Unit convenor and teaching staff |
Unit convenor and teaching staff
Unit Convener
Paul McKechnie
Contact via paul.mckechnie@mq.edu.au
W6A500
Open door policy
|
---|---|
Credit points |
Credit points
4
|
Prerequisites |
Prerequisites
Admission to MAncHist or GradCertAncHist or MA in (Ancient History or Coptic Studies or ECJS or Egyptology or History or Late Antiquity or Ancient Art and Architecture) or PGDipArts in (Ancient History or ECJS) or PGCertArts in (Ancient History or Coptic Studies)
|
Corequisites |
Corequisites
|
Co-badged status |
Co-badged status
|
Unit description |
Unit description
This unit involves an in-depth study of a largely rural area of Roman Asia Minor during the early centuries of the growth of Christianity. Christianity in the life of small cities including Pisidian Antioch, Apollonia, Eumeneia and Temenothyrae will be examined. Issues relating to how centre and periphery interacted in the Roman empire will be studied. This unit offers students the opportunity for special studies of particular places, specifically the study of the ancient local history of the cities in the region.
|
Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
Grade descriptors
Work will be marked following these criteria:
|
HD
|
D |
Cr |
P |
F |
Knowledge |
|
||||
Knowledge of relevant subject matter |
Extensive knowledge of relevant subject matter; goes beyond material supplied |
Thorough knowledge of relevant subject matter |
Substantial knowledge of relevant subject matter |
Sound knowledge of relevant subject matter. Knowledge may be limited in some aspects |
Little or no knowledge of relevant subject matter |
Method |
|
||||
Appropriate techniques and methodologies |
Mastery of appropriate techniques and methodologies |
Thorough application of techniques and methodologies |
Substantial evidence of knowledge of appropriate techniques and methodologies |
Some evidence of knowledge of appropriate techniques and methodologies |
Little or no evidence of knowledge of appropriate techniques and methodologies |
Your argument |
|
||||
|
Consistent evidence of deep and critical thinking; substantial originality |
Clear evidence of deep and critical thinking |
Some evidence of critical thinking, e.g. arguments not just reported |
Sufficient evidence of some critical thinking; reporting rather than analysis of arguments |
Little or no evidence of critical thinking |
Arguments |
|
|
|
|
|
How well you deal with competing arguments |
Competing arguments mastered; some success in attempting to go beyond scholarship |
Competing arguments acknowledged and critically assessed; attempt to go beyond scholarship resolving conflicts between competing arguments |
Substantial evidence of knowledge of competing arguments; different arguments reported rather than criticized |
Some evidence of knowledge of competing arguments, but this not integrated into your argument |
No evidence of knowledge of competing arguments |
Sources |
|
|
|
|
|
Use of ancient sources |
Extensive and critical use of ancient sources. Critical evaluation of relevant sources. Goes beyond material supplied |
Thorough and critical use of ancient sources |
Substantial use of ancient sources; some uncritical use. Evidence may be reported rather than critically evaluated |
Sufficient use of ancient sources; substantial uncritical use |
Very little or no use of ancient sources. Or, misuse of ancient sources where texts are quoted at length with little or no critical commentary or argument |
Modern works |
|
|
|
|
|
The depth of your reading in modern scholarship |
Extensive and critical use of modern scholarship. Goes beyond bibliography supplied in lectures |
Thorough and critical use of modern scholarship supplied in lectures and tutorials |
Substantial use of modern scholarship; some uncritical use |
Sufficient use of modern scholarship; substantial uncritical use. Range of scholarship cited may be limited or inappropriate |
Little or no use of modern scholarship; uncritical use of scholarship. Only inappropriate modern sources cited (e.g. unscholarly websites) |
Citation |
|
|
|
|
|
Citation of sources, ancient and modern |
No HD grade for this category |
No D grade for this category |
Credit or above: Approved system used consistently |
Attempt to use approved system , but not used consistently in line with the models provided |
No attempt to use approved system or failure to cite work quoted [plagiarism] |
Language |
|
|
|
|
|
English language |
Excellent use of English language throughout. Grammar and style of the highest quality |
Excellent use of English language |
Proficient use of English; some minor errors e.g. in use of apostrophe. Style not always appropriate (but language not ungrammatical) |
Generally sound use of English; consistent minor errors |
Substantial inappropriate or ungrammatical use of English |
Language |
|
|
|
|
|
Spelling |
Spelling correct throughout. Consistent treatment of foreign language words |
Spelling correct throughout; may be some inconsistency e.g. in treatment of foreign language words in English (such as Greek and Latin transliterations) or in use of foreign language words |
Spelling mostly correct throughout; some minor errors e.g. in Greek or Latin names |
Minor spelling mistakes but otherwise sound |
Spelling consistently poor |
Structure |
|
||||
Structure of Argument |
Excellent structure; comes to a clear conclusion. Logical sequence to argument. |
Argument is well structured |
Paper comes to a clear conclusion; minor inconsistencies in argument |
Argument has some structure, but significant inconsistencies too |
Little or no attempt to structure |
Length |
|
||||
Length of Paper |
No HD grade for this category |
No D grade for this category |
No Cr grade for this category |
Within the limits set for the assignment |
Not within limits set for this assignment: too long or too short |
Presentation |
|
||||
Presentation of Paper |
No HD grade for this category |
No D grade for this category |
No Cr grade for this category |
Well presented |
Poor presentation: e.g. untidy and difficult to read |
Name | Weighting | Due |
---|---|---|
Assignment 1 | 20% | 20 March |
Assignment 2 | 40% | VE Day (8 May) |
Take-home exam | 40% | (19 June) |
Due: 20 March
Weighting: 20%
Write an essay (word-limit 1500 words including footnotes but not including bibliography list) on one of the three titles given below.
