Religion and power in the Eastern Mediterranean

This blended mobility CIVIS course aims to familiarise Bachelor's students with the transformation of Christianity and the broader religious landscape after the 4th century as that interacted with political power.

During the course, Professors and students will analyse the relation of this transformation with the then refurbished model of a Christian empire through texts and literature (virtual part). There will be a focus on the impact of this process on the emergence of the so-called Byzantine Christianity in the East, the native peripheral Christianity in Asia (Syria, Armenia) and Africa (Coptic, Ethiopic, Nubian Christians), as well as the transformation of the broader religious landscape concerning Judaism, “marginal” religious currents such as Gnosticism and apocalypticism. This will be facilitated through visits in relevant sites in Greece (physical mobility).

Finally, the course will highlight the consequences of the addressed topics to Early Islam and its millennial features during the Meccan period.

Upon completion of the course, the students will:

• Be familiar with a concept of Late Antiquity that crosses the border of the Roman Empire and the classical periodization of history
• Be informed about some of the most characteristic religious movements and ideas of the margins, such as “Gnosticism”, Manichaeism, but also apocalyptic and chiliastic groups with a special focus on their impact on the religious history of the Eastern Mediterranean in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages
• Be familiar with the most important primary literature about these movements and their opponents and the debates, whereby aspects of the construction of the “Other” will be particularly highlighted
• Comprehend the complex interplay of non-Chalcedonian Christian traditions and the Roman, Sasanian, and Early Islamic Empires
• Evaluate the political and cultural shifts that accompanied the Meccan and Medinan phases of the Qur’anic community and how Islam’s Late Antique and Qur’anic heritage shaped Islamic politics up to Abbasid times
• Analyse important texts concerning religion and power in Late Antiquity
• Contextualise texts and information about inner-Christian debates/controversies
• Describe the process of political and cultural “Christianisation” of the Roman Empire
• Discuss the most essential scholarly strategies for the 4th to 6th centuries
• Recognise the structural evolution of Christianity in the East after the end of Late Antiquity
• Identify essential events and persons related to Eastern Christianity after the 6th century
• Analyse the influence of Christianity on the creation of political norms, functions, and ideology in a Christian Empire (Byzantium, Nubia, Armenia)
• Assess the impact of centralized political power on aspects of medieval Christianity
• Locate rabbinic and non-rabbinic Jewish traditions within the social fibre of the respective Empires

Upon completion of the course, the students will: - Be familiar with a concept of Late Antiquity that crosses the border of the Roman Empire and the classical periodization of history - Be informed about some of the most characteristic religious movements and ideas of the margins, such as “Gnosticism”, Manichaeism, but also apocalyptic and chiliastic groups with a special focus on their impact on the religious history of the Eastern Mediterranean in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages - Be familiar with the most important primary literature about these movements and their opponents and the debates, whereby aspects of the construction of the “Other” will be particularly highlighted - Comprehend the complex interplay of non-Chalcedonian Christian traditions and the Roman, Sasanian, and Early Islamic Empires - Evaluate the political and cultural shifts that accompanied the Meccan and Medinan phases of the Qur’anic community and how Islam’s Late Antique and Qur’anic heritage shaped Islamic politics up to Abbasid times - Analyse important texts concerning religion and power in Late Antiquity - Contextualise texts and information about inner-Christian debates/controversies - Describe the process of political and cultural “Christianisation” of the Roman Empire - Discuss the most essential scholarly strategies for the 4th to 6th centuries - Recognise the structural evolution of Christianity in the East after the end of Late Antiquity - Identify essential events and persons related to Eastern Christianity after the 6th century - Analyse the influence of Christianity on the creation of political norms, functions, and ideology in a Christian Empire (Byzantium, Nubia, Armenia) - Assess the impact of centralized political power on aspects of medieval Christianity - Locate rabbinic and non-rabbinic Jewish traditions within the social fibre of the respective Empires

The physical mobility part will be running from 30 June 2025 to 4 July 2025 and will take place in  Athens, Greece.

