9-9.50am, Seminar: Kant, Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone, pp54-59
  • Wed, Oct 22, 10-10.50pm, Lecture: The Romanticist Christology of Schleiermacher (background reading, Macquarrie, ch 9)

Idealist Christology I: Hegel

  • Wed, Oct 29, 9am, 2500 word typed formative essay due to me in class.
  • Wed, Oct 29, 9-9.50am, Seminar: Schleiermacher, The Christian Faith, para.94 (pp.385-389)
  • Wed, Oct 29, 10-10.50pm, Lecture: The Idealist Christology of Hegel (background reading, Macquarrie, ch 8)

Reading Week

  • Nov 2 - 8.

Idealist Christology II: Strauss

  • Wed, Nov 12, 9-9.50am, Seminar: Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, III.2 (pp. 452-470)
  • Wed, Nov 12, 10-10.50pm, Lecture: The Idealist Christology of Strauss (background reading, Macquarrie, ch 11, pp. 236-245)

Paradox Christology: Kierkegaard

  • Wed, Nov 19, 9-9.50am, Seminar: Strauss, The LIfe of Jesus, pp. 777-778 (PowerPoint)
  • Wed, Nov 19, 10-10.50pm, Lecture: The Paradox Christology of Kierkegaard (background reading, Macquarrie, ch 11, pp 245-250) (PowerPoint)

Kenotic Christology

  • Wed, Nov 26, 9-9.50am, Seminar: Kierkegaard, Philosophical Fragments, pp. 26-35 and 102-105
  • Wed, Nov 26, 10-10.50pm, Lecture: The Kenotic Christology of Thomasius, Gess, Gore, and Forsyth (background reading, Macquarrie, ch 12)

Liberal Protestant Christology

  • Wed, Dec 3, 9-9.50am, Seminar: Thomasius, Christ's Person and Work, Pt. II; P. T. Forsyth, The Person and Place of Jesus Christ, ch 11; H. R. Mackintosh, The Person of Jesus Christ, ch. X.
  • Wed, Dec 3, 10-10.50pm, Lecture: The Liberal Protestant Christology of Ritschl, Herrmann and Harnack

Towards the Twentieth Century

  • Wed, Dec 10, 9-9.50am, Seminar: Ritschl, The Christian Doctrine of Justification and Reconciliation, pp. 398-399; Herrmann, The Communion of the Christian with God, pp. 57-78; Harnack, What is Christianity, pp. 125-26
  • Wed, Dec 10, 10-10.50pm, Lecture: Towards the Twentieth Century with Kaehler, Weiss, and Schweitzer.

Review and Exam Preparation

Exam Period

  • January 19 - February 1