Medieval Church History

Dr. William VanDoodewaard (Ph.D. Aberdeen) serves as Associate Professor of Church History at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary. Previously he served as Assistant Professor of European History at Patrick Henry College, near Washington, D.C., and as Visiting Professor of History at Huntington University. Dr. VanDoodewaard is the author of The Marrow Controversy and Seceder Tradition: Atonement, Saving Faith and the Gospel Offer in Scotland (1718-1799) (RHB), and a contributing editor for the recent reprint of the 17th century Puritan work, Edward Fisher’s The Marrow of Modern Divinity (Christian Focus). He has also written for numerous academic journals and other periodicals. An ordained minister in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Churches, he has served as a guest speaker and preacher for churches in the United States, Canada, and Scotland. He blogs at The Christian Pundit.

A study of medieval developments (590-1517AD): the emergence of medieval Christianity, the monastic movement, missions and evangelism, challenges to the Gregorian line of the church, Eastern Orthodoxy, theological debates (e.g. predestination, Christ’s bodily presence in the Lord’s Supper, and atonement), the Crusades, mysticism, the subsistence or reality of ideas (e.g. realism, conceptualism, and nominalism), the rise of scholasticism, heresies (e.g. Albigensianism and Waldensianism), religious orders and their prominent theologians, the dissolution of the medieval synthesis, and forerunners of the Reformation (e.g., Thomas Bradwardine, Gregory of Rimini, John Wycliffe, and Jan Hus).

In the medieval church history course the student will become acquainted with

1. Christian historiography: a biblical and theological approach to understanding history, with particular focus on church history.
2. The history of Christianity from 590-1517 A.D. This will include (a) an understanding of the narrative or chronology of the history of the medieval church; (b) an understanding of developments, continuities, and changes in doctrine and practice in the medieval church; (c) an understanding of debates, divisions, reform, growth, and decline in the life of the ancient medieval; and an understanding of the life and theology of key figures in the medieval church.

The student will be able to analyze and evaluate the above biblically and theologically, as well as comparatively within the context of ancient church history. The student will also develop the ability to make comparative applications to later periods of church history up to the present day.  The course includes a strong focus on student interaction with, and discussion of, primary sources.

The following work is the required text for the Medieval Church History class. Other readings (especially of primary documents written by Medieval theologians and church councils) will also be required, but these will be available online via Populi. These additional required readings of primary sources are listed in the course schedule.
Carl A. Volz, The Medieval Church: From the Dawn of the Middle Ages to the Eve of the Reformation. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1997.

Please read this.

The following assignments and examinations are given in Medieval Church History (see attached course schedule for due dates), and are weighted as follows. Course grading will follow the scale in the PRTS catalog.

– Research paper (3000-4000 words) 30%
– Source document analysis (1000-1250 words) 10%
– Discussion Forums 10%
– Midterm examination 25%
– Final examination 25%

Late assignments will receive the standard PRTS deduction of 5% per day, unless special exemption (ie. for medical/family emergencies) is granted by the professor.

If you a current student of PRTS, and wish to enroll in this course, please contact the registrar. If you are not a current student, please fill out this form to request enrollment.