Course Description

While addressing all of the Goals and Objectives set forward by the Honors Program, this course will take as its focus the question of the value and purpose of education, both historically and personally for each student. The course is organized into eight separate modules. With the exception of the first module, they are arranged chronologically and each center on a core literary text. In addition to that core text, students will also read selections from other important primary documents from other disciplines and related to the core literary text and the period in which it was published.

Goals:

According to the stated goals of the Master Syllabus for this course, “This course is the third course in the three-course Honors Foundational Sequence. Students will acquire an understanding of the challenges posed by modernity to traditional Christian understandings of the world, and of Christianity’s responses to these challenges.”

Objectives:

1)       To acquire an in-depth acquaintance with the challenges posed by modernity to traditional Christian understandings of the world, and of Christianity’s responses to these challenges, from the point of view of the academic discipline of the instructor.

2)       To acquire an understanding of the limitations of this disciplinary approach to the challenges posed by modernity and Christianity’s responses.

3)       To acquire an appreciation of the ways in which other disciplines contribute to our understanding of challenges posed by modernity and Christianity’s responses.

4)       To develop the skills of close reading, and analysis and interpretation of primary source material.

5)       To develop an ability to write analytical papers, and to gain facility at the practice of revising and rewriting.