This seminar introduces graduate students both to classics in the field of religious history and to recent new approaches to the history of medieval Christianity. Although spanning the entire medieval millennium (500-1500), the course will give most attention to the central and later Middle Ages where the most innovative work on Christian history has focused. Topics include the Christianization of Europe, new religious movements during the central and later Middle Ages, spirituality and religious practices, the definition and persecution of heresy, historical attempts to assess norms of belief and practice, and inter-disciplinary approaches to the study of medieval Christianity.