RELC 2050

Not a very difficult class and it fulfills the non-western perspective requirement. The readings and lectures are dull unless you're really interested in the subject material. You don't have to do the readings though. Just find information from them for the 2 papers and he gives you a study guide for both the midterm and final that you can just look through the book and find information for the terms/people/events.

Professor Shuve presents powerpoints with just pictures on them. You get to write 4 papers a semester and drop the lowest one. The class isn't particularly the most fun but the TA's are very nice and are willing to talk bout and improve your grades. The midterm he handed a review guide before the exam which was an exact replica of the exam.

Interesting survey of the history of early Christianity, and a pretty easy class. Shuve is clearly an expert, and his lectures were interesting even at 9 am.

I found this course somewhat interesting at the beginning of the semester but as the semester went on, the course became duller for me. Professor Shuve is an incredibly nice guy, approachable and obviously knowledgeable about Christianity. The course does not have a lot of work outside of lecture other than readings for sections. The course reader is very helpful in this course. The course is offered at 9am and sometimes it is hard to stay awake. However, this course is also mostly lecture-based so I recommend going to every single class if possible. He gives bonus tasks throughout the semester and they're easy and non-time consuming. There are four papers assigned and the lowest grade is dropped. Professor Shuve gives the outline/study guide for both the midterm and final so they are not hard and nothing surprising shows up.

Karl Shuve's Rise of Christianity class was one my favorite courses that I have taken so far. He was engaging, interesting, and did an incredible job at tying in all of the concepts. The midterm and final both were very fair and very easy to do well on if you really looked at the info. He usually puts a few different themes with different terms that you can use to define other terms. Do the weekly readings. It may seem daunting at first and a few (really only a few) of them were a little dry, but ultimately it helped so much to tie everything in together. I highly recommend this class even if you are not interested in religious studies just as an elective to learn a bit more about the foundation of one of the most widespread religions and how the journey from its beginning to the modern day has shaped how some Christians view themselves in society.

For some reason it won't let me choose the correct semester, but I took this course in the fall of 2020. It is not the most interesting of classes, but I must say Karl Shuve made it one of my favorite classes this semester. He has been by far the most understanding professor I've had during this pandemic. There were weekly quizzes on the material, but they were never difficult. There were three essays, but only your two highest grades were counted. He even offered different prompts for the different essays, allowing more creativity, which was AMAZING. The midterm was not that bad, and I haven't taken the final yet, but I expect it to not be TOO terrible. On both the midterm and final there is a mixture of multiple-choice, short answer, and essays. Also, I am not religious in any way, so don't let not knowing anything in the realm of religion scare you, you will be fine. I recommend this class.
#tCFfall20! #tCFfall20 #tcf2020

Had a great time! I loved coming to class and listening to the professor, he made the content very approachable! This was essentially a history class so if you're looking for that this is the place to be! Grading was fair, exams were not too bad. If you took notes and showed up to every class you should be more than ok, especially with the review sessions. The TA we had did a great job. If you're looking for a class that you might want to put on the backburner this is a good one, but be careful to not make a mistake on the exams! #tCFspring2022

This is a fairly easy class and great for people who are interested in History and the Early Christian church! I think there was a lot of overlap with other classes in the Religious Studies department, but there are some nuances this class offered that others didn't and it helped with comprehension of the full timeline and development of early Christian thought. Karl Shuve is an excellent lecturer and very knowledgeable on the subject, I had friends who took it with Tite and didn't have as good of an experience. It wouldn't be at the top of my list for Christianity classes to take (I recommend Elements of Christian Thought with Paul Jones above all else), but I think this is a good comprehensive look at Christianity from a purely historical and secular perspective. Also covers involved theological topics, apocrypha, and the first 1000 years of the church up through the First Crusade. He provides study guides for the exams so they're never too difficult if you take the appropriate amount of time to prepare for them and the essays are actually fun and interesting to write.