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Offered:

as in-person classes, live-streamed Zoom sessions, and video recordings.

  • • HIS321 is offered again in 2026 Term 1 (Feb-Apr) pending sufficient student enrolment.

  • • This course is offered as an in-person course in our Hamilton, New Zealand classrooms, live-streamed via Zoom if you live elsewhere, and as video recordings of the live sessions if you cannot attend the regularly scheduled Zoom session.

Date & Time:

Begins Monday 9 Feb 2026, 7:00-8:30pm

  • • Our 2026 Term 1 HIS321 course is offered on Mondays 7:00-8:30pm (NZ time) beginning Monday 9 Feb 2026 and meets for 8 consecutive weekly sessions. The last class of the Term is on Monday 30 Mar 2026.

  • • If you live outside of New Zealand and wish to Zoom in to our live class sessions, check the nearest local Time Zone equivalent below:

Time Zone equivalents:

for live-streaming Zoom Sessions from New Zealand. If your Time Zone doesn't suit our live-streamed class, you can also access our courses by watching the live-recorded sessions that are posted to the course webpage each week, usually within 1-2 days.

  • Honolulu, Hawai’i: begins Sun 8 Feb 2026, 8:00-9:30pm

  • US Pacific: begins Sun 8 Feb 2026, 10:00-11:30pm

  • US Eastern: begins Mon 9 Feb 2026, 1:00-2:30am

  • London, UK: begins Mon 9 Feb 2026, 6:00-7:30am

  • Paris, France: begins Mon 9 Feb 2026, 7:00-8:30am

  • New Delhi, India: begins Mon 9 Feb 2026, 11:30am-1:00pm

  • Bangkok, Thailand: begins Mon 8 Feb 2026, 1:00-2:30pm

  • Singapore & Shanghai: begins Mon 9 Feb 2026, 2:00-3:30pm

  • Tokyo, Japan: begins Mon 9 Feb 2026, 3:00-4:30pm

  • Sydney, Australia: begins Mon 9 Feb 2026, 5:00-6:30pm

Description:

HIS321: Christianity in Late Medieval Europe ~1417-1517CE —2026 Term 1

TOPICS:

Week 1: Faith in the Fifteenth Century

Week 2: 15th-Century Christianity: An Institutionalized Worldview

Week 3: The 15th Century Church: Rigorous or Corrupt?

Week 4: The Great Schism

Week 5: The Council of Constance

Week 6: Globalising Medieval Christianity: The Reconquista and Overseas Missions in the 15th-Century and Beyond

Week 7: Scholasticism and the Medieval Quest for Certainty

Week 8: Christian Humanism, Reform before the Reformation, and Erasmus of Rotterdam

  • • In this course we will examine the basic structures, practices, changes, and crises in the Western Church in the fifteenth century. We will learn about the beliefs and practices both of ordinary laity and often illiterate clergy, as well as those of learned scholars, Popes, Cardinals.

  • • Our chronological starting point will be the crisis of the “Great Schism” in which the Roman Catholic Church faced the crisis of two — and later three (!) — competing popes. We will then learn about Christian Humanism and Catholic Reform movements in the Renaissance. We will conclude with the debate between Desiderius Erasmus and a young Catholic Friar named Martin Luther on the Eve of the Reformation.

  • • Throughout this course, we will scrutinize competing narratives of whether the late medieval church was rigorous or corrupt. Was its spirituality emotionally manipulative and abusive or meaningful and comforting to peasants? Did the Reformation that followed spring from a groundswell of popular demand for change, or from the top- down imposition of a new religion against the will (and to the detriment of) faithful believers.

Meet our Instructor

Professor of History and Religious Studies Dr Adam Duker, PhD

Professor Duker is an expert in medieval and early modern Christianity. He was won numerous research and teaching prizes. He was a Fulbright Fellow in Switzerland, where he worked at the Institute for Reformation History at the University of Geneva. He spent over a year in France conducting research at the BnF and multiple other archives as a visiting research fellow at the Sorbonne. He taught a political science course at Berkeley and undergraduate courses in History, Theology, and Medieval Studies at the University of Notre Dame. After completing his doctorate, he became a Professor at the American University in Cairo – where he held the largest university endowed chair in the Arabic-speaking world and where he served as the Director of the only non-sectarian Religious Studies program in any Muslim-majority country. He then became a Professor of History, Religion, and Jewish Studies at Mount Holyoke College before moving onto Alphacrucis College in Australia. He has held a visiting research fellowship at the University of Waikato and is currently a Research Fellow at Laidlaw College in Auckland.

Location:

This is a hybrid class with both in-person sessions and live-streamed via Zoom.

Our in-person classes are held at the EarthDiverse classrooms in Hillcrest, Hamilton, New Zealand. There is plenty of on-street parking available. The exact location in Hillcrest will be automatically emailed to you upon registration. Please check your junk mail filters if you do not receive our automatically-generated Welcome Email within 1-2 minutes.

Course curriculum:

Week by week new material will be posted throughout the duration of the course. Video recordings of each weekly session will be posted here after 1-2 days after each class.

    1. EarthDiverse Course information

    2. EarthDiverse Zoom Instructions

    3. Late Medieval Christianity - Course Schedule

    4. Late Medieval Christianity - A Brief Bibliography

    5. Late Medieval Christianity - Terms for Weeks 1 & 2

    1. Week 1: Terms and Concepts PDF

    2. OPTIONAL READING: The Church in the Fifteenth Century, by Van Engen

    1. OPTIONAL READING: Imitation of Christ, by Kempis

    2. OPTIONAL READING: The Church and the Faith, by Thomas Brady

    1. Week 3: Terms and Concepts PDF

    2. OPTIONAL READING: Nation Against Rome PDF

    3. OPTIONAL READING: Savonarola on the Renovation of the Church 1495 PDF

    1. OPTIONAL READING: Van Engen article "Multiple Options: The World of the Fifteenth-Century Church" PDF

    1. Week 5: Terms and Concepts - Reconquista & Overseas Missions PDF

Additional course info:

  • Video and PDF content of class presentations or whiteboard notes are uploaded weekly after each live session
  • Begins Mon 9 Feb 2026 (NZ time)
  • NZ time: Mondays 7:00-8:30pm

Distance Learning:

This course has distance-learning options for those unable to attend the live class sessions in Hamilton. Students have three options for attending our courses once they have registered:

  • Attend in-person classes in our Hamilton classrooms at the regularly scheduled day and time.

  • Attend our live on-line classroom sessions via Zoom at the regular scheduled day and time.

  • Watch the live-recorded class sessions at your leisure, at a time, day and place more suited to your schedule.

Distance-Learning options:

Live Zoom sessions or video recordings

  • • Our courses offer distance learning options: Live-streamed Hamilton classes are available via free Zoom software for those living anywhere in the world with a decent internet connection. Live-streaming allows you to participate fully in your own learning, ask questions of the instructor and participate fully in the same way as if you were in the physical classroom.

  • • Those unable to attend the scheduled date and time of the actual class sessions, or those who need to miss a class or two due to previous engagements or unexpected illness, can watch any or all of the live-recorded video sessions on their computers, laptops, tablets or mobile devices and study at their own pace and in their own time.

  • • Detailed instructions on how to access our distance learning components will be sent after completing your registration. There are no additional fees for this service. However, distance learners will need access to a desktop or laptop computer with a good quality web-camera (tablet devices and mobile phones can also access our live-streamed classes), a built-in microphone (most modern laptops have built-in microphones) or a headset with a microphone. You will also need to download and install the free Zoom software on your computer or device. Those accessing the video recordings will be able to do so with a simple web browser on any device.

Pricing options:

• All prices are in New Zealand dollars and include GST.

• Unwaged includes students, seniors, retirees and unemployed.

• Prices remain the same regardless of your chosen method for accessing this course.

• If you live outside of New Zealand, An Overseas Tax may be added, where applicable (e.g. US).

Prerequisites:

A keen interest in the History of the Church

• There are no prerequisites for this course.

• Available for adult 16 years and above.