WHY? (Teacher's comments on assignments and content)

STUDY: History from a Biblical Perspective and World views
READ: Plagiarism Policy
READ: Scriptures to Ponder
READ: Course Syllabus (links at the bottom of this page)

• Test technological requirements
• Consider acquiring supplementary materials
• Research Skills and Citation
• Summary of the Old Testament
• History of the Jews from 400 BC to 1948 AD
• Interpreting Historical Coincidence
• "The Genesis of History" by T.E.Wilder (PDF)
• Four Approaches to the Study of Ancient Literature
• Mythistory
• Book Review: Christian response to Secular History
• World Histories
• World History vs. Western Civ. (Sterns)
• Navigating World History: A Synopsis
• Moral Relativism Refuted

WHY? (Teacher's comments on learning geography)

STUDY: Xeno Ch1 World History Overview
READ: Introduction to the Middle East
LOOK: Introduction to Africa and Asia

CMP: Discuss two ancient trade routes, e.g., Fertile Crescent and the Silk Road, such as the of the Middle East or the Nile River. In what form do these exist today?

UNIT B (week 2): World Geography Overview

• Environmental Influence of Physical Features
• Origin of old-Earth geology
• Review list of Geographical Features, e.g., Rivers
• Geography of Asia (see, China), Africa, Europe and the Americas
• Explore various maps for future reference
• Review list of Political Units
• Population, Shelter, Food and Language Patterns
• Geography of Israel
• Begin to memorize Dates to Know

WHY? (Teacher's comments on early civilizations)

STUDY: The Ancients
READ: Introduction to the Americas
LOOK: Introduction to Europe and Oceania

CMP: Compare and contrast the roles of an archeologist and an anthropologist.
CMP: Compare and contrast two of the four River Valley Civilizations. (e.g., Nile vs Indus, Sumerians vs. Harappans)
CMP: Compare the descendents of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

• Archaeologists and Anthropologists, (Kennewick Man)
• Importance of Dating
• Carbon-14 dating more on Radiocarbon Dating
• Shem, Ham, and Japheth
• Theory of Human Evolution
• Theory of Language Acquisition
• Babel in early Mesopotamian literature
• Early River Basin Societies of Babylonia, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Harappa, and China
• Middle East peoples of the 2nd Millennium e.g., Minoans and Mycenaeans
• Achievements of Primitive Societies and Ancient Civilizations , earliest writing
• Assyria VS God
• Early Religious Belief and Practices: African Animist, Egyptian Pantheism, Hebrew Monotheism, Asian Yin and Yang
• Abraham to Israel's Kings and Prophets

WHY? (Teacher's comments on ancient empires)

STUDY: Xeno Ch5 Assyrian and Babylonian Empires

CMP: Analyze the expansion and administration of Cyrus the achaemenid (558 BC) against Darius the emperor of Persia (521 BC). Why was kingdom of Lydia in Anatolia so important to the Persians?
COT: Describe the causes, events, and effects of the Peloponnesian War.
CMP: Contrast the rise and fall of the competing city states of Athens and Sparta.
COT: Identify the events that led to the conversion of the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire.
CMP: Compare the religious and political influence that led to the collapse of Han China and the Roman Empire.

UNIT D (week 4) : Empire Management and Migration

• The rise and fall of Daniel's Statue: Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman Empires
• The Problem of Evil
• Focus on survival of Judaism, Medo-Persia
• African Kingdoms and Asian Dynasties
• Compare Nubia, Kush, Axum and Olmecs
• The rise of Greece, city states, the Golden Age of Athens vs Sparta
• Movements of Huns, Germans, Arabs
• Collapse of Han China and Roman Empire

WHY?

STUDY: Historicity of the Bible
READ: Reading, Writing, and Researching for History
READ: Principles of Biblical Interpretation
LOOK: Logical Fallacies

DBQ: Babylon wasn't the only place steeped in mysticism when the Hebrews returned from captivity during the 6th century BC. Compare this with the sorcery of Kung Fu Tsu, Lao Tsu, Siddhartha Gautama, and/or Zoraster that same century.
DBQ: Contrast Hinduism and Buddhism in their differences with the older Brahmin traditions.
COT: Trace the spread of major language groups and the development of writing in Africa.
COT: Describe the onset of a few Roman Catholic doctrines and describe the modifications made by Papal authority and tradition.
COT: Trace the authentication of the New Testament canon.
COT: Describe the authorship of the Old Testament canon.

