Unit rationale, description and aim

From its inception, western intellectual and cultural life has been shaped by both Greco-Roman mythology and the history, narratives and doctrines of the Abrahamic religions. Polytheistic Greco-Roman religious symbolism and narratives have had a lasting influence on the western imagination, and this unit begins by exploring key texts that exemplify this heritage. However, in focusing primarily on the Judeo-Christian tradition, students will explore the vast influence of Biblical texts, theological doctrines, Church history, and devotional practices on the politics, art and intellectual life of western culture from ancient to modern times. They will study profoundly influential texts, particularly the Bible, as well as those by seminal figures such as Augustine, Benedict, Aquinas,and  Martin Luther, as well as others that relate to the historical relationships between Church and state. These span the period from the ancient Near East to modernity. The unit concludes in the contemporary era and enables students to understand some of the ways in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have engaged with Christianity since 1788.

The unit aims to equip students with knowledge of the major texts, ideas, and means by which Christianity has shaped western culture over two millennia. 

2026 10

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  • Term Mode
  • Semester 1Campus Attendance

Prerequisites

Nil

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

Describe the sources and origins of religion in th...

Learning Outcome 01

Describe the sources and origins of religion in the West, drawing on mythological, scriptural and patristic texts in the ancient Near Eastern, Hellenistic and Roman Mediterranean world
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC7, GC9, GC12

Discuss the great works of Christian authors in th...

Learning Outcome 02

Discuss the great works of Christian authors in their relation to the evolution of Christianity and the intellectual tradition of Western society and culture
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC12

Apply texts in theology and religious practice and...

Learning Outcome 03

Apply texts in theology and religious practice and history related to, the development and influence of Christianity in Western Europe, North America, and Australasia
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC11

Evaluate knowledge from diverse sources and commun...

Learning Outcome 04

Evaluate knowledge from diverse sources and communicate complex ideas and findings with confidence to a range of audiences
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC7, GC9, GC11

Apply disciplinary knowledge and skills to underst...

Learning Outcome 05

Apply disciplinary knowledge and skills to understand complex, real-world issues, informed by western and other traditions, including the perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and to formulate intellectually-grounded, evidence-based judgments about history and the modern world
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC2, GC5, GC6

Content

Topics may include: 

  • Greco-Roman polytheistic religions, narratives, and myths, and their ongoing legacies in Western culture.
  • The socio-cultural and political establishment of Christianity in late antiquity and medieval Europe.
  • Distinctives and connections between Western Latin Christianity and North African and Byzantine Christianity, and between Christianity and Islam.
  • Augustine of Hippo’s work in its religious and intellectual context.
  • The contribution of monasticism in medieval society.
  • The context and legacy of influential theological and devotional texts.
  • Major developments in the interconnection of Church and State.
  • Religion’s relation to Western European conquest of the Americas.
  • The causes and impacts of the European reformations (magisterial, radical and Catholic).
  • English-speaking Protestantism’s spread and impact via colonialism.
  • Slavery, abolitionism and African American engagement with Christianity including through the civil rights movement.
  • Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ experiences of and engagements with Christianity.

Assessment strategy and rationale

There are three types of assessment for this unit, each enabling students to develop a distinct set of skills and body of knowledge contained in the Learning Outcomes. 

  1. A close-reading analysis of a primary text from the first five centuries of Mediterranean Christianity in its context [Augustine’s Confessions or an equivalent text of similar age and significance]. 
  2. A group exercise based around imaginative historical reconstruction and representation of a point of view in a major historical religious debate covered in the unit. Small groups of students are assigned a constituency in a historical debate and research the views of that constituency to present such views as if their own, and in a responsive dialogue with other views, in a prepared in-class debate. For example, Martin Luther, his allies and critics, or pro- and anti-slavery proponents in antebellum America. In this task, students develop historical and cultural empathy with views not their own, oral and written communication skills, and complex reasoning using texts related to religion and Western Civilisation.  
  3. An essay that reflects on the relevance of one element of the history of Western Civilisation’s relationship with Christianity for a better understanding of an ethical or political challenge in the present. This will be presented in multi-mode for different audiences: a one-part essay for academic readership; one part blog, video or podcast for a wider popular audience.

Overview of assessments

Assessment 1: Close-reading Analysis Close-readi...

Assessment 1: Close-reading Analysis

Close-reading analysis of primary text (Augustine’s Confessions or an equivalent text of similar age and significance).

Weighting

20%

Learning Outcomes LO1, LO2, LO3
Graduate Capabilities GC1, GC7, GC9, GC11, GC12

Assessment 2: Group Project Group project: recon...

Assessment 2: Group Project

Group project: reconstruction and re-enactment of historical debate.

Weighting

30%

Learning Outcomes LO3, LO4
Graduate Capabilities GC1, GC7, GC9, GC11

Assessment 3: Integrative Essay Integrative essa...

Assessment 3: Integrative Essay

Integrative essay in mixed modes (essay and blog, or podcast, or video).

Weighting

50%

Learning Outcomes LO4, LO5
Graduate Capabilities GC2, GC5, GC6, GC7, GC9, GC11

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

Taught face-to-face in small groups with a Socratic method of teaching, this unit inquires into the meaning and significance of seminal texts in the history of Christianity’s relationship with Western Civilisation. To meet the learning outcomes, the unit moves chronologically through a selection of textual case studies, aiming to set each one in the wider context in at least three ways: 

  1. The text’s engagement with and use of original sources, such as the Bible or Greco-Roman sources. 
  2. The text’s connection to intellectual and historical currents contemporary with its authorship (for example, receptions of Plato and Aristotle, the conquest of the Americas, the emergence of the middle class, the scientific revolution, etc)  
  3. The legacies and impacts the text may have had, either as formative of or as critical of Western Civilisation, or both.  

Rather than the unit insisting on a “right” answer, students are encouraged, through discussion and debate, individual reading and research, to develop, articulate and defend insights of their own.  

This 10-credit point unit requires approximately 150 hours of student time across the semester. To achieve a passing standard, students will need to engage in the full range of learning activities and assessments.

Representative texts and references

Representative texts and references

Augustine of Hippo, Confessions. 

Hesiod, Theogony. 

Holy Bible (New Revised Standard Version). 

Ignatius of Loyola, The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola 

John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Lindberg, Carter. The European Reformations. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.  

McGrath, Alister E. Historical Theology: An Introduction to the History of Christian Thought. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.  

McGrath, Alister E. In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture. New York: Doubleday, 2008. 

Martin Luther, translation of Galatians. 

Noll, Mark A. Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity. Grand Rapids: Baker Pub. Group, 2012. 

Taylor, Charles. Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard Univ. Press, 2012.  

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica. 

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