Course New Approaches to the Study of Early Christianity: Methods, Models, and Categories

Course title: New Approaches to the Study of Early Christianity: Methods, Models, and Categories

Course description

This course questions some standard methodological approaches to the study of early Christianity and offers PhD students the opportunity to present their own projects and to receive feedback on them.

The course comprises two lectures, a session on how to prepare for an academic career, and several sessions in which participants present their PhD projects.

Both lectures address methodological approaches to the study of early Christianity, with particular attention to the models and categories that scholars employ. One lecture deals with the study of early Christian theologians’ biblical exegesis, including the question of how researchers can distinguish between the categories used by early Christian authors themselves and those introduced by modern scholarship. The other lecture deals with methods in the study of historical theological texts. The issue here is similar: how can we distinguish the theological models of the past from those of the present, and to what extent do modern frameworks shape our reading of ancient sources?

In addition to the two methodological lectures, the course will include a session on how to prepare for an academic career in the study of early Christianity, both within and beyond the university.

Finally, the course will give participating PhD students the opportunity to present their own research projects and to receive feedback from the lecturers and the other participants.

Aim/Learning outcomes

• The aim of the course is to sharpen participants’ general awareness of methodology and to give them the opportunity to present and discuss methodological considerations and choices in relation to their own research projects.
• By the end of the course, participants will be able to identify and critically assess the models and categories that underlie their own research.
• Participants will be able to distinguish between the categories used by ancient authors and the analytical categories introduced by modern scholarship, and to reflect on the consequences of this distinction for the interpretation of their sources.
• Participants will be able to present and defend the methodological choices of their projects in English before an international audience of peers and senior scholars.

Requirements for participation

• Participants should be planning or conducting a PhD thesis studying early Christianity, theology, religion, history or history of ideas in pre-modern times.

• Participants should be able to understand English and to present and discuss their PhD work in English.

Target group/Participants

• PhD students in early Christian studies, patristics, church history, ancient history, classics, and any related discipline who are planning or conducting a thesis on early Christianity.

Workload

• Course/ teaching hours: 14
• Preparation hours: 10 for participants who do not give a presentation; 25 for participants who give a presentation.
• Written assignments etc.: Participants may present their own thesis work for discussion. Presentation is optional and is not a requirement for participation.

Language 

• English

Lecturers

• Samuel Fernández, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
• Giovanni Hermanin de Reichenfeld, Postdoc, Department of Theology, Aarhus University.
• Anders-Christian Jacobsen, Professor, Department of Theology, Aarhus University.

Literature

• Peter W. Martens, “Revisiting the Allegory/Typology Distinction: The Case of Origen,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 16.3 (2008): 283–317.
• Lewis Ayres, “There’s Fire in That Rain: On Reading the Letter and Reading Allegorically,” Modern Theology 28.4 (2012): 616–634
• To be distributed after the application deadline.

Venue

• TBA

Course dates:

• 20 January 2027 11:30 - 18:00
• 21 January 2027 11:30 - 16:00