1.
‘...many Hellenized Jews of the diaspora found Christianity so appealing precisely because it freed them from an ethnic identity with which they had become uncomfortable’, writes Rodney Stark.
To what degree was the initial success of Christian mission in Phrygia attributable to the importance of the Jewish community in the territory?
2.
‘My argument will not be that there are no striking resemblances or patterns among [groups following biblical demiurgical traditions], no features at all that justify the creation of common categories out of this assortment. Rather, the argument is simply that the category “gnosticism” is not the answer,’ writes Michael Allen Williams.
Is Williams’ case sufficiently proved in his book?
3.
Vernon Bartlet wrote:
Hierapolis, of which [Papias] became ‘bishop’ or chief local pastor,stood at the meeting-point of two great roads: one running east and west, between Antioch in Syria and Ephesus, the chief city of ‘Asia’, the other south-east to Attalia in Pamphylia and north-west to Smyrna. There Papias was almost uniquely placed for collecting traditions coming direct from the original home of the Gospel both before his own day and during it, as well as from Palestinian [Christian] leaders settled in Asia (a great centre of the Jewish Dispersion).
How important is the evidence which Papias provides for the growth of Christianity in Phrygia and Asia in his time?
Ask the unit coordinator for an extension if you are unable to submit your work on time. Do this before, not after, the submission date. A week will normally be allowed. If longer than a week is needed, accompany your extension request with a certificate from a doctor, counsellor or equivalent professional saying how for many days you were unable to work.
Late assignments (meaning assignments submitted late without an extension agreed in advance) will be penalized at the rate of 10% per week, or part of a week. Remember than an hour is ‘part of a week’. The 10% lost is 10% of the score gained, not 10% of the maximum, so if a minor essay (worth 20%) is a week late and the marker assesses it as being worth 10 out of 20, the student will actually get {10 minus 10% of 10 [i.e. 1]}, and so eventually score 9 out of 20.
Due: VE Day (8 May)
Weighting: 40%
Write an essay (word-limit 3000 words including footnotes but not including bibliography list) on one of the five titles given below.
4.
What difference has the discovery of the sites of Tymion and Pepuza made to modern understanding of the New Prophecy/Montanism?
5.
‘As with the term “martyr”, what is meant by “woman” in these narratives is hardly self-evident and frequently is marked by ambiguity and paradox. Gender is both constructed and de-constructed in these texts, seeming at times a very rigid concept and at others a fluid one,’ writes Sharon Dunn.
Phrygian religious traditions, the New Prophecy, ordinary Christian teaching: which of these has the most to do with the ‘ambiguous and paradoxical’ way gender is constructed in the Martyrdom of Perpetua?
6.
Eusebius writes (Ecclesiastical History 5.3.4):
The followers of Montanus, Alcibiades and Theodotus in Phrygia were now first giving wide circulation to their assumption in regard to prophecy—for the many other miracles that, through the gift of God, were still wrought in the different churches caused their prophesying to be readily credited by many—and as dissension arose concerning them, the brethren in Gaul set forth their own prudent and most orthodox judgment in the matter, and published also several epistles from the witnesses that had been put to death among them. These they sent, while they were still in prison, to the brethren throughout Asia and Phrygia, and also to Eleutherus, who was then bishop of Rome, negotiating for the peace of the churches.
Discuss with examples the part which communication between churches in different regions of the Roman empire had in the development of the Christian religion in its first two centuries.
