Early Christian Literature
A.Y. 2020/2021
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
In the emergency teaching phase, the program will face the following changes.
Teaching methods:
The lessons will air on the Skype platform.
The calendar of the lessons and all the further details will find adequate space on the teacher's ariel website before the beginning of the lessons. Any updates will reach the students again through the teacher's ariel website.
Learning assessment procedures and evaluation criteria:
The exam is oral and held on Teams, according to the instructions provided by the University or, where the regulations will allow it, in presence, again in oral form.
The objectives of the course and the evaluation criteria will remain unchanged.
Teaching methods:
The lessons will air on the Skype platform.
The calendar of the lessons and all the further details will find adequate space on the teacher's ariel website before the beginning of the lessons. Any updates will reach the students again through the teacher's ariel website.
Learning assessment procedures and evaluation criteria:
The exam is oral and held on Teams, according to the instructions provided by the University or, where the regulations will allow it, in presence, again in oral form.
The objectives of the course and the evaluation criteria will remain unchanged.
Course syllabus
Title: «Tolle lege, tolle lege»: Augustine's conversion between Autobiography and Apologetic Paradigm.
The Confessions of Augustine of Hippo undoubtedly represents one of the most successful and long-lived texts of all ancient Christian literature. In them, the tortuous intellectual and religious experience of the author, within an autobiographical frame, aims to constitute a sort of canonical measure. In Augustine's intention, the Confessions are, simultaneously, an intimate "speaking to the mercy of God "(Confessions 1,6) but also a model to which he entrusts the task of "exhorting to the humility of Christ" (8,3) and of "engage many to salvation" (8,4).
The course aims to introduce the students to the complexity - rhetorical, theoretical and argumentative - that underlies the design of the overall architecture of the Augustinian Confessions along with two directions: on the one hand, the interpretation of the work will be brought back into the Sitz im Leben (vital context) of this masterpiece; on the other hand, the critical discussion of the document will recall to the epistemological principles on which the disciplinary autonomy of Early Christian Literature is based, whose major methodological acquisitions will be applied exemplarily to the analysis of the Confessions.
The narration of the conversion of the bishop of Hippo (Confessions 8) will provide the route to the didactic itinerary, which will follow three specific moments:
I Part: the origins of Christian literature and the constitution of the main ancient theological traditions;
II Part: Augustine and the (literary) tradition of Christian Africa;
III Part: Book VIII of the Confessions.
The I Part will describe the process that led, from the itinerant Jesuit preaching, through the "writing experimentation" of the first communities of "brothers", up to the birth of a real Christian Literature (I-III centuries). Of this first season of playful experimentation, some famous cases of "conversion" will give the occasion to reflect on the specific meaning that this theme assumed within the most ancient Christian traditions.
In the II Part, attention will be paid to the complexity of the Christian tradition of Africa, presenting synthetically: 1) its history, 2) the literary documents produced in it and 3) the space that Augustine occupied in it, that one he intended to occupy and the role entrusted to the Confessions in this project.
The III and last Part will analyze the VIII book of the Confessions to understand how much, in the narrative of that conversion, was constituted on the model of previous Christian traditions, how much was introduced by Augustine and what made that restless individual story a universal exemplum.
The Confessions of Augustine of Hippo undoubtedly represents one of the most successful and long-lived texts of all ancient Christian literature. In them, the tortuous intellectual and religious experience of the author, within an autobiographical frame, aims to constitute a sort of canonical measure. In Augustine's intention, the Confessions are, simultaneously, an intimate "speaking to the mercy of God "(Confessions 1,6) but also a model to which he entrusts the task of "exhorting to the humility of Christ" (8,3) and of "engage many to salvation" (8,4).
The course aims to introduce the students to the complexity - rhetorical, theoretical and argumentative - that underlies the design of the overall architecture of the Augustinian Confessions along with two directions: on the one hand, the interpretation of the work will be brought back into the Sitz im Leben (vital context) of this masterpiece; on the other hand, the critical discussion of the document will recall to the epistemological principles on which the disciplinary autonomy of Early Christian Literature is based, whose major methodological acquisitions will be applied exemplarily to the analysis of the Confessions.
The narration of the conversion of the bishop of Hippo (Confessions 8) will provide the route to the didactic itinerary, which will follow three specific moments:
I Part: the origins of Christian literature and the constitution of the main ancient theological traditions;
II Part: Augustine and the (literary) tradition of Christian Africa;
III Part: Book VIII of the Confessions.
