Spring 2025 Course Descriptions
The Invention of the Human (GTX 3321: Early Modern Age)
Dr. Alan Jacobs – TR 11:00 – 12:15
In this class, we will explore the writers and texts that invented the very idea of the human — and try to understand why they did it. Writers will probably include: Niccolò Machiavelli, Martin Luther, Teresa of Avila, William Shakespeare, René Descartes, Blaise Pascal, Thomas Hobbes, and John Milton.
Remembering Wisdom and Eloquence for Life (GTX 3361: Great Texts in the Practice of the Liberal Arts)
Dr. Phillip Donnelly – MW 1:00 – 2:15
Imagine that you are a human being (rather than an AI) who uses words to persuade other people. Is it possible for your words to be anything more than propaganda? What are the best ways to cultivate the practical skills involved in persuasion? The readings for this seminar will consider such questions by studying the traditional rhetorical tasks of invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. In addition to the anonymous Rhetorica Ad Herennium, the texts for the seminar range from antiquity to the moderns. The goal of the course is to move beyond questions of mere definition (regarding the various arts, or even the tasks of the orator) to consider long-standing debates regarding how the skills of persuasion can best be instilled and improved. The course will especially benefit those who seek alternatives to the self-instrumentalization induced by the machine that governs contemporary social conditions. What happens if you learn to inhabit a vision of rhetoric that is not governed by modern instrumental rationality? Come, and find out.
Twentieth Century (GTX 4321): The Life of the Mind - Interdisciplinary Perspectives from the 20th Century
Dr. David Shin – TR 9:30 – 11:00
What are the activities of the human mind? And what is their place in our embodied existence? We will examine the life of the mind by gathering the best insights from authors of the 20th century. Authors may include Hannah Arendt, Viktor Frankl, Sigmund Freud, Michel Foucault, William James, Carl Jung, Jacques Maritain, Walker Percy, Josef Pieper, Marcel Proust, Antonin Sertillanges, Edith Stein, John Watson, and Simone Weil. Along the way, we will seek to integrate the readings with our own lives and contexts.
Twentieth Century (GTX 4321): Cli-Fi and Neo-Slave Narratives: “Sing for Our Time Too”
Dr. Lynne Hinojosa – TR 11:00 – 12:15
As the United States continues to reckon both with the past, especially the history of slavery and race relations, and the future, such as climate crisis, how should we think about the course of human history? What is the ethical significance of remembering the past truthfully and considering the future realistically? What role might literature play in thinking about these questions? In this class we will read a sampling of “Cli-Fi” (climate fictions) and Neo-Slave Narratives to see how various authors address these topics. We will also consider how Christians might address these questions by studying the genre of biblical prophecy and by examining allusions and references to other Great Texts students may have read. Texts will include: Cormac McCarthy’s The Road; Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and/or Kindred; Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake; excerpts from Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry of the Future; Toni Morrison’s A Mercy; and Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad.
Augustine and Aquinas (GTX 4331)
Dr. Michael Foley – TR 12:30 – 1:45
This course attempts to facilitate a better grasp of the thought, development, and historical context of St. Augustine of Hippo through a survey of his writings from his conversion to Christianity in A.D. 386 to his death in A.D. 430. Our interest is both historic and existential: Historic: Augustine had a tremendous impact on Western Christianity. Before we can assess how he has been received historically, we must first determine what he actually thought and wrote and whether or to what degree his thought developed over time or in response to particular challenges. Existential: Augustine, we might go so far to say, was obsessed with the question of happiness. What can he teach us about happiness today?
Master Works in Theology (GTX 4332): The City of God, Then and Now
Dr. Barry Harvey – TR 3:30 – 4:45
Augustine’s magisterial book The City of God Against the Pagans is one of the foundational texts of Western culture, exerting an enormous influence both within the Christian community and in secular political and social thought some sixteen centuries following his death in 430 C.E. Augustine comments on a wide variety of topics, including the existence of evil, the Fall of humankind, death and suffering of the righteous, culminating with the differences between the City of God and Earthly City. The interpretation of this work was and remains contested, as numerous scholars approach its message from markedly different directions. The bulk of our time in this class will be devoted to reading the text, but we shall also read about the precedents in Scripture, Jewish teaching, Greek and Roman thought, and early Christian writings that set the context for Augustine’s mature thought.We shall bring the course to a conclusion with a number of twentieth and twenty-first century interpretations of the book’s meaning for the contemporary world.
Master Works in Music (GTX 4340) – Dr. David Corey – TR 9:30 – 10:45
Masterworks of Music surveys the major historical periods and many of the finest pieces of western classical music while pursuing difficult philosophical questions about the role of music in a rich and flourishing life: What is music? How does music have meaning? What is the relationship between music and the culture in which it is produced? Does music have an ethical dimension such that it can be “good” or “bad” in its significance? Is music limited to its ethical value, or can it somehow transcend the moral domain? How are aesthetic judgments possible? Can music somehow get us closer to God? Students will leave the course with a wide knowledge of classical music and a deep appreciation for aesthetic delight.
Great Texts in Modern Science (GTX 4341): What is Modern Science?
Dr. Katie Calloway – MW 1:00 – 2:15
This is a class on the history of science in Europe and North America since 1600, with special emphasis on the relationship between science and the Christian religion. Students will learn the foundational content and context of several lineages of natural sciences through engagement with historical texts, starting with the emergence of what we now recognize as “science” in the scientific revolution. Science is a central facet of the modern world; our readings and discussions will help us better understand multiple aspects of modern sciences, as we reflect together on the nature of those sciences, their history, and their role in society. Do natural sciences provide any sort of unified or coherent world picture? If so, what kind? What is the role of human beings in that picture, and what are the possibilities for religious belief, free will, or ethical commitment? While emphasis will be given to primary scientific texts (such as works by Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle, Charles Darwin, Stephen Hawking, and Rachel Carson), we will also read some philosophical writing about science, for example by Thomas Kuhn and Laurence Principe. Finally, we will also consider the light shed on the history and philosophy of science in fiction, reading H.G. Wells and Ursula K. Le Guin.
Confession and Autobiography (GTX 4351): Who am I? Souls, Selves, and Searching
Dr. Kristen Drahos – TR 2:00 – 3:15
This course explores the many and various ways that people write the stories of their lives. Who am I? What is my story? Do I even have a story? If so, in what way can I tell it? To whom do I address it? To answer these questions, we will delve into various ways that narratives embrace coherence, chaos, witness, self-understanding, knowledge, and wisdom.