We are just wrapping up my undergraduate course at Brown University entitled “How the Bible Became Holy.” I have earlier posted a syllabus for this course, which can be found here. This was the third time I taught the course and was far larger than in previous years. As in past years, the course will close with a historical simulation that tries to make more alive for students the dynamics, costs, and benefits involved in the ultimate “orthodox” Christian decision to canonize the Bible. While I have posted the guidelines I have used in previous classes, I have tweaked them a bit and reproduce them below, in more or less the same form as what my students are working with. An interesting twist this time is that given the size of the class we will be running three simulations simultaneously on May 19, from 2-5 EDT. We hope to be live tweeting them all under the hashtags #FakeSynodA, #FakeSynodB, and #FakeSynodC. Here are the guidelines: BACKGROUND We are sometime in the fourth century CE in Constantinople. The Roman emperor, a devout Christian (and also a practical ruler), spurred by the bishops in his court and concerned about both growing Christian […]
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