The I Part will describe the process that led, from the itinerant Jesuit preaching, through the "writing experimentation" of the first communities of "brothers", up to the birth of a real Christian Literature (I-III centuries). Of this first season of playful experimentation, some famous cases of "conversion" will give the occasion to reflect on the specific meaning that this theme assumed within the most ancient Christian traditions.
In the II Part, attention will be paid to the complexity of the Christian tradition of Africa, presenting synthetically: 1) its history, 2) the literary documents produced in it and 3) the space that Augustine occupied in it, that one he intended to occupy and the role entrusted to the Confessions in this project.
The III and last Part will analyze the VIII book of the Confessions to understand how much, in the narrative of that conversion, was constituted on the model of previous Christian traditions, how much was introduced by Augustine and what made that restless individual story a universal exemplum.
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.
I Part
* W. Weren, Finestre su Gesù, Torino (Claudiana) 2001;
* C. Moreschini - E. Norelli, Manuale di letteratura cristiana antica greca e latina, Brescia (Morcelliana) 2006 (2ed.).
* Lectures notes and materials of the course.
II Part
* G. Reale (cur.), Agostino, Confessioni, Bompiani, 2019 (2ed.) (Il pensiero occidentale) [Please, pay attention: also the Introduction to the text is an integral part of the program!]
* Lecture notes and materials of the course.
III Part
* Lecture notes and materials of the course.
Bibliographic references and examination programme for NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS.
I Part
* W. Weren, Finestre su Gesù, Torino (Claudiana) 2001;
* C. Moreschini - E. Norelli, Manuale di letteratura cristiana antica greca e latina, Brescia (Morcelliana) 2006 (2ed.).
* P.R. Tragan, La preistoria dei vangeli. Tradizione cristiana primitiva, Sotto il Monte (Servitium Editrice) 1999.
II Part
* C. Carena (cur.) Sant'Agostino, Confessioni, Mondadori, 2000 (Oscar - Classici) [Please, pay attention: also the Introduction to the text and the Afterword to it are integral parts of the program!]
* P. Brown, Agostino d'Ippona, Einaudi, 2013 (Piccola Biblioteca Einaudi) [ed. or.: Einaudi, 1971].
III Part
* A text chosen between:
a) F. Gasti, Sant'Agostino, Storie di conversione (Confessioni, libro VIII), Marsilio, 2012 (Il convivio);
b) P. Fandella - L. F. Pizzolato (curr.), Nutre la mente solo ciò che la rallegra: le Confessioni di Sant'Agostino, Vita e Pensiero, 2007.
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.
I Part
* W. Weren, Finestre su Gesù, Torino (Claudiana) 2001;
* C. Moreschini - E. Norelli, Manuale di letteratura cristiana antica greca e latina, Brescia (Morcelliana) 2006 (2ed.).
* Lectures notes and materials of the course.
II Part
* G. Reale (cur.), Agostino, Confessioni, Bompiani, 2019 (2ed.) (Il pensiero occidentale) [Please, pay attention: also the Introduction to the text is an integral part of the program!]
* Lecture notes and materials of the course.
III Part
* Lecture notes and materials of the course.
Bibliographic references and examination programme for NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS.
I Part
* W. Weren, Finestre su Gesù, Torino (Claudiana) 2001;
* C. Moreschini - E. Norelli, Manuale di letteratura cristiana antica greca e latina, Brescia (Morcelliana) 2006 (2ed.).
* P.R. Tragan, La preistoria dei vangeli. Tradizione cristiana primitiva, Sotto il Monte (Servitium Editrice) 1999.
II Part
* C. Carena (cur.) Sant'Agostino, Confessioni, Mondadori, 2000 (Oscar - Classici) [Please, pay attention: also the Introduction to the text and the Afterword to it are integral parts of the program!]
* P. Brown, Agostino d'Ippona, Einaudi, 2013 (Piccola Biblioteca Einaudi) [ed. or.: Einaudi, 1971].
III Part
* A text chosen between:
a) F. Gasti, Sant'Agostino, Storie di conversione (Confessioni, libro VIII), Marsilio, 2012 (Il convivio);
b) P. Fandella - L. F. Pizzolato (curr.), Nutre la mente solo ciò che la rallegra: le Confessioni di Sant'Agostino, Vita e Pensiero, 2007.
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).
Modules or teaching units
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)