Professor: Gerald W. Schlabach
email: gws@bluffton.edu
The Research Seminar course is an investigation of selected topics in American and European history which provide practice in historical research and writing. The emphasis is on an individual program of study within the framework of a seminar discussion. To facilitate discussion and the sharing of research findings, this year's topic will focus the ways that Christian communities in the late Roman Empire changed, adapted, and sought to maintain continuity during the 3rd and 4th centuries CE. We will look most keenly at "ground-level" developments in specific communities rather than major doctrinal controversies; given the nature of the available documentation this will often mean doing close readings of sermons, letters and treatises, although students should seek to familiarize themselves with other social-historical methods and findings wherever possible.