7
W.H.C. Frend writes:
‘The third century, as Adolph von Harnack long ago pointed out, was an age of continuous individual conversions. A great many of these took place among the literate classes. Origen, writing Contra Celsum c. 248, refuting the argument put forward by Celsus (and probably true when he wrote, c. 178) “that if all men wanted to become Christians, the Christians would no longer want them” (Contra Celsum iii.9), claimed that “on account of the multitude of people coming to the faith”, rich men, persons of high honour and ‘ladies of refinement and high birth’ regarded the faith favourably. Some became leaders of the Church “for the sake of a little prestige”. In the same section Origen urges h=is readers not to despise the sacred books of Moses and the prophets “because of the sects among the Jews”. Utterances of the prophets needed to be “carefully explained by those who are able to understand them intelligently”. They could not be taken literally. Even ideas of judgement had to be supported from rational probability as well as from the Bible. Christians were moving in a world where literal argument from prophecy was no longer decisive for their cause.'What were the implications for the churches in third-century Phrygia of ‘a world in which literal argument from prophecy was no longer decisive?’
8
W.H.C. Frend writes:
The victory of Christianity in the last years of Constantine’s reign was graphically described by Eusebius of Caesarea in his Life of Constantine. Clearly in Phoenicia, where he had excellent sources of information, the heart had gone out of the old religion. Every class in the community was prepared to accept Christianity and even to deride the deities that once they had held in awe. The victory there and ultimately over nearly the whole empire was so decisive that one is inclined to forget the tremendous struggle for the hearts and allegiances of the provincials that preceded it.
Do the sources available today permit the historian to gauge whether ‘the heart had gone out of the old religion’ in Phrygia to the same degree as in Phoenicia by the last years Constantine’s reign?
Ask the unit coordinator for an extension if you are unable to submit your work on time. Do this before, not after, the submission date. A week will normally be allowed. If longer than a week is needed, accompany your extension request with a certificate from a doctor, counsellor or equivalent professional saying how for many days you were unable to work.
Late assignments (meaning assignments submitted late without an extension agreed in advance) will be penalized at the rate of 10% per week, or part of a week. Remember than an hour is ‘part of a week’. The 10% lost is 10% of the score gained, not 10% of the maximum, so if a major essay (worth 40%) is a week late and the marker assesses it as being worth 20 out of 40, the student will actually get {20 minus 10% of 20 [i.e. 2]}, and so eventually score 18 out of 40.
Is it possible to decide whether the ‘ambiguous and paradoxical’ treatment of gender in the Martyrdom of Perpetua is characteristic of Phrygian religion, of the New Prophecy, of Christianity in general, or of none of these three?
Due: (19 June)
Weighting: 40%
A take-home examination will be set. Four questions must be answered. The word-length for answers to the exam as a whole is 2,500 words, so that each answer should be approximately 625 words long. Some leeway is allowed on length, but there will be no extra marks for long answers.
The take-home examination is not another essay. Footnoting should not be used, and bibliographies should not be given. What is required is a set of well thought out but relatively brief answers to analytical questions drawn from across the ideas and events dealt with in the unit. The idea is that is should be possible to do the take-home exam in three hours, although there is no way of checking that a student does not spend four or five hours writing the answers: note again that there will be no credit for extra length.
The questions for the take-home examination will be made available in the iLearn unit during Week 13 of the Study Period.
Submit your answers by 5 p.m. on 19 June via iLearn. Extensions will only be allowed for the take-home examination in cases where there is a document from a doctor, counsellor or equivalent professional stating how many days you were unable to work.
To complete the unit satisfactorily you will need to achieve an overall mark worth 50% or above.
Delivery mode
Internal and External
This unit will use
iLearn and Echo 360
Lecture times and locations
Tuesdays 4.00 - 5.00 W5A204
Thursdays 4.00 - 5.00 W5A201
For current updates, lecture times and classrooms please consult the MQ Timetables website: https://timetables.mq.edu.au/Scientia/Web/index.html
Required and recommended resources
Online units can be accessed at: http://ilearn.mq.edu.au/
PC and Internet access are required. Basic computer skills (e.g., internet browsing) and skills in word processing are also a requirement.
