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"The Holy Trinity," Andrei Rublev, 15th century Russia
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Slavic 325/Religious Studies 325
Russian Orthodoxy and Eastern Christianity in a Global Context
Judith Deutsch Kornblatt
Professor, Slavic Languages and Literature
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Office: 1438 Van Hise Hall
Phone: (608) 262-9762
Email: jkornbla@wisc.edu
Class: T/R 12:00-1:15
Office hour: Thursday 11-12
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About the Course
This course will focus on the history and doctrine of Eastern Christianity
from its origins in the early Church through today. Emphasis will be placed
on the cultural manifestations of Orthodox doctrine: liturgy, iconography, pious
practice. We will compare Eastern Orthodoxy to Western Christianity (Catholicism
and Protestantism), and will examine various different national Churches within
Eastern Orthodoxy (Byzantine, Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Romanian, Georgian).
We will also ask about the significance of Church doctrine and practice for
the development of culture as a whole in the areas of the world in which Eastern
Christianity predominates, and the ways in which that culture both differs from
and relates to what we inaccurately call "Western" civilization. In general,
Orthodox practice relies heavily on the senses, and the course is designed to
be experiential. To that end, we will make at least one field trip to a local
Orthodox Church during the course of the semester.
Course Requirements
Reading
Assignments: (available at University Bookstore and on e-reserves):
All readings are due the first class meeting in
the week, unless otherwise instructed. Articles
on e-reserves should be printed out from the web or copied from the paper copy
in the College Library (Helen C. White) and brought to class.
Writing Assignments and Grading:
The course will require:
Regular class participation (20 pts)
- Mini-essays, (6 out of 7 @ 5 pts each); usually
due the second slass period of the week
- Research paper (thesis statement [5 pts], draft
[15 pts], and final version [30 pts])
OR
- Class presentation (initial outline of presentation
[5 pts], presentation [30 pts] and final write-up [15 pts]).
NO LATE ASSIGNMENTS ACCEPTED FOR CREDIT.
Course Materials
Primary texts:
Stephen Harakas, Living the Liturgy (Light and Life Press)
Leonid Ouspensky, Theology of the Icon (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1978)
Gleb Pokrovsky, trans., The Way of a Pilgrim (Skylight Paths Publishing, 2001)
Alexander Schmemann, Ultimate Questions (St. Vladimirs Seminary Press, 1977)
Timothy Ware, The Orthodox Church, (Penguin Books, 1997)
Articles on e-reserve (The
Electronic Course Reserves Collection (E-Reserves))
Icons and other materials posted on class website (http://imp.lss.wisc.edu/~kornblatt/index.htm)
Optional texts:
Bishop Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Way (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1999)
Sergius Bulgakov, The Orthodox Church (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1988)
Syllabus
1/23 The
course begins with a discussion of our assumptions about American life
(what it means to be an individual, what is a community, how do we as
individuals relate to nature...), followed by discussion of preconceived
notions about Russia and Eastern Europe, where many of the Orthodox
Churches are centered. A discussion
of the relativity of cultural biases will lead into the theoretical
questions that undergird the course as a whole: Why study religion as
an element of culture? How did
the development of the various monotheistic “global” religions (Eastern
Christianity, Catholicism, Judaism, Protestantism, Islam) affect the
global context as a whole? More
specifically, how do Eastern Christianity and Russian Orthodoxy differ
from Western Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant, and are there
ways in which they differ so fundamentally that we must begin to reassess
our assumptions about Russia and the other countries that are predominantly
Orthodox? Finally, once we can better understand Orthodox
culture from its own point of view, how can we better understand the
world as a whole, and our place within it?
The viewing of a video this week will allow us to begin to identify
aspects of the Orthodox Church that feel “different.”
Video: Art and Spirituality: The Russian Icon
Reading: Ware, The Orthodox Church,
195-207
1/30: The Early Church, the Byzantine Church, the
Schism
We will discuss the origins
of the Church in early cultic practice, the development of doctrine
through the Ecumenical Councils, leading up to the Schism in
the twelfth century.
Reading: Ware, The Orthodox Church, pp.
1-72
2/6: The Development of National Churches
Our discussion of the
history of the Church will continue with an examination of its
growth during the Byzantine Empire and, after the fall of Constantinople,
throughout Eastern Europe.
