Great Courses Fall of the Pagans and the Origins of Medieval Christianity Vol 2

This listing is for The Great Courses - Fall of the Pagans and the Origins of Medieval Christianity Volume 2 CD Lectures.

Professor Kenneth W. Harl - Tulane University

6 CD Discs (Volume 2 of 2)

12 Lectures / 30 mins each

2011 - The Teaching Company

Why did pagan Rome clash with early Christians? How did Christianity ultimately achieve dominance in the Roman Empire and eclipse paganism in one of the most influential turning points in the history of the West? Find out the startling answers to these and other questions with The Fall of the Pagans and the Origins of Medieval Christianity. This historically focused discussion of the dramatic interaction between Judaism, Christianity, and paganism from the 1st to the 6th centuries—delivered by classical scholar and award-winning Professor Kenneth W. Harl — allows you to explore in great depth the reasons that Christianity emerged and sparked a major transition for religion, culture, and politics.

• 13 The Great Persecutions - Analyze two great periods of empire-wide persecution distinct from the largely localized ones examined earlier. Learn how Christian martyrdom was perceived very differently by the pagan and Christian communities, and that its ability to bring about conversions may have been minimal.

• 14 The Spirit of Late Paganism - Explore how the spiritual life of paganism fared during the political and military crises examined in the preceding lectures. See how these had an impact on not only pagan worship but also the intellectual work of pagan philosophers like Plotinus and the emergence of an independent religion known as Manichaeism.

• 15 Imperial Recovery under the Tetrarchs - The 20-year period known as the Tetrarchy—during which the emperor Diocletian shared imperial power with three colleagues--was critical to the Roman Empire, ending civil war and invasion, restoring order and prosperity, and giving Rome something it had never had: a principle of succession.

• 16 The Conversion of Constantine - Analyze one of the most decisive turning points in Roman history and of Western civilization. Interpret the legendary story as it has come down to us in light of recent scholarship and what we now understand about Constantine's world and the forces that would have motivated him.

• 17 Constantine and the Bishops -See how the same principle that had always steered Rome's efficient use of power—absorbing institutions rather than simply crushing them—was used to create a new hierarchy within the Roman imperial system from the existing network of apostolic churches.

• 18 Christianizing the Roman World - How and why did Constantine set about making the Christian faith central to Roman life? See how his vision unfolded in multiple areas, including the reshaping of the urban landscape to claim public and religious space, economic changes, and the use of pilgrimages and Christian missionary activity.

• 19 The Birth of Christian Aesthetics and Letters - Explore how Christians managed to alter the cultural heritage of their pagan past—including architecture and the visual and literary arts—in ways that made this heritage distinctly Christian while still preserving as much of it as possible.

• 20 The Emperor Julian and the Pagan Reaction - Experience what happened when a Christianizing Roman world was told by their new emperor that decades of change would be undone and that Rome's religious and cultural history would again be reversed, this time turning back to paganism and a restoration of the old gods.

• 21 Struggle over Faith and Culture - Grasp how the death of Julian the Apostate—and the end of his short-lived program to restore paganism's dominant role—forced the empire to grapple with two all-encompassing questions: Could the Constantinian revolution in fact be reversed? What religion would take charge in the Roman world?

• 22 New Christian Warriors—Ascetics and Monks - Take in the different perceptions of asceticism by pagans and Christians and how Christian ascetics and monks, in particular, proselytized and won conversions to Christianity with a power and influence that even the Roman Empire could not have matched.

• 23  Turning Point—Theodosius I - Witness the crucial turning point in the spread of Christianity in the Roman world. Three new laws opened the floodgates for the destruction of pagan sanctuaries, a ban on public sacrifices, and the declaration of Nicene Christianity as the only legitimate faith and a requirement for citizenship.

• 24 Justinian and the Demise of Paganism - Learn how Justinian, even in a Roman world still predominantly pagan, implemented a "persecuting society" that would ensure, by the time of his death, a Western world where being civilized was defined as being Christian, as were its notions of the divine and the ethical.

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