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HUM 2001鈥�001
Dr. Anna Moreland
T/Th 2:30鈥�3:45 pm

Core: Advanced Theology

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How can humans make claims about God?听 What do they imply, and are they well founded? We will also consider what the questions and potential answers about God reveal about human life, society, and nature. The course begins by considering modern critiques of religion that help us understand our own uses and abuses of religion. We then inquire whether it is responsible to love and believe in a Christian God. In doing so, we must consider the possibility that God reveals Himself precisely to help us know and love God. After investigating claims about revelation, we turn to theological questions that arise out of the experience of having a relationship with God. We conclude with a dramatic investigation of the major themes of the course.

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HUM 2002鈥�001
Dr. Helena Tomko &听Dr. Veronica Ogle
T/Th 1:00-2:15 pm

Cross List: Peace & Justice, Public Service Administration

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It has been said that a crisis in humanism鈥攁n insufficient understanding of the human person鈥攗nderlay the manifold political, social, and historical tragedies of the twentieth century and their ongoing repercussions. In this course, we will attempt to engage the major questions confronting us in the twentieth-first century by examining fundamental aspects of the human experience, from birth through death, and considering how to pursue the good in the dramatic unfolding of human life. We will consider together the manifold strange wonders that make us human, including food, family, friendship, education, work, and love.

HUM 2003鈥�001
Dr. Jahdiel Perez
T/Th 11:30 am鈥�12:45 pm

Cross List: Environmental Studies, Philosophy, Sustainability Minor

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The way we look at and understand the natural world affects the way we think about ourselves, and vice versa. In this class, we will consider the conceptions of the world most common today, discuss their origins, examine their presuppositions, and think through their implications both for our relationship toward the world and also for our understanding of what it means to be a human being. Among the topics we will cover are: how we experience, observe and conceptualize the world; what it means to give a causal explanation; what it means to speak of God as creator and why one would do so; the relationship between science, philosophy, and religion; and the meaning of the human person and social order in relation to the world.

HUM 1975-001
Dr. Mitchell Kooh
M/W 3:20鈥�4:35 pm听

Core: Literature & Writing Seminar

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HUM 2900鈥�001
Dr. Veronica Ogle
M/W 1:55鈥�3:10 pm

Cross List: Political Science

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In the Politics, Aristotle remarks that it is possible to become a good citizen without becoming a good human being: what does he mean, and is he right? In this course, we will begin with the problematic Brave New World: society can sometimes form its members into 鈥榞ood鈥� citizens by stunting their humanity. Is this always the case? Why do different constitutions cultivate different types of citizens, and do any foster the good human beings that Aristotle has in mind? If ours does not, is it still good for us to try and become good citizens? All these lead to the most important question: What is good citizenship, anyway? If it is not actually to conform, but to reform the ideal venerated by society, how do we become the type of people who can do that? By exploring these questions alongside thinkers like Plato, Augustine, Rousseau, Camus, Day, and Wojtyla, we will come to understand more deeply what it means to be a good citizen, and how, if possible, this call can be connected to our humanity, always and everywhere.

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HUM 2900-002
Dr. Christopher Daly
M/W 4:45鈥�6:00 pm 

Beginning with the Carolingian Renaissance of the early ninth century, we will consider the following topics: the increasingly sophisticated system of education; the rise of the papal authority; the growth of centralized monarchies in England, the Iberian Peninsula, France, and the Holy Roman Empire; contact between Islam and western and eastern Europe; intense cooperation and conflict between throne and altar; the rise of universities and the contributions of Hildegarde of Bingen; Peter Abelard, and Thomas Aquinas; structures of late medieval clerical and secular culture (including architecture, art, and music); and the rumblings of social and religious discontent on the eve of the Reformation. We will make use of vernacular writings, texts from medieval and early-modern philosophy and theology, and films such as "The Seventh Seal" and "A Man for all Seasons."

HUM 2900鈥�003
Dr. Ian Clausen
T/Th 11:30鈥�12:45 pm

Core: Advanced Theology

What does it mean to say that we live in a 鈥渢echnological age鈥�? Many of us have intuitions about the advantages and drawbacks of specific technologies for living a full human life. On the one hand, a technological age comes with many promises of civilizational advancement: more power, more control, more connectivity, more health, more of everything. What鈥檚 not to like? On the other hand, even these promises provoke fundamental questions about our identity and values as a society 鈥� including the most basic and Augustinian of questions, what do I (we) really want?

This question takes on a special urgency today amidst compounding crises in public health, climate, mass media, and political instability, and the various techno-solutions proposed to address them. What are we after? Where are we heading? What kinds of questions should we be asking? Who gets to decide the answers?鈥疊y engaging a wide variety of literature, philosophy, theology, and the arts, this course equips students to examine technology not just as a collective term for our gadgets and devices, but as a dominant paradigm of our contemporary self-understanding.鈥�

HUM 2900鈥�004
Dr. Eugene McCarraher
T/Th 4:00鈥�5:15 pm听

Core: History

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Should Americans think of the United States as an empire? Our economy, our conception of 鈥渇reedom,鈥� and our everyday lives have all depended on empire, but there has also been a long current of anti-imperialism in American culture.鈥疻ith readings ranging from Locke, William Penn, Chief Powhatan, Emerson, and Melville to Che Guevara, Martin Luther King, Jr., Fukuyama, and Friedman, this course considers the historical role of empire in our personal and social lives.

HUM 2900-005
Dr. Elizabeth-Jane McGuire
M/W/F 10:40-11:30 am

Core: Fine Arts

Music is often called 鈥渢he universal language鈥� because it has the ability to appeal to listeners outside of its cultural context. However, how exactly does music function as a language? Does music communicate precise ideas, or only abstract concepts, or perhaps nothing at all? If it does communicate meaning, how does it do so鈥攖hrough specific intervals and harmonies, or by its overall timbre and mood? How do we judge whether music is good? As we explore these questions, we will consider who we are as music makers and music listeners, and what role music plays in the human endeavor.