This week will prepare students for presentations later
in the semester.
Video: “The
History of Christianity”
Readings: Ware, The Orthodox Church, pp.
73-144
Jakobson, “The Beginnings of National
Self-Determination in Europe” pp. 29-42 (e-reserves)
Obolensky,
“Sts. Cyril and Methodius, Apostles to the Slavs,” pp. 205-217
(e-reserves)
2/13: The Russian Church: Moscow: “The Third Rome”
After the fall of Constantinople
in the fifteenth century, Moscow began to see itself as the
only and final defender of the Orthodox faith.
We will discuss this association of the Church with national
messianism, affecting both the Church in Russia and the nation
or people of Russia.
Readings: "Prolegomen" and "Vladimir
Christianizes Russian" from Medieval Russia's Epics,
Chronicles,
and
Tales, ed. Zenkovsky, pp. 44-46 and 66-71 (e-reserves)
Billington,
The Icon and the Axe, pp. 46-77 (e-reserves)
Fedotov,
St. Sergius of Radonezh, in The Russian Religious Mind
, pp. 195-229 (e-reserves)
2/20: The Trinity and Christology
In the second part of
the course, we will consider some of the major questions in
Christian theology, first by reading original documents by some
of the theologians who formed the debate, and then showing how
the questions are manifest in later Church practice.
We will always keep in mind how the Eastern Church understood
itself vis-a-vis the Western Church, since often the differences
are more of emphasis and interpretation, rather than doctrine
per se.
Readings: Ware, The Orthodox Church,
pp. 208-263
Ware, The Orthodox Way,
pp. 11-41 (e-reserves or in optional book)
Gregory of Nyssa, "On
Not Three Gods," pp. 256-267 (e-reserves)
Writing: Mini-essay
2/27: Salvation as Deification
This week we take up
questions of salvation, redemption, and humanity as created
in the image and likeness of God.
We also look at church architecture as a visible sign
of our redemption.
Reading: The
Festal Menaion, pp. 38-67, 468-503 (e-reserves)
3/6: Icons, Iconoclasts and Iconodules
Here we ask: Why are
visual aspects of Church culture so important? How are they
related to Orthodoxy theology?
Videos: “Byzantium: The Lost Empire (section
on iconoclasm/2nd half of Tape One)
Readings: Ouspensky, Theology of the Icon
Writing: Thesis statement for research
project or outline for presentation
3/13: Liturgy and Sacraments
Readings: Ware, The Orthodox Church, pp.
264-327
Harakas, Living the Liturgy
Ware, The Orthodox Way (optional)
***************************** SPRING BREAK
*********************************************
3/27: Monasticism/Hesychasm/”The Jesus Prayer”
Readings: The Way of a Pilgrim
4/3: Modern Russian Orthodox Culture: Slavophiles
and the Russian Religious Renaissance
Readings: Khomiakov, “The Church is One,”
pp. 29-53 (e-reserves)
Khomiakov, “On the Western Confessions of Faith,” in Schmemann,
Ultimate Questions
Florensky, “On the Holy
Spirit,” in Schmemann, Ultimate Questions
Bulgakov, The Orthodox
Church (optional)
4/8- Modern Russian Orthodox Culture (continued)
4/17: ********************* RESEARCH WEEK/NO CLASS *********************
PART
THREE: DIFFERENCES WITHIN ORTHODOXY
4/22- Presentations on National Churches and the contemporary Church
Writing: Draft of research project due
Note:
ORTHODOX EASTER on 4/27
5/1:
Presentations on National Churches and the contemporary
Church, continued
We will spend the final
week discussing how the students’ new knowledge of Eastern Christianity
has affected the way in which they understand the world. We will review our notes from the first week,
and see if/how our assumptions about ourselves and about Russia
and/or other Orthodox countries have changed.
5/18: Final research papers or presentation write-ups due NO
LATER THAN 12:00 noon
in
1438 Van Hise Hall (or Kornblatt mailbox in 1439 Van Hise)
Image Galleries
Russian Orthodox Art:
Icon Gallery
Russian Orthodox Architecture
Eastern Orthodox Art and
Architecture
Religious Art and
Architecture of the West
Saint Sophia: Icons and Churches
Course-Related Links
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Last Updated: April 06, 2004