“History of Christianity, 1460-2015” 

This foundational course is the second of two Church History courses offered for the School year 2018-19.

A survey of Christian origins and development, this course examines key factors in the emergence of Christian traditions from the Reformation forward. Christianity has always been a “pluriform” movement, differing greatly across geography, cultures, and time.
Our study will consider historical factors that shaped how and why Christians respond differently to central questions of human existence such as What is human nature? What is ‘salvation’? Who and what is Jesus?

Instructor: Dr. Deborah Goodwin

Bio: Deborah Goodwin is a native of Gloucester, Massachusetts, Deborah L. Goodwin earned her Ph.D. at hte University of Notre Dame. Both a first-generation college student and a self-described "late bloomer," she returned to academic life after a varied career in non-profits and industry. While studying New Testament in her master's training, she was fascinated by encountering the Jewishness of Jesus. This led her to focus on the history of the Jewish-Christian encounter, especially in the medieval period, when pursuing her Ph.D. Her dissertation director at Notre Dame was the late Rabbi Michael Signer; that dissertation, published as Take Hold of the Robe a Jew: Herbert of Bosham's Christian Hebraism, is the first book-length study of an innovative Christian commentator on the Book of Psalms. Deborah recently retired from teaching at Gustavus Adolphus College (St. Peter, MN), where she served in the Religion Department's faculty and as director of the college's "Writing across the Curriculum" program. She taught courses on the history of Christianity, including Catholicism; Jewish-Christian relations; the problem of evil, and a course on Religion and Ecology that focused on environmental justice and sustainability. A life-long birder, hiker, and gardener, she continues to work on the intersection of religion and climate justice here in the great state of Maine.