Early Christian Literature
A.Y. 2019/2020
Learning objectives
The course of Early Christian Literature targets a twofold objective: 1) to introduce students to these fundamental literary traditions and to this peculiar history of thought - consider the constitutive cultural relevance of the New Testament collection or the peculiar longevity of the thought of authors such as Origen of Alexandria, Eusebius of Caesarea, Augustine of Hippo, Jerome of Stridon, etc. -, constituted in the Christian origins, and 2) to present the main methodological systems, characteristic of this Research area and distinctive of its most recent critical production, in order to allow students to concretely consider also the possibility of undertaking a research agenda in this specific field.
This articulated methodological and documentary resource is ultimately intended to allow the student to interact critically with the documentary heritage studied by the discipline and with the complex constellation of studies and research that the different scholar traditions animated around it.
This articulated methodological and documentary resource is ultimately intended to allow the student to interact critically with the documentary heritage studied by the discipline and with the complex constellation of studies and research that the different scholar traditions animated around it.
Expected learning outcomes
At the end of the course, the student should know the main literary dynamics, the respective contextual referents (Sitz im Leben), the most significative moments of this literary history and the main methodological routes to interact with this varied and plural documentary heritage.
This knowledge should be followed by a basic skill for critical interaction with the main instruments developed by and for research in the field of New Testament and "patristic" criticism.
This knowledge should be followed by a basic skill for critical interaction with the main instruments developed by and for research in the field of New Testament and "patristic" criticism.
Lesson period: Second semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
Second semester
Course syllabus
The aim of the course is to provide students with the epistemological principles that establish the disciplinary autonomy of Early Christian Literature, providing a concrete opportunity to test its main methodological acquisitions and its most effective critical tools. The object of this training will be the text of the famous Prologue of the Gospel according to John (Jn 1:1-18); the programme will focus on three specific moments: 1) the genesis of the Johannine tradition, 2) the Prologue itself and 3) the fortune of this pericope in Early Christianity.
In the first Teaching Unit the process that led from the itinerancy and orality characteristic of the original Jesuit preaching to the adoption of writing within the first communities of "brothers" will be described: students will understand how these first decades should be considered as the very beginning of an intense literary experimentation leading, by the mid-second century, to the birth of a real Christian Literature.
In the second Teaching Unit, the text of the Prologue will be analyzed in detail, subjecting it to the scrutiny of the four traditional phases of the New Testament critique: 1) text criticism, 2) literary criticism, 3) Formgeschichte criticism and 4) Redationsgeschichte criticism.
In the third Teaching Unit the fortune of this pericope will be retraced in an exemplary way, comparing the characteristic developments that its exegesis assumed in the tradition of Asia Minor (recalled through the work of Irenaeus of Lyons, a disciple of Polycarp of Smyrna) and in the Alexandrian tradition (Clement of Alexandria and Origen).
In the first Teaching Unit the process that led from the itinerancy and orality characteristic of the original Jesuit preaching to the adoption of writing within the first communities of "brothers" will be described: students will understand how these first decades should be considered as the very beginning of an intense literary experimentation leading, by the mid-second century, to the birth of a real Christian Literature.
In the second Teaching Unit, the text of the Prologue will be analyzed in detail, subjecting it to the scrutiny of the four traditional phases of the New Testament critique: 1) text criticism, 2) literary criticism, 3) Formgeschichte criticism and 4) Redationsgeschichte criticism.
In the third Teaching Unit the fortune of this pericope will be retraced in an exemplary way, comparing the characteristic developments that its exegesis assumed in the tradition of Asia Minor (recalled through the work of Irenaeus of Lyons, a disciple of Polycarp of Smyrna) and in the Alexandrian tradition (Clement of Alexandria and Origen).
Prerequisites for admission
No prerequisites for admission.
Teaching methods
The course will be offered in a lecture format (although the possibility of exercises and group work is not excluded). Class attendance is highly recommended.
Teaching Resources
General bibliographical references:
To support class attendance and exam preparation, all students are requested to have a Bible edition of their choice between:
a) La Bibbia di Gerusalemme, Bologna (EDB) 2009;
b) E Dio disse La Bibbia. Nuovissima versione dai testi originali, Cinisello Balsamo (San Paolo) 2007.
Students with a Classics Curriculum are also very kindly requested to supplement what the chosen Bible edition with:
* Nestle - Aland, Novum Testamentum Graece, Stuttgart (Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft) 2012 (28th edition).
The texts listed above will be used during the final examination.
Bibliographic indications and examination programme for attending students.
First Teaching Unit.
* W. Weren, Finestre su Gesù, Torino (Claudiana) 2001;
* C. Moreschini - E. Norelli, Storia della letteratura cristiana antica greca e latina, 1: Da Paolo all'età costantiniana. Nuova edizione riveduta e ampliata, Brescia (Morcelliana) 2019.
* Lectures notes and materials of the course.
Second Teaching Unit.
* R.E. Brown, Introduzione al Vangelo di Giovanni, Brescia (Queriniana) 2007.
* Lecture notes and materials of the course.
Third Teaching Unit.
* Lecture notes and materials of the course.
Bibliographic references and examination programme for non-attending students.
First Teaching Unit.
