This lecture course, which includes discussion sections, will explore the
often uneasy relationship between pagan or classical culture and
Christianity in the Renaissance.  While
focusing on the Renaissance, we will begin with early Christian society and
the Middle Ages.  From the few explicit references of Paul of Tarsus to
pagan philosophy in his own day, we will move to the early Christian
theologians or Church Fathers, who very
often pointed to the dangers of classical learning.  After a survey of
Medieval teachings, we will explore in depth Francis Petrarch's efforts, in
the fourteenth century, to balance classical and Christian ideals.  Humanist
thinking of the fifteenth century will be examined around several themes:
(1) the critique of monastic culture, (2) attitudes toward papal and
sacramental claims of the Catholic Church, (3) Biblical scholarship, and (4)
theories of education.  Sources will range from rather serious treatises to
Renaissance joke books.  Finally, we will turn to the so-called Paganism of
the Neoplatonic culture, the "Christian humanism" of Erasmus and Thomas
More, and the implications of the work of Machiavelli for traditional
Christian morality.  Finally we will examine the Protestant Reformers and
their attitudes toward classical antiquity.  The course will require weekly
readings in primary sources, a few quizzes, a midterm and final, and a
research paper exploring in
depth a subject of the student's choosing.