Western Civilization I

This class surveys the history of Western Civilization from ancient Israel up to the Reformation. The course is chronologically arranged and examines the spectrum of data between material and textual. The course will highlight the great ancestors of the West: ancient Israel, classical Greece and Rome, and Christian Europe. It will prioritize Christian Europe because the medieval world attempted to synthesize the best of both the classical and the Christian worlds and it did so in ways that challenge the presuppositions of our own, modern existence. Most class sessions will focus on a representative idea, person, people group, or event that tells the story of that day. Students will explore beautiful art and architecture, moving speeches, brilliant political treatises, decisive battles, and daily economic decisions as they look at the light and dark of human history. 

Lecture Topics

UNIT 1: 3100 - 43 BC Origins: Israel, Greece, and Rome

Western Civilization Begins with Moses

The Rise and Fall of the World’s First Republic

Greece: A Tale of 5 City-States

Democracy Self-Destructing and the Hegemony of Macedon

The Rise of Rome and the Challenge of Alexander’s Heirs

The Triumph and Death of the Roman Republic

UNIT 2: 43 BC - AD 750 Empire: Rome, Christianity, and Collapse

How the Jews, Greeks, and Romans Executed the New Statesman

The Roman Empire and the Christian Problem

Barbarians at the Gate: Germanic Heirs

Radegund’s & Theodora’s Worlds: Catholic & Byzantine Heirs

The Unexpected Heir: The Arab Advance and Al Andalus

UNIT 3: AD 750 - c. 1050 Reborn by Fire: Christendom Rising

Carolingians in Francia; Anglo-Saxons in Britain

Scandinavia and the Coming of the Northmen

The Return of the King: Alfred and the Unification of England

Odo and Otto: The Birth of Europe

UNIT 4: 1050 - 1516 Christendom in Triumph and Crisis

The Emergence of Feudal Europe: A Knight of Spain

The Norman Conquest and the Queen of Scotland

The Imperial Papacy & Three Archbishops

The First Crusade and the Emergence of Outremer

The Late Medieval Crisis

The Maid Who Turned the Tide of the Hundred Years War

New Worlds: Republics, Guns, Printing, Exploration, & Renaissances

A Warrior Pope, a Grumpy Artist, and a Ceiling