The study of the ancient Mediterranean world and the early Christian communities that developed within the Roman empire has undergone a revolution in one generation. New methodologies, ranging from social history to poststructuralist criticism, have opened an entire new set of questions for students and scholars to ask about texts that were written and read, and communities that lived and grew, thousands of years ago. In the past decade, new technologies have revolutionized the way the world experiences these texts. Scholars who grew up on the Loeb Classics and the Ante-Nicene Fathers now have the Perseus Project and can access the entire biblical and patristic corpus on-line. Digital images are the glosses of a new generation of scholastic commentators.
This course was conceived as one way of highlighting these methods and techniques by developing student digital research projects on the Christian communities that developed in Asia Minor, the western part of modern Turkey, from around 80 to 180 CE. This time is roughly the time from Paul (at least as Ephesians and Acts portray Paul) to Justin Martyr and from the emperors Domitian to Marcus Aurelius. This was the time of the Pax Romana, a century of peace and prosperity in much of the Roman Empire, particularly in Asia. Emperors such as Hadrian turned their attention to Asia not for war or conquest but to glorify the culture of ancient Greece as reborn in the Roman world. At the same time, Christian communities grew in and beyond the cities of Paul's letters and John's Apocalypse. While the Book of Acts probably overstates the case, we can now see in this time and place the beginning of "turning the world upside down" (Acts 17:6).
This course was taught in the Spring Semester 2003 at Wabash College. Cross-listed in Religion and Classics, it included a digital media lab held weekly during a scheduled fourth hour and a ten-day trip to Turkey from March 7th-16th. Most of the digital photographs and video on these sites were taken by the students on that trip. I had developed the media lab in two previous courses on Ancient Christianity and Judaism and written about this pedagogical innovation in "Ancient Cities in Cyberspace: Exploring the Uses of Digital Media in Teaching Early Christianity," Teaching Theology and Religion 5:1 (2002) 42-48, but we had never traveled beyond the library. Wabash faculty had been leading Spring immersion trips as part of their courses for several years before this to Berlin, Brussels, Mexico, and St. Petersburg. These student websites are the final projects demonstrating the powerful and impressive work a group of intelligent, dedicated, and talented students can achieve in one semester.
A word about the organization of the site and the four groups. There are clearly different ways of dividing this project (geographical, chronological, by object, persons, and more). I chose this particular organization because it allowed the four groups to study the same artifact or object from different perspectives. My concerns were both pedagogical and practical. I wanted students to think about different methodologies and modalities in the study of ancient religion and society, and I wanted the students to be engaged the entire trip in Turkey rather than having an "off" day when their city or site was not on our schedule. As a result there is overlap in topics between the four subsites, but that is intentional.
Support for the technology taught in this course was provided by the Wabash Media Center. Support for the travel to Turkey was provided by the Center for Academic Enrichment at Wabash and by Seminars International. The entire cost of this course and travel was underwritten by the Dean of College. I am very thankful for all of their assistance and support.