Unit 16

Christianity! The religion that has caused more of our students to spend an extra year over their degree than
any other!
<shocked silence>
Surprised? It's true. Most of our students are from a Christian background. The temptation is to think " I
already know this stuff" and to neglect it in their studies. More specifically, what they know is the life of Jesus
(or at least the Sunday school version - see http://www.uscatholic.org/church/2008/11/birthannouncements for a far more informed and nuanced view of the whole business). So regardless of whether
we ask about the Counter-Reformation or the growing power of the papacy in the Middle Ages, they will
write about the life of Jesus. And get zero points for it.
As I have told you, I did not set up this year's exam for EDT303Q. But things have gotten to the point that, in
those modules where I do set the exam, I take no questions from Unit 16 at all, to force students to pay
attention to the other two units. I tell them to ignore Unit 16 in their exam preparations. And I still get long
stories about the life of Jesus!
Christianity has had two thousand years of history since Jesus died. It has changed, adapted, evolved. You
need to know what happened in those two thousand years.
Okay, end of ranting and raving session. You will notice that the section on Christianity is structured
differently from the other religions, and there are notes to that effect in the Study Guide. Unit 16 deals with
the very beginning. Ignore the map on page 191, it is very confusing and should have been put at around
page 203.
Hmm, potentially nice question on page 196. "Explain why Christianity moved the day of rest and Worship to
Sunday from its conventional Jewish position on Saturday" (5) Must remember to use that, maybe next
year.
What did I just do there? I rephrased the material in terms of exam questions. Which you need to start doing
for yourselves. Not so that you can start "spotting" for the exams, but so that you can develop an insight into
the structure of the contents, the way its bits and pieces hang together. While reading, try to think like a
lecturer: "If I was that &*^%$ #$@! at Unisa, how would I be making an exam question out of this?"
Earlier this year we had a series of oral exams, and it was incredible how many students could not identify
(saint) Paul. And these were students who self-identified as Christians. Jesus saved people. But Paul
created a religion, now called Christianity, based on that supposition. They might as well have called it
Paulism.
Do not come to the exam room if you don't know who Paul was. You only need to call him Saint Paul if you
are Orthodox, Catholic or Anglican. As far as we are concerned 16.1-16.6 is introductory material. The stuff
to learn starts at 16.7
Assignment
Your assignment for this weekend is to lay out sections 16.7 to 16.10 in condensed format. I've started
things up in fill-in-the-blanks style to get you started
Within .... years of the crucifixion, Christianity was widely spread across the .... Empire
A former persecutor called ... became the greatest Christian missionary and changed his name to ...

He changed Christianity by saying that a ... could become a ... without first becoming a ... .
Do I really need to make you wait until Monday for the answers? No?
50
Roman
Saul
Paul (not Saint Paul yet - the saint part came later)
non-Jew/Gentile
Chirstian
Jew
OK, when you have done up the whole section like that, you will have a useful set of crib notes, I mean, a
set of notes to quickly go over and refresh your memory with while sitting in the car waiting for the exam
venue to open. And then to leave in the car!. See you next Friday.
UNIT 17 &18
Yes, Units 17 and 18, that is not a misprint.I am changing the pace a little. Why? Because I have finally had
a good, solid look at the exam paper I am supposed to be preparing you for. And I really am going to need
more time for Units 25 to 27. Is that an exam tip? Oh yes. Here's another one: Make sure that yiou
understand units 1 to 3 really well. You can spare me the heartfelt expressions of gratitude; you know where
to send the money

So, let's take a look at these units.

In Unit 17, I do NOT want you to get caught up in the minutiae of the early councils. Just remember that
there were a number of councils in which the bishops fought out (sometimes literally) the shape of
Christianity, and that 99% of Christians today follow the solutions that came out of the Council of Chalcedon.
Actually, the history of these councils is fascinating. At one of these, the emperor was so fed up with the
squabbling bishops that he posted armed guards at the entrance of the council hall and forbade the
bishops from leaving until they had reached a conclusion. A week or so later, when they were still arguing,
he sort of forgot to send in food ...
Be sure that you understand the growwing importance of monasticism and the papacy during the middle
ages. Please try to remember more about Augustine than that he had a mistress! The man was one of the
founders of western civilisation and you should know about him and his two books, the first ever
autobiography and the first ever philosophy of history.
South Africans tend to be very ignorant about Orthodox Christianity. Please study section 17.6 thoroughly.
Seven sacraments, a lovely 14-point question. well, not this year, but I can generate a lot of multiple-choice
questions out of this.
Thomas of Aquino, another great Christian thinker you should be familiar with. His calim to fame is that he
merged Christian devotionalism with Greek philosophy. The result of his work is the Christianity, both
Catholic and Protestant, most of you are familiar with. Orthodox Christianity is far less affected by Greek

philosophy, and for the vast majority of you, a Greek Orthodox service would be as foreign as a Hindu puja.
The whole idea of the sermon, the Word, as central to the Christian experience comes from Aquinas.
Most students do OK when it comes to the reformation. But the counter-reformation has given us the most
hilarious howlers ever to come out of an exam. "Jesuit" is NOT another word for "Christian". It does NOT
mean "any follower of Jesus". Please make sure that you don't skip 18.5.
ASSIGNMENT / ACTIVITY
Students complain if I don't give them work to do, so here is your next activity: Remember when I set you to
find the three closest synagogues to your house. Let's do the same thing with churches now. But unless you
live in Saudi Arabia, three churches would be much too easy. let's make it ten!
Now use the information in these units to categorise each church into:
Orthodox / Catholic / Protestant / African Indigenous / Other
Now take a closer look at each one:
If Eastern Orthodox, what nationality does it serve? (i.e. Russian, Greek, Serbian)
If Catholic, is it run by a specific monastic order of monks or nuns? (i. e. Franciscans, Jesuits)
If Protestant, what specific theology does it follow? (i.e. Lutheran, Baptist, Calvinist) You may need to go
beyond the prescribed book for this one. Try Wikipedia.
If African Initiated, does it seem to be of the Ethiopian or the Zionist type?
If Other, what on earth is it, then?
You will understand that once again, I can't give you a list of "right" answers. If you get stuck with the
classification (especially with the "Others"), post the name and place of the church here in the forums and
we'll see what we can come up with.
Don't just get your ten churches out of the telephone book: make an effort to see them, at least from the
outside. Try to comprehend the atmosphere, the sense of place.
See you next Friday. We will be doing all of Islam in one go, and all of Contemporary religion the same way.
Then we will really do those last three Units thoroughly. That means no disrespect to Islam (or to
Contemporary Religion!), it just makes more sense given the exam setup.
One more thing: there will be a formal announcement later, but Dr Mndende has resigned from Unisa. I'll be
taking over EDT303Q at least for this year. Which means that you, my darling little students, will be entirely
at my mercy. Remember what I said about sending money? Too late, bwahahahahaaaa