For the Final Exam

“The beginnings of Western culture are to be found in the new spiritual community which arose from the ruins of the Roman Empire owing to the conversion of the Northern barbarians to the Christian faith.” Dawson, ch. 2.

“[T]he creative centuries of medieval culture owed their unity, not to the absence of strife, but to the fact that the party of reform, which was the dynamic element in medieval culture, for a time attained a position of cultural leadership in the Church. When this alliance was broken at the close of the thirteenth century, the spiritual unity and the creative power of medieval culture gradually disappeared.” Dawson, ch. 11.

During the second half of the semester, we have been studying the development of Western culture or “Christendom” according to Christopher Dawson’s book, Religion and Rise of Western Culture. Dawson discusses both what Christendom is and how it developed during the Middle Ages. These two points—what Christendom is and how Christendom developed—are the focus of the final exam.

1. What Christendom is. Dawson argues that Western culture is the product of a number of sets of conflicting forces. Classical (West) and Christian (East) culture; Christian and pagan/barbarian culture. It is basically an alliance or fusion of fundamentally different and opposing ideas and attitudes. He returns to this theme time and again throughout the book.

You should be able to give an account of the nature of Western culture, as Dawson explains it.

2. How Christendom developed. Dawson, in the quotes above, outlines the beginning, middle, and end of the flowering of medieval Western culture, or Christendom. The main substance of the book is his account of how this culture was created. Several threads of this development are sewn into his account many times: the role of monasticism and the various monastic movements; several significant waves of barbarian invasion, attacks, and conflict; the mutual penetration of cultures; the development of a new conception of kingship; repeated renaissances or rebirth of interest in Classical culture.

You should be familiar with these themes and be able to briefly describe them. You should be familiar with the figures listed below and be able to explain how they contributed to the creation of Christendom. Finally, you should be able to identify by author and title the readings assigned since the mid-term (none of the readings assigned prior to the mid-term will appear on the final) and explain how they contributed to or reflected the development of Western culture.

These two questions or themes overlap a great deal.

You have several days to review or re-read (or, for some of you, to read at last) the Dawson book. Reading carefully one chapter a day will put you in good shape for the final. Look for information relating to the themes described above.

St. Ambrose

St. Augustine

St. Patrick

St. Benedict

Sts. Columba and Columban

Pope St. Gregory the Great

St. Boniface

Pope Leo IX

Pope Gregory VII

St. Thomas Aquinas

Theodoric

Clovis

Pepin the Short

Charles the Great (Charlemagne)

King Alfred

Emperors Otto I and III

King Canute

Emperor Henry IV