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.

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:

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?

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.