This course provides students with an overview of the development of Christianity. Through lectures and a workshop programme, students will be introduced to key features and factors in the genesis and growth, identity and developing self-understanding of the Church, with particular attention to the interaction of faith and theology with changing social, cultural and intellectual worlds.

Following an introduction to the Jewish and Roman milieus within which Christianity first emerged, the course outlines and critically examines how and why the Christian faith developed and the relationship of ecclesial communities to their wider societies. The major achievements, turning-points and key theological and doctrinal controversies and contributors are explored, providing an understanding of the main lines and varieties of theology, devotion and church order, and of how they continue to have significance in the life of Christianity today.