Medieval Religion

Goals for this Week (September 12 and 14)

• learn about the scholarly field of medieval religious history and key terminology for understanding the background to the Investiture Controversy

• use Perusall and annotate readings

• learn about the scholarly field of "medieval religion" and discuss how Christine Ames describes it in her 2012 survey article published in History Compass (which is a really useful journal when you're looking to understand a new field of history)

• prepare yourself for playing a Reacting to the Past game by reading the rule book

• make sure you have signed up for a potential character to play (you will likely wish to do some research about them before you choose)

Overview:

This week we will learn key terminology about medieval Christianity and an overview of the history of the Church, including key topics as:

• what is the distinction between a religion and its institutionalization (e.g. difference between Christianity and the Church/ christianities vs. churches)

• key terminology for concepts, figures, structures of medieval Christianity

• speak about how scholars have discussed medieval religion, and how this has changed over time

Read/Watch/Listen

On Monday, we will discuss Christine Ames' 2012 article as part of our introductory lecture, that you will need to read and annotate in advance.

For the following week, read the Investiture Controversy game book to understand both the background of the events and to understand the game play. You will want to pay special attention to understanding how the game works and especially to the issues of papal supremacy over secular rulers and the validity of lay investiture described there, which will be the key topic for the initial game session in next Wednesday's class (September 21).

You may also wish to read the optional chapter from the book The Devil's Historians which unpacks major myths about the Middle Ages. This is a very useful starting point for you to read in order to avoid falling into false stereotypes about medieval religion.

Do

Begin working on your Profile, due September 23rd, 4pm.

Make sure you have signed up for a potential character to play (you will likely wish to do some research about them before you choose) by the end of day on September 16th.

Start to read about the key themes we will be debating in class this term in advance of our debates (things move quickly once the game starts).