I’ve been teaching Medieval and/or Byzantine Christianity at @fordhamnyc for more than 15 years and I have a few thoughts about what you should and should not do when teaching it, regardless of whether you do so in a History, Religious Studies, or Theology department:
1. Do not attempt to cover everything as though you are going to give your students “all the information.” You will never achieve this, so you should instead focus on 3 or 4 themes you want them to engage from different perspectives.
2. Assign a wide variety of genres for primary source reading assignments: imperial edicts, letters, hagiography, hymnography, chronicles, etc. And don’t forget about material culture as “primary source.”
2a. In my experience, students are the most surprised and engaged with hagiography and hymnography. Probably b/c those texts are often so unpredictable and provocative.
3. Do not ignore Theology and theological ideas as though they didn’t mean anything to medieval people. They did.
4. Conversely, do not treat Theology as though it is the only, or even the best, means to understand Medieval Christianity. The Christian was (is) much broader than dogmatic ideas.
5. More medieval Christians lived inside the Caliphate than in Western Europe or Byzantium. DO NOT IGNORE THIS—TEACH YOUR STUDENTS (AND YOURSELF) SOMETHING ABOUT ARABIC, COPTIC, & SYRIAC CHRISTIANITY.
6. Include sources composed in Arabic, Coptic, Greek, Latin, and Syriac texts. There are good English translations of primary sources in each of these languages. Students need to understand that premodern Christianity entailed far more than Western Europe or Byzantium.
7. Most importantly, help your students to understand that the Christians of the Middle Ages cared a great deal about their religion, but the way that they understood what it meant to be or live as a Christian was quite different from modern, American versions Christianity.
8. (one more thing I've learned) when preparing the course the next time around, always add a text you've never read yourself before. It forces you to re-examine what you think you know about your own subject of expertise.
I've had quite a few people respond to this thread asking me for reading lists, etc. This past semester I taught a course for majors/minors in Theology called "Christian Thought & Practice II," which is supposed to cover the years 500-1400. We read the following:
Part I: "Xianity on the eve of Islam": Romanos the Melodist, Procopius, Maximos the Confessor, Benedict of Nursia, Gregory the Great, and short excerpt examples of Coptic and Syriac texts.
Part II: "Christian Cultures and Conflict:" John Damascene, Excerpts from the Slavic Mission, Theodore Abu Qurra, Pope Urban II, Gunter of Pairis, and Sydney Griffiths excellent text book, "The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque."
Part III: "Schlasticism:" Peter Abelard, Anselm, Thomas, Abelard/Heloise.
Part IV: "Mysticism and Miscellany": Guest lecture on mysticism as a category, Angela of Foligno, Symeon the New Theologian, Bonaventure, (more) Romanos the Melodist, Hymns from the Triodion services, Paul of Antioch. And we concluded with the Met's exhibit on Armenia.
Not the best or only way to do a class like this, but it's what we did. I think students particularly appreciate beginning w/ Romanos & ending w/ Paul of Antioch. Excellent examples of what most medieval Christians experienced & thought about (much more than, say, scholasticism).
