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CLA 212/REL 260 Ancient Christianity in Rome: Immersion Learning to Rome

This course is dedicated to the study of Early Christianity as it was manifested in one particular place, the deeply-charged and long-standing imperial capital of Rome. This immersion course addresses one central question with multiple off-shoots: How did Christianity take shape in Rome? How did it emerge from, rebel against, and engage with that city's deep past?

Class topics focus on social history, architecture, religious history and theology, and art/iconography. It is about the realia of what people believed, saw, experienced, and did. The best way to get a sense of those features of ancient life and belief is to visit the essential places themselves: the city of Rome and, as a complement to the features of the urban experience that Rome lacks, its port city of Ostia. The immersion component of the course occurred Nov. 17-25, 2023.

a group of men posing for a picture

Theater masks at Ostia, Rome’s port city.

a group of people eating food

A picnic lunch in Ostia’s theater.

a man standing in a field with a group of people

A student presentation in the Campus of Cybele, Ostia.

a group of people standing in front of a gate

A student presentation in front of the Shrine of Attis, Ostia.

a man standing in front of a brick building

A student presentation about Roman bathing practices and Christian attitudes towards them, at the Baths of Diocletian.

a group of men standing next to a man in a uniform

Wabash College Trustees John C. Schroeder ’69 (left) and Stephen Bowen ’68 (center) pose with a Swiss Guard at the Vatican before a tour of the necropolis underneath St. Peter’s Basilica.

a group of people standing in a courtyard

A student presentation about the Portico of the Dei Consentes in the Roman Forum.

a group of people standing in front of a building

A student presentation about the Portico of the Dei Consentes in the Roman Forum.

a man waving in front of a large stone structure

A student presentation about the Basilica Nova (aka of Maxentius, of Constantine) in the Roman Forum.

a group of men looking up at a building

A student presentation about the mosaics in the church of Santa Costanza, which was originally created as the mausoleum for Constantine’s daughter.

a group of people standing around a painting

A student presentation about the cult of Mithras, a Persian god who was very popular at the same time that Christianity was taking root in Rome.

two men standing in front of a brick building

Students explore the Baths of Diocletian.

a group of men pointing at a wall

Students explore the Baths of Diocletian.

a group of men standing in a courtyard

Students pose with Classics professor Jeremy Hartnett (left) at the Baths of Diocletian.

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