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The University of Nottingham

SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES

A LEVEL 1 MODULE, AUTUMN SEMESTER 2015-2016

CHRISTIAN THOUGHT AND CULTURE TO 1600

Time allowed: ONE HOUR and THIRTY MINUTES

Candidates may complete the front cover of their answer book and sign their desk card but must NOT
write anything else until the start of the examination period is announced

Answer TWO questions out of TEN.

Each question is worth 50% of the overall mark.

Please note that you may not choose a question on the same
topic as you covered in your assessed essay.

Dictionaries are not allowed with one exception. Those whose first language is not English
may use a standard translation dictionary to translate between that language and English
provided that neither language is the subject of this examination. Subject specific translation
dictionaries are not permitted.

No electronic devices capable of storing and retrieving text, including electronic dictionaries,
may be used.

DO NOT turn examination paper over until instructed to do so

Turn Over
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Answer TWO questions.

1. To what extent can we say that the greatest challenge that faced the
followers of Jesus in the later first century was coping with the destruction
of the Temple in Jerusalem?

2. To what extent did pagan persecution help to shape a sense of Christian

identity in the first few centuries after Jesus Christ?

3. What challenges, social and intellectual, did Christianity face as it became

one more religion in the Greco-Roman world in the second century?

4. What impact did the Edict of 313 have on Christian society and theology?
Answer with reference to the life and work on Eusebius of Caesarea.

5. In what ways do the Christological controversies and councils give us an

insight into the transformation of Christianity in the fourth century?

6. Can we see Augustine as shaping the agenda for western theology after
his time? Answer with particular reference to his approach to the questions
of ‘grace’, ‘human work’, and ‘free will’.

7. Was Aquinas the great synthesizer or a preacher who sought to establish

links with the cultures around him?

8. What factors contributed to the revolution in Latin theology in the twelfth

and thirteenth centuries?

9. Can the concerns of the Reformation be seen as a response to the new

questions posed to western European Christians in the aftermath of the
Black Death? Justify your answer.

10. In what ways did Martin Luther’s idea of ‘justification by faith alone’
challenge late medieval Christian ideas about the Catholic Church’s role in
the remission of sins?

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