In this course, music itself will be a primary text as we listen to Palestrina, Bach, Handel, Beethoven, Wagner, Debussy, Mahler, Gershwin, Simon and Garfunkel, U2, P盲rt, and many others. Music listening will be supplemented by readings from Augustine鈥檚 De musica, Thomas Aquinas鈥� Summa Theologica, and modern essays, including a series on music making by British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. The course will conclude with a 鈥淪oundtrack of My Life鈥� project.

HUM 3100-001
Dr. Michael Tomko & Dr. Mitchell Kooh
T/Th 8:30-9:45 am

Cross List: English

In this class we will explore the 鈥渙therworldly鈥� fiction as well as the theological, critical, and philosophical writings of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Inklings. These works have often been dismissed as either escapist nostalgia or mere entertainment, but the Inklings saw their writings as offering alternative ethical, social, and even ecological visions. Tolkien set out specifically to write a mythology for England. We will investigate why these writers turned to the aesthetic, especially a mythological or fantastic aesthetic, at this time. Why did they employ a literature that was either mythologically, theologically, historically, or perspectivally 鈥渙therworldly鈥�? How do these works, so often viewed simply as fantastic or supernatural, relate to the worldly and the natural? In what ways did these writers wrestle with literary traditions, such as Romanticism, and engage with the major intellectual questions of the day including issues in science, gender relations, and political power? In an interdisciplinary approach that engages both various literary and theoretical texts, we will ultimately ask if this group formed a coherent cultural movement and consider their place in accounts of the twentieth-century religion and culture in Great Britain. 

HUM 4200-001
Dr. Jesse Couenhoven
T/Th 10:00-11:15 am

Core: Diversity 3, Advanced Theology Cross List: P&J

Despite its importance for our own everyday lives there is still much disagreement about both the nature of forgiveness and the circumstances under which it is appropriate to forgive. Our discussion in this seminar will center on a handful of basic but difficult questions: On what basis can we forgive? Does forgiveness abrogate justice? Does forgiveness mean we should always resist anger? Can a person who has not repented be forgiven? What is the relationship between forgiveness and reconciliation? Do differing religions think about forgiveness differently? And finally, can forgiveness be a duty? Answers to these questions are significant in part for personal reasons; we need to know how to relate to other persons who have wronged us. It is no surprise, then, that forgiveness has become a topic of increasing importance for psychologists, theologians, and philosophers. Questions about forgiveness are also significant because of their implications for political choices in troubled times, as we will see in discussing the truth and reconciliation commission in South Africa, and in comparing the ways different religions approach forgiveness.

HUM 4350鈥�001
Dr. Paul Camacho
T/Th 2:30鈥�3:45 pm

Cross List: Philosophy

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We all know that love is鈥攐r can be鈥攁 problem, but we do not often think of it as a鈥痯hilosophical鈥痯roblem. There are few words in the English language that are more often used, and abused, than the word 鈥渓ove.鈥� It often seems that 鈥渓ove鈥� can mean anything, and therefore ends up meaning nothing in particular. The purpose of this course is to acquire insight into the nature of love through a careful reflection on texts in the history of philosophy and the Christian tradition.

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The basic philosophical problem of love is expressed by the French philosopher, Pierre Rousselot: 鈥淚s a love that is not egoistic possible? And if it is possible, what is the relation between this pure love of the other and the love of self?鈥� As we reflect on this basic question, we will also ask: What is the relationship between love and听rational self-interest? What exactly do we love when we love another person, or when we love God? Is it even possible to love God or for God to love us? What, if anything, does Christianity add to our conception of love?

PHI 3100鈥�001
Dr. Terence Sweeney
T/Th 11:30鈥�12:45 pm

Cross List: Humanities

Who am I? Who are You? And who are we? Our engagement with Augustine will center itself on these three fundamental questions regarding self, divinity, and community. These questions shaped much of Augustine鈥檚 life and philosophy. Committed to the amor sapientia (the love of wisdom), Augustine searched within and above, through faith and through reason, to understand ourselves, our God, and our community. We will follow his path in understanding these three interrelated searches while considering how his answers differed and related to the intellectual world around him.

As we engage these questions through texts likes the Confessions, On the Trinity, The City of God, and various sermons鈥攚e will consider how each question interpenetrates the other such that there can be no understanding of self without God, of God without self, and of either without community. As we aim to understand these things, we鈥檒l examine topics such as memory, time, the will, the Trinity, and Augustinian political theory.

HUM 6500-100
Dr. Michael Tomko &
Dr. Andrew Lynn
T 6:15鈥�8:55 pm听

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One of the primary aims of the Humanities Department is to help you achieve a human and integrated perspective on your learning. As the 鈥渃apstone鈥� to your undergraduate career, the senior symposium is an opportunity for you to reflect, with your classmates, on what you have learned in the major, to tie together the ideas to which you have been introduced, and to explore a particular question that has especially struck you over the course of your studies. There are two major components of the course.

First, we will engage in the type of intellectual conviviality that characterizes Humanities in discussions of short writings from the themes of each of the Seminars. This will enable us to review and consolidate those central courses and will reinforce your intellectual habits and vocation to the intellectual life for the world beyond 无码专区.

Second, you will take on a major writing project, the senior essay, that will allow you to explore a topic in depth and synthesize a particular theme, question, or issue from your time at 无码专区. This meaningful project, drawing on both the Seminars and Electives, should deepen your relationship with yourself and your world.