* W. Weren, Finestre su Gesù, Torino (Claudiana) 2001;
* C. Moreschini - E. Norelli, Storia della letteratura cristiana antica greca e latina, 1: Da Paolo all'età costantiniana. Nuova edizione riveduta e ampliata, Brescia (Morcelliana) 2019.
* P.R. Tragan, La preistoria dei vangeli. Tradizione cristiana primitiva, Sotto il Monte (Servitium Editrice) 1999.
Second Didactic Unit.
* R.E. Brown, Introduzione al Vangelo di Giovanni, Brescia (Queriniana) 2007.
* E. Mazza, Il Logos, software della creazione. Come leggere il Prologo di Giovanni, Bologna (EDB) 2018.
Third Didactic Unit.
A text chosen between:
* D. Pazzini, In principio era il Logos. Origene e il prologo del Vangelo di Giovanni, Brescia (Paideia) 1983.
* D. Pazzini, Il prologo di Giovanni in Cirillo di Alessandria, Brescia (Paideia) 1997.
Non-Italian mother-tongue students are requested to contact the teacher to set an alternative bibliography.
To support class attendance and exam preparation, all students are requested to have a Bible edition of their choice between:
a) La Bibbia di Gerusalemme, Bologna (EDB) 2009;
b) E Dio disse La Bibbia. Nuovissima versione dai testi originali, Cinisello Balsamo (San Paolo) 2007.
Students with a Classics Curriculum are also very kindly requested to supplement what the chosen Bible edition with:
* Nestle - Aland, Novum Testamentum Graece, Stuttgart (Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft) 2012 (28th edition).
The texts listed above will be used during the final examination.
Bibliographic indications and examination programme for attending students.
First Teaching Unit.
* W. Weren, Finestre su Gesù, Torino (Claudiana) 2001;
* C. Moreschini - E. Norelli, Storia della letteratura cristiana antica greca e latina, 1: Da Paolo all'età costantiniana. Nuova edizione riveduta e ampliata, Brescia (Morcelliana) 2019.
* Lectures notes and materials of the course.
Second Teaching Unit.
* R.E. Brown, Introduzione al Vangelo di Giovanni, Brescia (Queriniana) 2007.
* Lecture notes and materials of the course.
Third Teaching Unit.
* Lecture notes and materials of the course.
Bibliographic references and examination programme for non-attending students.
First Teaching Unit.
* W. Weren, Finestre su Gesù, Torino (Claudiana) 2001;
* C. Moreschini - E. Norelli, Storia della letteratura cristiana antica greca e latina, 1: Da Paolo all'età costantiniana. Nuova edizione riveduta e ampliata, Brescia (Morcelliana) 2019.
* P.R. Tragan, La preistoria dei vangeli. Tradizione cristiana primitiva, Sotto il Monte (Servitium Editrice) 1999.
Second Didactic Unit.
* R.E. Brown, Introduzione al Vangelo di Giovanni, Brescia (Queriniana) 2007.
* E. Mazza, Il Logos, software della creazione. Come leggere il Prologo di Giovanni, Bologna (EDB) 2018.
Third Didactic Unit.
A text chosen between:
* D. Pazzini, In principio era il Logos. Origene e il prologo del Vangelo di Giovanni, Brescia (Paideia) 1983.
* D. Pazzini, Il prologo di Giovanni in Cirillo di Alessandria, Brescia (Paideia) 1997.
Non-Italian mother-tongue students are requested to contact the teacher to set an alternative bibliography.
Assessment methods and Criteria
The course aims to effectively present, through the use of exemplary case-studies, the specificities, from a critical and historical point of view, of the early Christian literary traditions, emphasizing above all its paradigmatic value and the influence it exerted on the subsequent literary history and history of thought.
With particular reference to the use of the methodological and critical instruments elaborated by this Discipline, the course objective is to enable students to critically carry out the analysis of a literary document of Christian origins.
The evaluation, expressed in thirtieths and communicated at the end of each exam, takes into account the following criteria:
1) critical reasoning skills (critical evaluation of the document; critical evaluation of the scientific literature; formulation of critical opinions; analytical ability; deductive capacity);
2) methodological rigour (knowledge of the methodological foundations of the discipline; ability to use this methodology);
3) knowledge of the fundamental notions (notional cognition; organization of notions in an ordered framework of knowledge);
4) expressive effectiveness (timely and non-allusive exposition; discursively organization of knowledge; acquisition of a specialized vocabulary).
With particular reference to the use of the methodological and critical instruments elaborated by this Discipline, the course objective is to enable students to critically carry out the analysis of a literary document of Christian origins.
The evaluation, expressed in thirtieths and communicated at the end of each exam, takes into account the following criteria:
1) critical reasoning skills (critical evaluation of the document; critical evaluation of the scientific literature; formulation of critical opinions; analytical ability; deductive capacity);
2) methodological rigour (knowledge of the methodological foundations of the discipline; ability to use this methodology);
3) knowledge of the fundamental notions (notional cognition; organization of notions in an ordered framework of knowledge);
4) expressive effectiveness (timely and non-allusive exposition; discursively organization of knowledge; acquisition of a specialized vocabulary).
Unita' didattica A
L-FIL-LET/06 - ANCIENT CHRISTIAN LITERATURE - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Unita' didattica B
L-FIL-LET/06 - ANCIENT CHRISTIAN LITERATURE - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Unita' didattica C
L-FIL-LET/06 - ANCIENT CHRISTIAN LITERATURE - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Professor(s)