Class discussion guidelines

A couple students recommended that I come up with a couple questions to guide discussion in advance. You are, of course, expected to think about the texts to try and devise relationships yourself, but I will throw out some of the larger themes that came to my mind.

January 28, 2007

Thinking about this week's readings and last week's, how do Christian visions of non-Christians compare with how other religious groups look at outsiders? What relationships can you see between the various internecine religious feuds?

What role does technology play in European developments at this time, both internally and in their relationship with the rest of the world? What are the motives for European exploration?

Once again, we see women appear, this time in relation to European Christianity. How does it compare with other religions and regions?

January 21, 2007

What is the relationship between religion and conquest? Is religion static or do rulers view it in flexible terms? How does religion act as a dynamic between the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Empires? What is the relationship between disease and stability?

How did the arrival of the plague change economic, political, and religious affairs in Italy? As a bonus, you might want to check out some of the other plague texts on Brown’s page on the Decameron:

http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb/plague/perspectives/pe rspectives.shtml

Finally, there will be a thread regarding women in society that will be unfolding in our texts as the semester progresses. I’ll be asking you how this develops throughout our classes.

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