# Church History Syllabus



## Robbie Schmidtberger (Dec 29, 2008)

Today I finished drafting a syllabus for 11th grade high school students. I would love your feedback on it. I have 18 weeks to teach 20 centuries. Please understand that in commenting. I do not want the class to solely focus on "Luther and Calvin." Instead I want to demonstrate an appreciation for the church. 

It is posted on my blog here. Feel free to comment there or here. 

thank you for your assistance


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## InevitablyReformed (Dec 29, 2008)

I think it looks great. I thought your blog entry was good too. I went to a Roman Catholic high school and while I believe they are an apostate church, we must obviously recognize the fact that there has always been believers--no matter how dark it became for those hundreds of years before the Reformation. 

I wish I had been able to sit in a class like this in high school.

In listening to Dr. Frank James (RTS) lecture on church history (itunes), I was surprised to learn that many men who stayed within the Roman Catholic tradition, fought to reform it both morally and theologically, and indeed taught from the Scriptures (he was speaking of the time leading up to and during the Reformation). 

Were you hoping to teach the doctrines of the specific time periods or mainly stick to historical events? For instance, I figure you could probably go into much detail regarding say, Chalceonian Christology or the theological debates during the iconoclast v. iconophile controversies.


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## Grymir (Dec 30, 2008)

Looks good! You hit all the highlights. Have fun. I love teaching Church History.


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## Robbie Schmidtberger (Dec 30, 2008)

InevitablyReformed said:


> Were you hoping to teach the doctrines of the specific time periods or mainly stick to historical events? For instance, I figure you could probably go into much detail regarding say, Chalceonian Christology or the theological debates during the iconoclast v. iconophile controversies.



Thanks for the encouragement. I am going to relate how Christians often struggle to define themselves- hence the need for creeds and confessions. There is a book _The Cruelty of Heresy_ by C. FitzSimons Allison who argued that heresy diminished the benefits of the gospel, and traces this quest for an identity. (If one would call it that.) 

In the fall I taught Reformed Doctrine to these same students-another reason I am not spending a lot of time on reformational history. I believe the history vindicates reality. Are the doctrines of grace true? We will discuss how Augustine was read through the eyes of Pope Gregory IV- a Semi-Pelagian- for centuries. They will see, I hope, that the gospel was clearly taught throughout.

As I wrote this last night my wife said to me, "you are not going to cover all that." I know there is so much detail that I cannot cover it in 18 weeks. I will sacrifice the historical depth for historical understanding and the opportunity to finish the outline.


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## InevitablyReformed (Dec 30, 2008)

I pray that your class is edifying to your students and glorifies God.


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## PresbyDane (Dec 30, 2008)

I will  to and I agree with Grymir it is great teaching Church history.


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## cih1355 (Dec 31, 2008)

Robbie,

Your syllabus looks good. It covers all of the essentials of church history. If any of your students are interested in apologetics, you could show how the various Christian thinkers responded to the challenges against the Christian faith.


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## Marrow Man (Jan 1, 2009)

Looks great!

Two (constructive) questions: are you going to deal with Anselm (specifically, _Cur Deus Homo_) during the course? And will the 20th century week touch on the rise of Pentecostalism?


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## Robbie Schmidtberger (Jan 1, 2009)

cih1355 said:


> Robbie,
> 
> Your syllabus looks good. It covers all of the essentials of church history. If any of your students are interested in apologetics, you could show how the various Christian thinkers responded to the challenges against the Christian faith.



I also teach apologetics, but these students will have that in the Fall of 2009. The crop of students in question are a joy and I look forward to this class with them. It is my favorite. 

I plan on interacting with the ancient apologists in the "Christian identity" sections. (Gnosticism and Roman Paganism in particular) Students will have a biographical paper of their choosing from my suggested list.

-----Added 1/1/2009 at 01:57:42 EST-----



Marrow Man said:


> Looks great!
> 
> Two (constructive) questions: are you going to deal with Anselm (specifically, _Cur Deus Homo_) during the course? And will the 20th century week touch on the rise of Pentecostalism?



Will definitely interact with Anselm with respect to Cor Homos Deo (sp?) Why did God become man and his satisfaction theory with respect to the Atonement. 

Pentecostalism... if we can get there. But the textbook - Kuiper's _The Church in History_ hits on it. I am not sure what I think about the text at large and on this time period.

-----Added 1/1/2009 at 06:40:50 EST-----

On the note on the rise of Pentecostalism - what was the theological motive for this? A desire for egalitarianism? Or a physical manifestation of the kingdom of God? A desire to see the Holy Spirit with us in ways extra biblical?


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## cih1355 (Jan 1, 2009)

Robbie Schmidtberger said:


> cih1355 said:
> 
> 
> > Robbie,
> ...



I think the theological motive for the rise of Pentecostalism was a desire to see the Holy Spirit with us in ways extra biblical. An essential doctrine of Pentecostalism is the idea that the baptism of Holy Spirit is received after conversion and speaking of tongues is the evidence that one has received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Pentecostals are also non-cessationists.


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## Robbie Schmidtberger (Jan 2, 2009)

I have made updates. Here is the Second Draft - http://relentlessgrace.wordpress.com/2008/12/29/church-history-syllabus/


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