RESEARCH EXERCISE INSTRUCTIONS
In this exercise you will write 3 summaries of 3 articles. You can either choose to use the articles listed below or you may choose one or more different articles. If you choose a different article, you will need to email the bibliographic information about the article to the professor for approval.
Using proper, current Turabian format, summarize the main points of each article in your own words in a 1-paragraph summary. Include the bibliographic information for each of the 3 articles. The 3 topics are as follows:
1. The Persecution of the Early Church (pick a specific outbreak caused by a Roman emperor, the reasons for the outbreak, and the results).
2. How did the Pax Romana help the spread of the Gospel?
3. Heresies of the early church and the councils that dealt with the specific matter (pick a specific item such as the Arian Conflict, Monophysitism, Nestorianism, etc.).
Your research findings must be submitted in 1 document via the SafeAssign submission link in the Assignments folder and uploaded to Discussion Board Forum 1.
Examples of Scholarly Articles
You may use the articles provided below. If you have found an article other than what is listed below that you would like to use, you must request and receive approval from your instructor before proceeding with this assignment and using your chosen article.
1. Persecutions (remember to pick 1 persecuting emperor and write about his persecution)
• De Ste Croix, G E M. “Aspects of the ‘Great’ Persecution.” Harvard Theological Review 47, no. 2 (April 1954): 75–114.
• Haas, Christopher J. “Imperial Religious Policy and Valerian’s Persecution of the Church, AD 257–260.” Church History 52, no. 2 (1983): 133–144.
• McFayden, Donald. “The Occasion of the Domitianic Persecution.” The American Journal of Theology 24, no. 1 (January 1920): 46–66.
2. Pax Romana (this is the Roman Peace of Jesus’ day; some students find articles on Pax Romana in other time periods, but do not use those)
• Oakley, H. Carey. “The Greek and Roman Background of the New Testament.” Vox Evangelica 1 (1962): 7–23.
• Rayner, A.J. “Christian Society in the Roman Empire.” JSTOR: Greece & Rome 11, no. 33 (Mayje 1942): 113–123.
3. Heresies (pick a heresy from the early church period and discuss the council that dealt with it)
• Alexopoulos, Stefanos. “An Example of Ecclesial Reconciliation in the Early Church: Three Homilies by Paul of Emesa and Cyril of Alexandria.” St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 45, no. 4 (2001): 339–358.
• Lienhard, Joseph T. “The Arian Controversy: Some Categories Reconsidered.” Theological Studies 48, no. 3 (September 1987): 415–437.
• Thomassen, Einar. “Orthodoxy and Heresy in Second-Century Rome.” The Harvard Theological Review 97, no. 3 (July 2004): 241–256.
Submit this assignment to SafeAssign by 11:59 p.m. (ET) on Monday of Module/Week 1.