UNIT E (week 5) : Understanding Source Documents

WHY? (Teacher's comments on religious expansion)

STUDY: Two Millennia of Church History
COT: Describe the political situation in Judea from 400 BC to 100 AD. What effect did Greek philosophy, Hellenism and Roman policies have on religious freedom?
COT: Describe Christian evangelism of the first three centuries in the Mediterranean region and Asia. Was it a result of persecution?
CMP: What are the relationships between Islam and the Jewish and Christian religions. Are Islam's five chief obligations and restrictions tied more closely to Judaism or Christianity?
COT: How did the Chavin cult influence ancient Andean society? Describe Inca social classes and the lack of merchants.
COT: Describe religious toleration in Hindu India from the birth of Buddah through the incursion of Islam and the growth of Christianity following British colonialism.
COT: Describe why Greek Mythology became part of the Roman Panthon and the influence that has on modern culture.
COT: How did Christianity change from a Jewish sect to a gentile religion? Why was it attractive yet repulsive to the Romans?
CMP:Compare the role of women in two different belief systems: Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Confucianism

UNIT F (week 6): Religious Expansion and Division

• Greek Philosophy (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle)
• Teaching Religion in World History
• Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity
• Taoism, Confucian social politics
• Philosophical development from Upanishadic theism to scientific realism
• Alexander the Great, Hellenism, Roman Republic, Roman Empire, Pax Romana
• Focus on Jesus Christ coming "in the fullness of time"
• Preterists and 70 AD
• Early Christianity in Asia
• Religious traditions in Africa and the Americas
• Missionaries from Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed
• Jesus, Zoraster, Buddha, Socrates & Muhammad
• Summary of 1000 years of Church History
  
  

STUDY: Review of Europe: 400 - 900 AD
READ:
CMP: Compare the religious art of the Byzantine Empire with that of the Tang Dynasty. What effect does religious zeal have on the production and destruction of art? Are there current examples?  
COT: Explain the loss of power of the King through the Magna Carta and the creation of in England's Parliament.

UNIT G (week 7): Economic Expansion and Political Consolidation

• How dark were the Dark Ages? Augustine, Constantine, Charlemagne
• The Barbarian Invasions and Recovery
• Middle Age Monasteries and Manorialism, Feudalism to Nationalism
• Development of European and Japanese Feudalism
• Emergence of Tang China, Byzantine culture, Kievan Rus
• Silk Roads, Saharan Sands, and Indian Ocean Trade winds.
• Bantu migrations in Africa

WHY? (Teacher's comments)

STUDY: Review of Europe: 900 to 1450 AD
READ: The Unquenchable Light ch.3
LOOK: Development from Medieval to Renaissance art.

UNIT A (week 8): Global Renaissance

• Byzantine and Muslim preservation of knowledge
• European Renaissance, Muslim, Chinese, Hindu philosophy
• Eurasia summary to 1200 AD
• Urbanization and Trade
• Castles and Crusades, Technology of War
• In Defense of the Crusades

WHY? (Teacher's comments)

STUDY: Concise Political History of China

LOOK:
Optional (CLB example) The East

• Mongol Movement
• The Rise and Fall of the Mughals
• Song Stabilization
• Chinese History for Beginners
• Chinese influence on Japan
• Early Christianity in Asia or here

WHY? (Teacher's comments)

STUDY:Top 100 Events of the Millennium

• Economics: supply and demand bring global awareness
• Viking Exploration and Impact
• Technology: transportation, communication, architecture and gunpowder
• England and the Magna Carta
• Spain and Ferdinand & Isabella

WHY? (Teacher's comments)

STUDY: The Truth About Islam
READ: Islamic Expansion (28 pages)

• Islamic influence on the arts and sciences from West Africa to Northern India
• Byzantine counteractions
• Four Faces of Islam
• An African questions Islam
• The Meaning of Sin in the Koran and the Bible
• The Koran on the Fall and Redemption of Mankind
• Why Islam spread quickly
• Islamic contributions in art and science
• 1,400 Years of Christian/Islamic Struggle
• The Myth of Mecca
• Muslims who claim Islam a fraud
• Islam and Europe
• Timeline of Islam
• Islam in India

WHY? (Teacher's comments)

STUDY: Major Branches of Religions
READ: The Unquenchable Light ch.4
CMP: Contrast Eastern Greek Orthodox with Western Roman Catholicism. Which one appears closer to the church depicted in Acts and as defined by Pauline epistles?
CMP: Schisms in Islam and Christianity: Analyze the Islamic theological divisions (Sunni versus Shiite) with the divisions within Christianity. Were Christians faced with similar causes for disunity as those faced by the Muslims?
CMP: Compare/contrast the Sunni and Shiite branches of Islam in their theology and culture, and review its effect on History

• Christendom splits into Eastern Orthodox and Western Roman Catholicism, Great Schism
• Russian Orthodox church
• Geographic Losses and Spiritual Decay
• Charlemagne and Otto
• The Spanish Inquisition
• Protestant and Catholic church differences
• Papal Infallibility
• One Hundred Key Events in Church History

WHY? (Teacher's comments)

STUDY: The Origins of a Multiracial Society
READ: Hispanic-American Indians
COT: Describe how the Aztec or Inca deities evolved over time to meet the political needs of the priests and kings.
CMP: Why were the Spaniards the subjugators of the Incas instead of the Incas eventually having dominion over the Spaniards?
CMP: Compare the religious differences between the Maya and the Olmec, and how those differences influenced the other aspects of their culture.

