Unit I

1) During the weeks topics of church and state it talks about the prosecution of Christians under Diocletian. However in Christianity the first three thousand years, it does not go into depth for the reasoning of Diocletian’s persecutions other than a short mention on pages 15-176 in two paragraphs which mentions he may have been influenced by advisors

Cousin, J. (2020, January 01). Reorganization of the empire. Retrieved August 03, 2020, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Diocletian/Reorganization-of-the-empire

Hoping to dig further into the life of Diocletian, I figured a more in depth explanation of his life might give insight into what he was thinking about and why he came to be lead to persecute Christians. As research seems to indicate he saw nothing wrong with religious freedoms. I can only imagine the thought process behind and difficulty to manage an entire empire and he may have used insight from other leaders to think this would bring Rome together, but ultimately ended up being his undoing.

2) During discussions of Conversion and Resistance we talked through some of the Creeds, and other documents discussed on philosophy and theology. Other than some insights through Bettenson and MacCulloch’s Christianity the firest three thousand years we do seem to touch on these ideas, I wanted to dig a tad deeper.

Kelly, J. (2017, April 12). Patristic literature. Retrieved August 09, 2020, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/patristic-literature

This in depth look at writings by many different schools of thought that takes a look up to the 8th century. It takes a look on apostolic, gnostic, and apologists from the pre-Nicene period. As well gives a look post-Nicene writings from the schools of Antioch, Edessa & Nisbis, and even views from monastic literature. I am hoping to gain a better understanding of these areas while diving into this literature.

3) During week 2’s discussions we looked at there were discussions of mysticism and women in christanity. We needed to delve deeper into the life of Thelca and the primary course texts seems to give one of the best dives into Thelca.

Hylen, S. (2015). A modest apostle: Thecla and the history of women in the early church. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:https://oxford-universitypressscholarship-com.ezproxy.proxy.library.oregonstate.edu/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190243821.001.0001/acprof-9780190243821-chapter-3

This is as in depth is we are going to find on the life of Thecla, while MacCulloch does have some text in reference to here it kind of brushes past it quickly and is more of a side note than anything. This will give me the in depth look I need to better study this material.