My comprehensive exams begin next week. I must pass all five exams in order to move to the dissertation phase of my program. One exam is a 20-25 page paper. My paper will summarize recent scholarship on Christianization in late antique and early medieval Gaul as well as the questions said scholarship raises.
In the other four exams, I have eight hours to answer four essay questions per exam. The questions are below the fold. Yes, I already know them; in fact, I wrote them! (In consultation with my advisors.) One of the biggest challenges with comps is composing questions you can actually answer.
You would think that studying for questions you've already written would be a snap, but I have never worked this hard in my life. My life has boiled down to sitting in a study carrel and reading all day, every day. It's not hard like coal mining, but it's mentally taxing. The challenges include exorcising the demon of reading without comprehending, despair over ever fully mastering the material (what one of my professors calls "control of the sources"), and despair over having anything new to say about texts and artifacts that scholars smarter than you have picked over from time out of mind.
I remember Joa Garagiola calling a baseball game once, and bemoaning the fate of poor catchers who catch knuckleball pitchers. Joe said that even catching a five man rotation, you never got away from it. You'd opened the refrigerator and there's a knuckleball staring at you.
I feel the same way about comps. I go to bed at night composing answers to questions in my head. (I don't recommend this. It's nothing like counting sheep.) I compose answers while going for a run (which I insist on doing. I may fail these exams but I will not come out of grad school fatter than I came in!) I find myself composing answers in my head at the dinner table. Tonight I even summed up an answer out loud for my long suffering wife.
If I'd worked this hard in high school and college... (But if I'd worked this hard back then, I never would have had time for fruitball, or watching trains demolish the offerings we made on the RR tracks, or wedgies, or meaningful conversations with parricides and future stars of true crime novels and made-for-TV movies on the way to EB 201 in Broughton Hall.)
If you aren't in the business, you may find these questions mildly interesting, mostly boring or just plain mystifying. But if you are in the business, and you have advice or tips, feel free to comment or Facebook me:
Early Church (I submit 8; my professor chooses 6, and of those 6, I must answer 4):
1. Write an essay that compares and contrasts early Christian strategies for coping with persecution as found in Justin Martyr’s First Apology, the letters of Ignatius of Antioch and the Martyrdom of Saints Perpetua and Felicitas. Your answer should include a description of the circumstances that led to the production of each document.
2. Write an essay that charts the development of the ideal of voluntary sexual renunciation in the early Church, paying special attention to theological rationales for sexual continence and how sexual continence both opened and closed doors of opportunity for women’s leadership in the early Church. Primary sources referenced shall include the New Testament, The Acts of Paul and Thecla, the Life of Macrina and Origen’s On First Principles. Secondary sources referenced shall include Peter Brown’s The Body and Society.
3. Write an essay that provides an overview of Gnostic Christianity as exemplified by The Gospel of Truth, The Treatise on the Resurrection, and Ptolemy’s Letter to Flora, describes the proto-orthodox response to Gnosticism as exemplified by Irenaeus’s Against Heresies, and is informed by scholars including Bart Ehrman and Henry Chadwick.
4. Write an essay that describes the origins of the Trinitarian controversy, the various factions and their respective theological positions involved, and the events that led to its resolution in 381.
5. Write an essay that describes the origins of the Christological controversy, the various factions and their respective theological positions involved, the events leading up to the Council of Chalcedon in 451, and the legacy of the controversy in the East.
6. Compare and contrast the hermeneutical principles of Origen in On First Principles with Augustine’s in Teaching Christianity and Diodore of Tarsus as found in Biblical Interpretation in the Early Church.
7. Compare and contrast the forms of eremitic and coenobitic monasticism that emerged in Asia Minor and Egypt in the 4th century. Primary sources referenced shall include the Praktikos, the Life of Antony, the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, the Life of Macrina and the Rule of Saint Basil. Secondary sources referenced shall include Elm’s Virgins of God and Dunn’s The Emergence of Monasticism.
8. Write a essay that contrasts Pelagius’s understanding of human capacity and divine grace in his Letter to Demetrias with Augustine’s treatment of the same topics in his Enchiridion, On the Grace of Christ and On Rebuke and Grace.
Medieval Church (same drill as above. As you can tell, it's more a Dark Ages Church exam than a High Middle Ages exam):
1. Describe the development of monasticism in the early medieval west, with attention to the contributions of Martin of Tours, John Cassian, Benedict of Nursia and Columbanus.
2. Compare and contrast Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People with Gregory of Tours’ History of the Franks in terms of content, literary style, theological outlook and overall purpose.
3. Explain the emergence of the cult of the saints in early medieval Christianity and describe its forms and practices. Refer to the following primary sources in your answer: The Martyrdom of Polycarp, Augustine’s City of God, and Gregory of Tours’ History of the Franks. And refer to the following secondary sources in your answer: Peter Brown’s The Cult of the Saints, and R.A. Marcus’ The End of Ancient Christianity.
4. Answer the question, Was there any such thing as “Celtic Christianity?” If so, what distinguished it from “continental Christianity?” Your answer shall include references to Columbanus’ Letters, and Penitential, the Penitential of Cummean, and Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, as guided by the following secondary sources: Bradley’s Making Myths and Chasing Dreams, O’Laughlin’s Celtic Theology and Hughes’ Early Christian Ireland.