Consult the OUA website for more detailed information on technology requirements:
http://www.open.edu.au/public/future-students/getting-started/computer-requirements
Please contact the IT helpdesk for any further, more specific IT requirements:
Face-to-Face: Building C5C Room 244, Macquarie University Online: OneHelp Phone: (02) 9850 HELP, (02) 9850 4357 (in Sydney) or 1800 MQ HELP (outside Sydney) Email: help@mq.edu.au
Week | Theme | Lecture | Title |
1 | Phrygia: a unique case. Phrygia and the New Testament: Colossae, Laodicea, Philadelphia | 1 | Introduction. Asia: coast and inland. Ramsay’s Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia. Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua. Stephen Mitchell. |
2 | Laodicea, Philadelphia, Colossae | ||
2 | The ‘Colossian heresy’ and divergent tendencies in Christian thinking. | 3 | Simon Magus, Gnostic Christianities, the Colossian Heresy |
4 | Nag Hammadi. James M. Robinson, Michael Allen Williams. | ||
3 | Papias of Hierapolis (Pamukkale) and the convergent tendency of Christian thinking | 5 | Papias, Eusebius, and the churches in Asia. Trebilco Early Christians in Ephesus. |
6 | Hierapolis: Philip, John, Papias. | ||
4 | Polycarp of Smyrna: the ‘teacher of Asia’. The Martyrdom of Polycarp. Paul and Thecla; Iconium, Antioch of Pisidia. | 7 | Ignatius of Antioch, Ignatius’ letters, Polycarp, the Martyrdom of Polycarp |
8 | Iconium, Antioch of Pisidia, Paul and Thecla. | ||
5 | Montanus, Priscilla, Maximilla: the New Prophecy. Ardabau, Pepuza, Tymion. | 9 | The origins of the New Prophecy |
10 | Pepuza and Tymion | ||
6 | Eusebius and other writers on the Phrygians and opposition to the Phrygians | 11 |
Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History The Anonymous, Apollinarius (/Serapion), Miltiades |
12 | Writing against heresy: Irenaeus, Hippolytus. Celsus and Origen. Epiphanius | ||
7 | Tertullian on enthusiasm for the Montanists. Perpetua and Felicitas | 13 | Tertullian’s life and writing. Tertullian and Montanism. The Tertullianists. |
14 | The Martyrdom of Perpetua | ||
8 | Abercius of Hierapolis (Sandıklı), his gravestone, and the Vita Abercii | 15 | The gravestone of Aberkios |
16 | The Vita Abercii (1) | ||
9 | Apollonia (Uluborlu); curiales and their families. The Council of Elvira | 17 | The Vita Abercii (2) |
18 | Christians and city councils in Asia Minor | ||
10 | The Eumeneian formula | 19 | The Eumeneian formula (1) |
20 | The Eumeneian formula (2) | ||
11 | Christians for Christians | 21 | The ‘Christians for Christians’ gravestones. |
22 | Christianity in inland Asia Minor, 200-300. | ||
12 | The Great Persecution | 23 | The antecedents of the Great Persecution. Diocletian and the imperial cult. |
24 | How the Great Persecution played out. | ||
13 | The Phrygian fourth century and after. | 25 | Ramsay’s Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia |
26 | Phrygia and christianization |
Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central. Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:
Academic Honesty Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/academic_honesty/policy.html
Assessment Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy.html
Grading Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grading/policy.html
Grade Appeal Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/gradeappeal/policy.html
Grievance Management Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grievance_management/policy.html
Disruption to Studies Policy http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/disruption_studies/policy.html The Disruption to Studies Policy is effective from March 3 2014 and replaces the Special Consideration Policy.
In addition, a number of other policies can be found in the Learning and Teaching Category of Policy Central.
Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/support/student_conduct/
Results shown in iLearn, or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au.
Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/
Learning Skills (mq.edu.au/learningskills) provides academic writing resources and study strategies to improve your marks and take control of your study.
Students with a disability are encouraged to contact the Disability Service who can provide appropriate help with any issues that arise during their studies.
For all student enquiries, visit Student Connect at ask.mq.edu.au
For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://informatics.mq.edu.au/help/.
When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.
Our postgraduates will demonstrate a high standard of discernment and common sense in their professional and personal judgment. They will have the ability to make informed choices and decisions that reflect both the nature of their professional work and their personal perspectives.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Our postgraduates will be able to demonstrate a significantly enhanced depth and breadth of knowledge, scholarly understanding, and specific subject content knowledge in their chosen fields.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Our postgraduates will be capable of utilising and reflecting on prior knowledge and experience, of applying higher level critical thinking skills, and of integrating and synthesising learning and knowledge from a range of sources and environments. A characteristic of this form of thinking is the generation of new, professionally oriented knowledge through personal or group-based critique of practice and theory.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Our postgraduates will be capable of systematic enquiry; able to use research skills to create new knowledge that can be applied to real world issues, or contribute to a field of study or practice to enhance society. They will be capable of creative questioning, problem finding and problem solving.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Our postgraduates will be able to communicate effectively and convey their views to different social, cultural, and professional audiences. They will be able to use a variety of technologically supported media to communicate with empathy using a range of written, spoken or visual formats.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Our postgraduates will be ethically aware and capable of confident transformative action in relation to their professional responsibilities and the wider community. They will have a sense of connectedness with others and country and have a sense of mutual obligation. They will be able to appreciate the impact of their professional roles for social justice and inclusion related to national and global issues
This graduate capability is supported by: