RELG 330 - History of Christianity
Course Notes
Chapter 20
Page 281 - Prince Vladimir. The textbook does not tell us that Prince Vladimir's grandmother Olga had been a Christian. Olga and (later) Vladimir were rulers of the Kievan Russ, a tribe of former Vikings living in what is now Ukraine, to the south of the traditional Russian homeland.
Grand Princess Olga of Kiev is regarded in Russia as "The Apostle to the Russians", almost on a par with St. Paul.
When Olga was visiting Constantinople the Emperor took a fancy to her and pressured her to marry him. She avoided that by saying that, as he had been a sponsor at her baptism (i.e. had become her Godfather) he was like a father to her and she couldn't possibly marry her father.
Even after conversion, Olga remained a barbarian at heart, who led her army into battle, and didn't hesitate to lie and murder. She forced her young son Svyatoslav to fight in battle alongside her. When she died, Svyatoslav took Kiev and the Russ back to paganism.
When Svyatoslav died there was a period of war between his sons. Vladimir was a younger son of Svyatoslav, and had been sent away from Kiev - he survived the fighting and became Prince of Kiev when the others finished killing one another.
Vladimir eventually married Anna of Byzantium, the sistrer of the Byzantine Emperor.
Page 282 - the Church of St. Sophia. It is a better to refer to this church by its Greek name of Hagia Sophia. "Sophia" is the Greek word for Wisdom. The Church was dedicated to "Hagia Sophia", meaning "Holy Wisdom". The Church of Hagia Sophia did not commemorate some saint called Sophia, but the divine Wisdom of God.
"Sophia" came to be a girl's name when parents hoped their daughters would be wise.
Page 282 - "Russia" Mention of Russia in the text and on the map is anachronistic. The land of Russia did not yet exist, and the people did not called themselves Russians, but Russ. The region where the Russ lived at the time of Olga and Vladimir is not part of modern Russia but is Ukraine with Kiev as its capital. The Russ moved north, settled in the region of Moscow, amalgamated with other tribes, and became the Russians.
Page 283 - German knights - these were members of the Order of Teutonic Knights. The Teutonic Knights' main sphere of activity was in the region of the Baltic (what is now northern Germany, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, and Russia).
They went to defend Western Christians from the pagan Tartars and the Eastern Orthodox Christians of Russia, and stayed to build their own castles and seize territory for themselves. Frederick II of Prussia made their Grand Master a Prince.
The Poles and Lithuanians rose in revolt (for once they managed to fight on the same side instead of against one another) and won the Battle of Tannenberg (1410) against the Teutonic Knights.
In 1525 the Grand Master became a secular Prince, renounced his orders, and became a Lutheran. The Order continued under other Grand Masters, but was more and more concerned with secular power. It was suppressed by Napoleon, but continued to exist in Austria, where its main work was organizing schools and military hospitals.
The Order was revived in 1945 and continues to function in Europe.
Page 283 - Alexander Nevski was given his title because he won the Battle at the River Neva against in Teutonic Knights in 1240. In 1242 Alexander Nevski won the Battle on Lake Chud against the Teutonic Knights; the battle took place ON the lake - it was frozen. Alexander Nevski drove the Teutonic Knights out of the region.
Page 283 - the Mongol Yoke is more often referred to as the Tartar Yoke
Page 283-284 - icons. The word "icon", was used originally for the stylized paintings of Christ or the saints, which were intended to be used as "windows into heaven". The word was adopted by computer science as the name for the little pictures on the computer desktop because clicking on an icon leads one to a program or folder "beyond" the icon - the icon is a link to a greater entity behind it.
Copyright © 2005 Shirley J. Rollinson, all Rights Reserved
