Spring 2026 Course Descriptions
Reimagining Self, City, and Cosmos
Early Modern Age (GTX 3321)
Dr. Phillip Donnelly - TR 3:30 – 4:45
The most profound human disagreements often arise from our assumed visions of the self, the city, and the cosmos. What does it meant to say that the self is (or is not) free? How does our imagination of the world shape what we presume about agency, whether human or divine? If you personally seek to become a viable human adult, what is at stake in how you imagine yourself, your communities, or the cosmos? How are these aspects of reality connected, or disconnected? Many of our contemporary answers to these kinds of questions take their inception from those texts of the Early Modern Era (circa 1500-1700) that we shall be studying—including the likes of Machiavelli, Theresa of Avila, John Milton, and others. The readings include texts on philosophy, theology, imaginative literature, and political theory, providing an opportunity to interrogate the connections between what we know, how we live, and what we enjoy. This seminar is an invitation to remember the conversations which make present knowledge possible and which present knowledge may, at its peril, forget.
Great Texts by Women (GTX 3330)
Dr. Lynne Hinojosa – TR 11:00 – 12:15
In this course we will read texts from across the centuries written by women. We will focus on how these women writers interpreted, questioned, and contributed ideas within four overlapping areas: the intellectual tradition and the concept of virtue; the church and the pursuit of holiness; literature and its poetic functions; and politics and the gender norms of society. Texts will likely include: Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own; excerpts from Mary Wollstonecraft and Hannah Arendt; Catherine of Siena’s The Dialogue; Simone Weil’s Gravity and Grace; Jane Austen’s Persuasion; Toni Morrison’s Beloved; and selections from various women poets.
Pilgrimage: Saints and Sinners on the Way…
Great Texts in Christian Spirituality (GTX 3331)
Dr. Kristen Drahos – TR 9:30 – 10:45
Christians have long understood and sought relationship with God and their fellows through pilgrimage, where the boundary between the known and the mysterious thins. Ever moving, we are Homo Viator—men and women on the way, almost always venturing toward something and/or someone. In the pilgrim’s journey, physical voyaging and holy sites intersect with communal practices, individual searches for meaning, and transformative encounters with God. This class invites students to investigate Christian pilgrimage through authors such as Egeria, Bonaventure, T.S. Eliot, Shūsaku Endō, Dorothy Day, Flannery O’Connor, Martin Luther King JR, and Annie Dillard.
Great Texts in Leadership (GTX 3350)
Dr. Scott Moore – TR 2:00 – 3:15
In GTX 3350 we will read a selection of great texts of literature, philosophy, and politics which address the nature and character of leadership. We will be confronted with classic models of decision-making, with concrete historical examples of good and bad leadership, with sustained reflection and argumentation on legitimate and illegitimate means and ends of action, with the prevalence of self-deception, naiveté, and overconfidence, and with an astute understanding of the role of habit and character formation. Since the great authors frequently disagree about the most important “matters that matter,” you must also confront difficult choices between (apparently) equally compelling but contradictory options. This is the world within which real leaders find themselves. We will read from among texts by Plutarch, Cicero, Petrarch, Machiavelli, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Rebecca West, Graham Greene, Hannah Arendt, and others.
Great Texts in the Principles of the Liberal Arts (GTX 3360)
Dr. William Weaver – TR 9:30 – 10:45
Foundational, formational, life-giving, necessary – these are some of the descriptions of the liberal arts grammar, logic, and rhetoric. For much of their history, they were synonymous in academic contexts with “philosophy.” Together they describe an outline of learning for a flourishing life and the public good. In this class we will read influential works on the liberal arts, including Plato’s Gorgias and Phaedrus, Aristotle’s Rhetoric, and C. S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man. We will also read Homer’s Iliad and reflect on the origins, uses, and future of the liberal arts. This course may be taken as an elective or as a requirement for the Liberal Arts concentration in the GTX major.
Reaping the Whirlwind
Twentieth Century (GTX 4321)
Dr. Barry Harvey – MW 2:30 – 3:45
“For they sow the wind, / and they shall reap the whirlwind” (Hosea 8). The twentieth century was the most violent and hate-filled in human history to date. The unabashed optimism that ushered in the start of the twentieth century was quickly shattered by two catastrophic world wars and innumerable regional conflicts, tyranny, genocide, economic depression, racism, apartheid, social fragmentation, and ecological devastation, just to mention a few lowlights. In spite of the bloodshed and violence, however, there were some still discerning signs of life and love that interrupted the consequences of past generations. Readings will be selected from among such noted authors as John Dewey, Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Toni Morrison, Countee Cullen, Elie Wiesel, Primo Levi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Irina Ratushiskaya, Walker Percy, J. R. R. Tolkien, James Baldwin, Dorothy Day, Abraham Heschel, P.D. James, Gustavo Gutierrez, Walter M. Miller, Jr., Oscar Romero, and James Cone as they nurture sparks of hope left dampened by the events of the times.
Thinking Through Modern Science: History, Philosophy, and Fiction
Great Texts in Modern Science (GTX 4341)
Dr. Katie Calloway – TR 2:00 – 3:15
This course will explore science in Europe and North America since the “scientific revolution” of the 17th century, with special emphasis on the relationship between science and the Christian religion. Students will learn the foundational content and context of several natural sciences through engagement with historical texts, starting with the emergence of what we now recognize as “science”: empirical study of the natural world. Science is a central facet of modernity; 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, William Paley, Charles Darwin, and Stephen Hawking), we will also read some philosophical writing about science, for example by Laurence Principe. Finally, we will also consider the light shed on the history and philosophy of science in fiction, reading authors such as H.G. Wells, C.S. Lewis and Ursula K. Le Guin.
Internship in the Liberal Arts (GTX 4360)
Dr. Phillip Donnelly
This course is an internship that aims to apply what students have studied in GTX 3360 and/or GTX 3361. The goal is to provide opportunities for apprenticeship in the skills required for teaching the liberal arts. The internship includes work at a local school, where you will observe and participate in teaching and in classroom support activities.
Great Texts in the Fantasy Tradition
Special Topics in Great Texts (GTX 4V99)
Dr. Alan Jacobs – TR 11:00 – 12:15
In one sense, fantasy is the oldest of literary forms. Think of the features – the characters, the events, the powers – that you associate with fantasy and you will soon realize that most of them may be found in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost – and, of course, the Old Testament. Most of the history of literature is the history of the fantastic. But fantasy as a definable genre can come about only when realistic fiction has become the norm – which is to say, in the nineteenth century. In this class we will want to ask why it arose when it did, what needs or desires it served, why it became perhaps the dominant literary form of the twentieth century – and why it is so often associated with the Christian faith.