• Monday, 30 June 2025 15:00 - 19:00 CET "Transforming religion in the Eastern Mediterranean: tour and seminar session in the Byzantine Museum of Athens" (all instructors together)
• Tuesday 01 July 2025 10:00 - 18:00 CET Sessions on “The new Christian empire – Constantinople as a holy city from 7th to 9th c. – Religion and power in Iconoclasm. The emperor and the liturgy – The influence of Constantinople and the idea of the Empire in the Eastern Christian cult” Visit of a relative site. (Dimitrios Moschos)
• Wednesday 02 July 2025 9:00 - 18:00 CET Session on “legislation governing religions and heresies”. 14.00-18.00. Session on "Religion, culture, and war - Conceptions of the relation between religion and war" (Volker Drecoll).
• Thursday 03 July 2025 9:00 - 18:00 CET Christians and public space in late-antique Corinth (Dimitrios Moschos) Jews among Christians and the byzantine imperial power in the Eastern Mediterranean upon the text of Doctrina Addai, (Emmanouela Grypeou).
• Friday 04 July 2025 9:00 - 13:00 CET Tour at the Islamic Museum of Athens. "The encounter between the Coranic community, Christians and Jews", Holger Zellentin

The sessions will be combined with visits on sites of interest for the object of the courses (museum visits in Athens, visit of byzantine churches in the Attica district, visit of Greek-Roman excavations in Athens and Corinth).

The virtual part will be running from 12 February 2025 to 30 April 2025.

•  12 February 2025, Introductory session, where literature and necessary general knowledge will be provided.
• 26 February 2025 Session title: From pagan to Christian emperors. The imperial power and the Christian Ecumenical Councils up to the Henoticon Decree (482 CE).
• 5 March 2025, Session title: Imperial power from the Henoticon Decree to the end of the Justinian’s time 565 CE)
• 12 March 2025, Session title: Eschatological ideas and their political role in Syriac and Greek texts.
• 19 March 2025, Session title: Rabbinic literature up to the 6th c.CE – Its relation to the Christian and Sassanid imperial ideology.
• 26 March 2025, Session title: Christian spirituality and ascetic literature in diverse political functions.
• 2 April 2025, Session title: Qur’an and the Caliphate – public and private forms of religious piety patterns.
• 9 April 2025, Session title: Other Christianities: Oriental, African and Western Christian communities after the end of Late Antiquity.
• 30 April 2025, Session title: The Christian literature after Islam and its political background.

The participants will be evaluated after regular attendance and active involvement in presentations during the second part of the course or based on the writing of short essays at the end of the course.

The evaluation criteria are more specifically the following: 

• Regular attendance of the sessions
• Active participation in the Seminar discussion and in-depth understanding of the relevant bibliography which will be given beforehand
• Well documented presentation of an assigned topic (probably a book review) or successful answers to relevant questions in a written essay at the end of the course

Motivation Letter

Level of english (According to CEFR)

CV

Students' applications will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• Motivation
• Affinity of the BIP object with the student background of the applicant
• Ability to think critically and actively participate in team work within an international student group

• Volker Drecoll is Professor of Church History/University of Tübingen. Focus on the old church and patristic theology.
• Emmanouela Grypeou is Associate Professor, Department of Ethnology, History of Religions and Gender Studies/Stockholm University. A specialist of Gnosticism in the early Church history and Ancient Judaism, of the relations of Eastern Christianity with Early Islam and rabbinic Judaism.
• Dimitrios Moschos is Professor of Church History at the Department of Theology at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, specialized in Late Antique and Byzantine Christianity.
• Holger Zellentin is Professor of Religion (Jewish Studies) at the University of Tübingen. Award-winning scholar of Late Antiquity. Focus on Talmudic and Qur’anic studies.