Thursday, February 22, 2007
POV/TEACHING: Combining Ren/Ref
In a comment to the thread on textbooks for courses on the Reformation, Bradford Smith raises an issue that is important enough to deserve its own thread. So I'd like to repeat and expand on his question here: what texts do you use for a course that covers both the Renaissance and the Reformation, and what themes or topics do you emphasize in such a broad course? What are some good English-language websites on the Renaissance and Reformation?
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Since no one else has commented yet, and since it was my original query, perhaps I might begin by saying what I've been doing.
I have organized the class broadly around the question: when does modernity begin? We start by considering three perspectives on the Renaissance, those of Burckhardt, Baron, and Trinkaus (the last, I suppose, revealing my U of M roots), considering each author's take on the issue of the Renaissance and modernity and their relationship to each other. We proceed with readings of a variety of canonical authors, though my recent decision to include Savonarola marks a departure from the canon.
The Reformation section considers the relationship between the northern and southern varieties of the Renaissance. I begin with selections from Huizinga, in particualr those places where he takes on Burckhardt. We then move in usual style from Devotio Moderna to Christian Humanism to Luther and through the Anabaptists to Calvin. The last part ends up getting horribly compressed. The Counter-Reformation gets pushed over into my Early Modern Course (which begins in 1550). We end by returning to considering Trinkaus's original formulation concerning the "deification of man" and its relationship to reformed religion.
On the one hand it works ok conceptually, but I can't shake the frustration that things that matter are getting short schrift. A glance at my reading schedule ( http://www.oglethorpe.edu/faculty/%7Eb_smith/Syllabi/bs_RenRef_syl.htm#Reading%20Schedule ) show quite clearly where the gaping holes are.
Ok -- I've chummed the waters. Any bites?
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