B021578 - HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL CRISTIANITY

Italian

The course examines the Second Vatican Council in terms of both procedures and internal debate, placing it in the context of social, cultural and political history of the second half of the twentieth century.

In consideration of the teaching methods and the modalities of the exam, each student must agree with the teacher the source on which he has chosen to work and the corresponding bibliography. The extent of the latter will depend on the number of student presences (see the verification procedures).

Here, however, we report the main reference works of the course, which serve as first orientation for the study of the Council. The teacher will guide the students to their use, also in view of the exam:
- History of the Second Vatican Council, edited by G. Alberigo, 5 volumes, Il Mulino, Bologna 1995-2001.
- Atlante storico del Concilio Vaticano II, edited by F. Ruozzi - E. Galavotti, Jaka Book, Milan 2015

The course aims to make students acquire:
- a critical knowledge of the themes and problems of contemporary Catholicism considered also in a perspective of "global history"
- knowledge of the sources and tools for the study of the specific subject of the course, as well as the most recent and relevant results of historical research on it
- the ability to place the event in the context of developments in the history of Christian churches and of the relationships among them during the twentieth century
- the ability to place the object of the course in the context of the social, cultural and political history of the world in the second half of the twentieth century
- the skill to apply the knowledge acquired in the critical analysis of a source in various ways related to the aforementioned object

Good knowledge of world History and of History of Christianity in the modern and contemporary age.

Lectures, meetings with specialists, exercises on sources

The course starts on April 26th (2018), and takes place from 3pm to 5pm from Wednesday to Friday at Palazzo Fenzi, Room 13.
During the lectures, the teacher receives on Thursday from 12.15 to 14.15.For a fair distribution of the teaching load, the signatures of the students will be taken daily and the consistency of the material to be examined will depend on the number of attendance at the lessons

The exam consists of a written report, between 35,000 and 50,000 characters, which will also be discussed during the oral examination. The report must have as its subject a source relevant to the topic of the course and must be agreed with the teacher within the first two weeks of the lesson. It will have to be examined taking into account the contents transmitted during the course and with the support of an in-depth bibliography that, for the students who have attended all the lessons, will be around 500 pages. For the absence at each lesson an essay or additional chapter between 20 and 30 pages is calculated.

In the written report (and in the oral discussion on the same) the student must show that he / she has acquired:
- knowledge and understanding of course contents
- knowledge of the sources and tools for the study of the specific subject of the course, as well as the most recent and relevant results of historical research on it
- ability to place the Second Vatican Council in the context of developments in the history of Christian churches and of the relations between them during the twentieth century
- ability to place the Second Vatican Council in the context of the social, cultural and political world history of the second half of the twentieth century
- ability to organize the acquired knowledge discursively and to expose it with a correct language and an appropriate vocabulary

The Second Vatican Council is examined with reference to the procedures, the internal debate and the contents of the main documents. Since the conciliar assembly gathered bishops from around the world in Rome, saw the presence of non-Catholic observers in the discussions and was the object of constant attention by the international press, its study necessarily requires a "global history" approach. For a deeper understanding of the issues and problems addressed in the internal debate, the course also examines moments, aspects and developments in the cultural history of twentieth-century Catholicism that anticipate them.