Topic: Referring to the works of representative writers from the period of the fourth to the sixth century, survey the developments in liturgy in this period.

Those running the course gave me a high distinction.

The task was to “choose two patristic writers who made a significant contribution to early Christianity. What introduction to Christianity does the writing of each author prvide? Compare their works in respect of language and thelogy. Assess their likely effectiveness in preaching Chrustianity to pagans or expounding belief to fellow Christian. How radical was the Christian message for the society of the Roman Empire?”

Quite a lot of assistance there, but also a lot for 2000 words.

I did this unit on the Church Fathers at ACU back in second semester 2005. I suppose the current equivalent there now is THCT313.

I was already 44 years old and working as a GP and as a Medical Advisor at DVA, so I should have been busy enough without all this going on.

The course was co-ordinated by Bronwen Neil. She now works at Macquarie University and has had a most impressive academic career.

The text was How to Read the Church Fathers by Adalbert Hamman, which was out of print so we were given a link to download a copy from the library. I’m pretty sure I have got a real copy somewhere – I must look for it.

We were given the usual extensive lecture notes for twelve modules and a bibliography. This was still prior to any real time online contact so, while everything was done on line, it was all written work. There was a discussion board and participation on that amounted to 20% of the assessment, which was filled out with two 2000 word assignments.

The Modules were:

1 The Birth of Christian Literature

2 The Apologists and the Meeting of Faith and Culture

3 Irenaeus and the Development of Heresy

4 Alexandrian Christianity

5 African Christianity and a Balance Sheet of the Church to this Point

6 The Conversion of Constantine

7 Factors and Figures within Fourth Century Christianity

8 The Christian Latin West and its Literature

9 Augustine’s Impact on the Christian World

10 The Christian Church After Theodosius

11 Issues Facing the Fifth Centruy Church

12 The End of the Ancient World: Gregory the Great

Unusually, I have many of my submissions to the discussion board.