Topic: The Great Change. The Christianization of Europe.

Target group

5th‑grade students of elementary school

Core curriculum

I. Ancient civilizations. Pupil:

6 ) places in time and space the birth and spread of Christianity.

General aim of education

The student will learn how Christianity came to Europe.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• to describe how did the christianization of Europe proceed;

• to describe who were Saint Cyril and Methodius;

• to characterize the influence of the Apostles to the Slavs on the Slavs;

• why was the adoption of Christianity an important political aspect.

Methods/techniques

• activating

  • discussion.

• expository

  • talk.

• exposing

  • film.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

1. Students should remember how the Christian religion came into being and what its fate was in the first centuries of existence. They should use the knowledge of previous topics.

Introduction

1. The teacher presents to the students the topic, the goals of the lesson and the criteria for success.

2. The teacher asks students to watch the film from the e‑textbook „Chrześcijańskie korzenie Europy” and draw attention to the map of religion's reach in the 5th century. Then, referring to the homework task, he asks students how it happened that Christianity managed to gain such popularity in such a huge area.

3. Before the teacher begins the main part of the lesson, he asks the students to do Exercise 1 for warming up. Then the teacher makes sure that the task has been correctly completed and gives the feedback.

Realization

1. The teacher begins a lecture on the Christian Europe. He mentions two of its mainstreams - Arianism and the orthodox trend - and explains why the orthodox religion turned out to be „victorious”..

2. Then he presents selected non‑Christian (pagan) cults that functioned in Europe. He asks the students, beginning the discussion, why most of them had a reference to the forces and phenomena of nature?.

3. The teacher divides the students into groups and then asks each of them to prepare a short presentation on how „their people” have adopted Christianity. The teacher decides into how many groups to divide the class. He may divide due to tribes and peoples, for example: Slavs (Western, Eastern, South), inhabitants of the Balkans, Germans (East, West, living in Scandinavia) or due to geographical location - Western Europe, North, Central and Eastern Europe. Students in their presentations should mention: „from whom” their peoples have adopted Christianity; whether it was a Christianization mission or a ruler's decision, and when it took place..

4. The students present their work and discuss it together with the teacher..

5. The teacher presents farther (during the group's presentation they should appear in the context of the Christianization of Eastern and Southern Slavs) the figures of Saints Cyril and Methodius, whom Pope John Paul II made patrons of Europe. Pupils follow Task 1 and then the teacher completes the students' knowledge..

Summary

1. Summing up, the teacher once again explains the importance of Christianisation and emphasizes that apart from the Greek‑Roman heritage of antiquity, it has become one of the pillars of Europe's culture and identity.

2. Students perform Exercise 2. The teacher makes sure that the task has been correctly performed and provides feedback.

Homework

1. Christianization led by envoys on behalf of the pope often irked emperors. The roman emperor Charlemagne was an opponent of such actions. Think about what were his reasons..

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

The Great Change. The Christianization of Europe.

Today, the inhabitants of Europe view Christianity as something obvious and widespread. However, its development not only lasted a long time (until the fourteenth century), but also had two centers – Rome and Constantinople. In the end, it became one of the elements that shaped the European culture, and enjoys a considerable influence on its existence and development even today.

The Germanic peoples that inhabited the territory of the Roman Empire were the first barbarians that came into contact with the followers of Christ. Since the fourth century, Christian prisoners from the Empire lived among the Goths; their religion gained ever more support. As time passed, it proved an ideal means to unify a people consisting of many different tribes. The Arian Bishop, Wulfila, played a great role in this undertaking, translating the Bible into the Gothic language. The Germanic peoples adopted Christianity as their religion in numerous different ways, owing to two of its branches with little sympathy towards each other – Arianism and Orthodoxy. As time passed, the Orthodox variant dominated over the Arian one in Western Europe. One of the first to assume Orthodox (Catholic) Christianity was the ruler of the Franks, Clovis I, who did so in 496. Owing to this, Christianity started spreading among other Germanic peoples.

The person to have played the greatest role in the christianization of the Germanic tribes was the papal representative, Winfrid‑Boniface, who preached the word of God among the tribes living in the basin of Rhine. This was not exactly aligned with the wishes of the Frank rulers. They feared the growth of the papacy’s significance and the loss of influence among the new Christian peoples. Charlemagne was expressly opposed to that as well, declaring that the mission of preaching the divine truths should be carried by the Emperor. The process of christianization lasted for a very long time, especially among the inhabitants of Scandinavia, finally yielding success after almost two centuries of attempts (at the beginning of the eleventh century).

The Eastern Church undertook the mission of christianization as well. The Byzantine clergymen’s activities were concentrated mainly in the Balkans and among the Slavic tribes. Owing to them, the Christian family was joined by Bulgaria in 866, with the baptism of the Khan (King), Boris I. The last area to be christianized were the Slavic territories. The missionaries to play the greatest role in it were two brothers from Thessaloniki – Cyril and Methodius (second half of the ninth century). By developing a special script (the Glagolitic script), and subsequently translating the Bible into it, they initiated the Southern- and Eastern Slavic culture that survives until today. Thanks to their mission, Christian Europe was joined by Prince Rastislav’s Great Moravia and by Kievan Ruthenia. Their activity is, even today, considered an example of missionary activity free of national hubris and based on feelings.

In the subsequent ages, other nations to undergo christianization were the Czechs (925), the state of Mieszko I (the Poles) and, in 974, the Hungarians. The last country to be baptized, by the end of the fourteenth century, was Lithuania, owing to the actions of Władysław Jagiełło.