5. Compare and contrast the Eucharistic theologies of Paschasius Radbertus and Ratramnus of Corbie.
6. Describe the Investiture Controversy in 11th-12 century Europe, including its origins and legacy. Refer to Tierney’s The Crisis of Church and State 1050-1300 and Cantor’s Civilization of the Middle Ages in your answer.
7. Contrast and compare Thomas Aquinas’s five ways of proving the existence of God in his Summa Theologica with Anselm’s “ontological” proof in the Proslogion.
8. Describe the development of the Cistercian order in the 12th century and the theology of its most prominent spokesperson, Bernard of Clairvaux, as exemplified in the text On Loving God.
History of Christian Mission (I submit 9; my professor picks 3 for me to answer, plus one that I haven't seen yet. Yikes!):
1. David Bosch’s Transforming Mission has shown how the Bible has been used to warrant missionary activity in a variety of forms over the centuries. But how reliable is the Bible as a source for mission history in the biblical period itself? Answer this question with particular attention to Schnabel’s Early Christian Mission.
2. In light of the writings of Hinson, MacMullen, Nock, Russell, and Schnabel, write an essay that identifies the key factors in the Christianization of the Roman Empire.
3. Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People repeatedly faults the Christian Britons for failing to evangelize the polytheistic Angles and Saxons who immigrated to Briton after the withdrawal of Roman authority. In light of archaeological evidence, other primary sources and secondary sources (Hughes, Mayr-Harting, Smyth, Thomas, etc.) evaluate to what extent there was a real recession of Christianity in post-Roman Briton prior to the Augustinian mission launched by Pope Gregory the Great.
4. In his Life of Columban, Jonas of Bobbio writes, "At that time (the late 6th century), either because of the numerous enemies without, or on account of the carelessness of the bishops, the Christian faith had almost departed from [Gaul]." Answer the following questions posed by historian Kenneth Scott Latourette with reference to Gaul between the 4th and 8th centuries: A. By what processes did Christianity spread in Gaul? B. What effect did Christianity have upon the Gallic environment, and C. Did Gallic Christianity recede as well as advance in the time period in question? Use primary (Gregory of Tours, Saints' "Lives", etc.) and secondary (Hen, Wood, etc.) sources in your answer.
5. Making use of primary (De Acosta, etc.) and secondary (Spence, Ross, etc.) sources, answer the question, Why did Roman Catholic mission “succeed” in Latin America and “fail” in Asia in the 16th-18th centuries?
6. How has the work of Dana Robert and Andrew Walls on 19th century Protestant missions changed the discipline of mission history?
7. In the mid-19th century, Rufus Anderson and Henry Venn articulated a vision of "Self-Supporting, Self-Governing and Self-Propagating Churches" on the mission fields of Africa and Asia. Describe the origin of this vision, situating the vision in the broader context of 19th century trends in church and society, evaluate their success in implementing the vision, and discuss its legacy.
8. Utilizing the writings of Dries and Hutchinson, write an essay that both narrates the history of American Protestant and Catholic missions, and addresses this question: To what extent did American missions compliment or conflict with notions of Manifest Destiny and American Exceptionalism?
9. What accounts for the phenomenal growth of Evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity in the 20th century, and what contributions did these movements make to 20th century mission.
Systematic Theology ( I submit 4 on a theologian of choice and 4 other questions):
Augustine
Texts: The City of God, The Confessions, The Enchiridion, On Free Will, On Nature and Grace, On Rebuke and Grace, On The Trinity
1. Describe and analyze Augustine’s theodicy, with particular attention to Confessions VII, Enchiridion, On Free Will and City of God XXI.
2. 20th century critics have accused Augustine of espousing a static and even modalistic doctrine of the Trinity. Evaluate this charge in light of Augustine’s Trinitarian theology in books VIII-X and XIV-XV of his work The Trinity.
3. Describe and evaluate Augustine’s understanding of sin and grace as it appears in Nature and Grace and Rebuke and Grace.
4. What is Augustine’s theology of history and his understanding of the relationship between Church and society in books XII-XV of The City of God? What relevance does Augustine have for 21st century theologians wrestling with the same issues?
Others
1. What relevance has scientific knowledge for theology? Answer this question in light of the arguments James Gustafson, Gordon Kaufman and Karl Barth make in their respective works Ethics from a Theocentric Perspective, In Face of Mystery, and volume four of the Church Dogmatics.
2. What, if any, are the limits of salvation? Answer this question drawing upon Origen’s On First Principles, John Calvin’s Institutes and Ernst Troeltsch’s The Christian Faith.
3. In The City of God XXII, Augustine reports on miracles that occurred when the relics of Saint Stephen arrived in North Africa. How does Augustine interpret these events theologically? How might Schleiermacher and Calvin interpret the same events, given their respective understandings of divine causality and given Calvin’s critique of the materialism of Roman Catholicism?
4. “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” Why, according to Anselm, is that a foolish statement? Would Karl Rahner agree, and if so why? If not, why not? How intelligible and reasonable is Christian faith?
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