UNIT F (week 13): Amerindian Civilizations and Non-Islamic Africa

• Maya, Toltec, Aztec, Inca
• Mesoamerican Religions
• Great Zimbabwe
• Connecting African History

WHY? (Teacher's comments)

STUDY: History of Epidemics and Plagues

COT: Trace the path of the Black Plague along the trade routes from east to west. Analyze the social, religious and economic impact.

UNIT G (week 14): Environmental Impact on Demographics

• Using demographic indicators to "read history"
• Impact of nomadic migrations on Afro- Eurasia
• Migration of agricultural peoples
• Consequences of the Black Death

WHY? (Teacher's comments)

STUDY: The European Voyages of Exploration - Portugal...
READ: The Unquenchable Light ch.5

CMP: Justifications for Kingship, 18th century Japan and France

BIO: Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542 -1616)

UNIT A (week 15): East meets West

• Ottoman Empire and the West
• Russia's interaction with Europe
• Tokugawa Japan and Portugal
• Aboriginal history
• Jesuit missionaries in East Asia
• Chinese naval expeditions
• Mughal India and the West

WHY? (Teacher's comments)

STUDY: The European Voyages of Exploration - Spain...
READ: Michel de Montaigne: On Cannibals (1580)
READ: Revival, Reform, and Expansion ch8

CMP: Contrast the conquests of Cortes and Pizarro.

UNIT B (week 16): Europe meets the Americas

• Columbus and the New World Order
• The Crimes of Christopher Columbus
• Pilgrims and Settlements
• The Dutch and SE Asia Fur trade in Americas
• Imposed economics of Mercantilism, Capitalism, Haciendas

WHY? (Teacher's comments)

STUDY: Semester Exam - No Quiz over readings

COT: How did the pros and cons of Imperialism effect Africans from the 16th to 18th century?

• Turning Points of History, Periodization
• Migrations of Populations, Ideas, Agriculture, Disease
• Influence of Technology and Environment
• Social hierarchy, Political structures
• Urbanization
• One Hundred Key Events in Church History
• Timeline of Church History
• Contributions of Christianity (not working)
• Renaissance

WHY? (Teacher's comments)

STUDY: Transitional Europe: 1350-1650
CMP: Discuss how Italy and Germany developed between 1400 - 1700.
COT: Describe the doctrine of apostolic succession and the establishment of human Tradition being equal to Scripture.

• Empire building- Popes vs Kings, religious and political succession, Magna Carta
• Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503)
• England / France Hundred Years War
• Oliver Cromwell's Puritan Revolution (1640s)
• Bourbons (France), Romanovs (Russia), Ottoman and Hapsburgs (Holy Roman Empire)
• Rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire
• France and Italy

WHY? (Teacher's comments)

STUDY: Africa, slavery, and the European Trade.

CMP: Compare the power and influence of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

• Slave trade: a root of contemporary African Crisis
• African Political Ethics and the Slave Trade
• The Newness of New World Slavery
• The Powers That Be Are Ordained of God
• African empires (Kongo, Benin, Ono, Songhay, Ghana)

WHY? (Teacher's comments)

STUDY: See the classroom for the w20 required reading.
READ: the Reformation
READ: the Enlightenment

CMP: Describe the differences between the art spawned by the Protestant Reformation verses the Catholic Counter-Reformation.
COT: Explain how navigational technology (astrolabes, sextants, GPS, etc.) has developed within the context of expanding encounters.
CMP: Compare the political ideas of the philosophers: Voltaire and Rousseau. How did individual thought change national behavior?
COT: Report on Atheists and the consequences of their doctrine, citing both Biblical and secular examples.
COT: Discuss the changes in food, religion, or technology as two cultures (Japan and the USA) clash and trade.
CMP: Compare the cultural, political and economic significance of the Protestant Reformation in Europe and the Neo-Confucian Reformation in Ming China.

• Reformers, e.g. Martin Luther, causes and effects
• Humanism and the Renaissance; Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau
• Scientific Revolution
• The Enlightenment and Belief in God
• Religion- Reformation, Spanish Inquisition
• Luther's 95 Thesis
• Puritans, Astronomy, Politics
• Arab Culture on European Renaissance
• Global causes and impacts of cultural change - Family/ social changes (Europe, China, Japan)
• Religion (Indigenous religions in Americas and in Africa, Christians in China )
• Foods (dietary changes in China, Europe, sub-Saharan Africa)
• Trade- crops, porcelain, technologies

WHY? (Teacher's comments)

STUDY: China, Japan, and Russia and the w21interactive quiz
READ: Japan

CMP: Discuss Russia's interactions with the west in general in Comparison to one of the following: Ottoman Empire, China, Tokugawa Japan, Mughal India
CMP: Analyze how Asian art reflects Shinto and Buddhist religious values.

• Mughal - cultural patronage, cultural conservatism (i.e. printing press)
• Chinese Dynasties (Ming and Qing)
• Russia- Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Hohenzollerns (Prussia)
• Neoconfucianism (and reaction against) in China and Japan , Shinto
• Chinese literature, Japanese theater
• Developments and Exchanges in the arts