Postgraduate Course: Christianity in Ukraine (988 to the present) (PG) (DIVI11069)
Course Outline
| School | School of Divinity |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Having adopted Christianity from Constantinople (988), Prince Volodymyr made not only a religious but also a geopolitical choice. Yet for centuries Ukraine has been a home not only to the Eastern Orthodox, but also to Catholics, Greek Catholics, and Protestants, as well as to non-Christians, primarily Jews and Muslims. The course offers a more than a thousand-year long overview of the Christian presence in Ukraine, focusing on a link between religion and politics from the introduction of Christianity in Rus¿ (988) until current Russo-Ukrainian war. |
| Course description |
Academic Description
The course discusses more than a thousand-year-long history of Christianity in Ukraine, starting with the baptism of Rus¿ (988) under Prince Volodymyr and continuing up to the current Russo-Ukrainian war, in which Russia makes historical claims to the medieval state of Rus¿ and thus to Ukrainian territories at large.
Outline Content
Having adopted Christianity from Constantinople, Rus¿ entered the Byzantine world and defined Eastern Orthodoxy as a default religious choice for the majority of Christians who lived in these territories. Yet there were plentiful links to Western Christianity, especially during the time when Ukrainian territories belonged to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The case in point is the emergence of the largest Eastern Catholic Church, known now as the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, at the Union of Brest (1596). The course also analyses differences in the imperial policies towards various Christian denominations, as they were employed in the Catholic Habsburg Empire and the Orthodox Russian Empire. The Ukrainian territories were ruled by the Habsburgs and Romanovs between the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the late eighteenth century and the fall of both empires at the end of the First World War. Close attention is paid to the Soviet religious policy in Ukraine in relation to the Orthodox, Greek Catholics, Roman Catholics, and different Protestant groups. Finally, the course looks at the surge of different Christian denominations in the early 1990s, after Ukraine gained its independence in 1991. A significant focus is put on the role of religion in the Maidans and in the current Russo-Ukrainian war.
Student Learning Experience
The course combines lectures and seminars. For seminar discussions, the students will be generally assigned readings from primary sources and secondary literature. Additionally, the students will be asked to deliver one oral presentation and write one research essay during the semester. The tentative list of essay topics will be provided by a lecturer.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 24 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 11,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 11,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 1,
Revision Session Hours 1,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
172 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
10% oral presentation
90% research essay (4000 words) on a given topic
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| Feedback |
Feedback during seminars; oral or written feedback on essay idea and outline |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of the complexities of the history of Ukraine based on original sources
- Demonstrate an improvement in skills of analysing primary sources from different historical periods
- Critically assess different academic discourses of the history of Christianity in Ukraine
- Present a coherent account of a topic in the Ukrainian religious history, using slides
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
¿ Curiosity for learning
¿ Courage to deal with new difficult topics
¿ Ability to critically assess different sources of information
¿ Understanding of how the past can be instrumentalized for current political purposes
¿ Improved communication skills
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| Keywords | Christianity,Orthodoxy,Greek Catholicism,Ukraine |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Kateryna Budz
Tel:
Email: v1kbudz@exseed.ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr Andre Johnson Hall E Vasconcelos
Tel:
Email: ajohnso9@ed.ac.uk |
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