SU 190: Rethinking Christian Tradition

In conjunction with a new digital humanities project aimed at developing an online and open-source resource for introducing Christian tradition, this class will be devoted to exploring traditional and alternative sources from Christian history as a way of answering the question, “What is Christian tradition?”

Students will be invited to focus on one particular historical thinker of their own choosing. Over the course of the semester, students will then investigate their chosen thinker’s relationship to Christian tradition—including both their impact on Christian history as well as their understanding of the tradition—and will work to identify the sources, events, and figures that most shaped that person’s thought. By the end of the semester, exceptional work may be eligible for online publication through the project’s website.

Students will be encouraged to work with the wide array of resources and unpublished works available in the Burke Library. If you have someone in mind, great. If you want help thinking through a possibility based on your interests, we and others are happy to help. If you want to explore possible individuals in Burke’s list of special collections, even better. Course time will include guest speakers, intentional time working together in the library, and classroom discussions.

First year students, those with little to no background knowledge of Christian tradition, or those from different religious traditions are all most welcome to participate.