Courses

Students examine, through readings, discussion, and student presentations, the way that men and women in Europe circa 1300 to 1700 embraced alternative religious beliefs, some of which were accepted and domesticated by the Catholic or protestant institutional churches, while others were rejected and persecuted as heresy and/ or witchcraft by both. Students also evaluate different historiographical and methodological approaches to the study of heterodoxy.

This course examines the period of transition and turmoil in European history, from approximately 1360 to 1550, known as the Renaissance. As the cultural synthesis of the high middle ages was crumbling, poets, philosophers, artists, architects, theologians, and statesmen in search of a fresh model for society rejected the late medieval scholastic worldview and embraced a new educational program, the studia humanitatis, based on a re-evaluation and revival of classical culture. This transition affected not only literature, the arts, the sciences, religion, and government, but virtually every other sphere of human activity. Therefore, this course, while providing an in-depth, interdisciplinary introduction to the key topics of humanism, religion, political theory, and changes in high culture, also investigates the issues of gender, economic development, and social history during this period. It also assesses different methodological approaches to the study of the Renaissance.

During the twentieth century, it became clear that the majority of Christians worldwide were not Europeans or North Americans but Latin Americans, Africans, and Asians. Some observers interpret this as a major shift in the very nature of Christianity but others view it as the renewal of what is essentially a non-Western religion. Instead of representing an entirely new development, they see the twentieth century growth of Christianity as a return to the history of Christianity before 1200- 1400 AD when Europe developed as its dominant heartland. By means of readings, guest lectures, and student seminar presentations, this course examines aspects of non-Western Christianity including early origins, struggles with Islam, the impact of European imperialism and missions, and factors involved in the accelerated growth in many parts of the world since the mid-twentieth century.

This course examines in detail the background and development of Christian thought and life in the period spanning the Apostolic Fathers through to the Council of Nicaea (325). Particular attention is paid to how the early Christians understood themselves, how they interpreted their religious tradition and related it to their religious experience, and how they defined their own purposes. This course seeks to contextualize pre-Christianity in its diverse expressions. Thus, the course analyzes the complex formulation of Pre-Nicene Christianity through the writings of some of its most influential thinkers, leaders, and movements (both orthodox and heretical) with an eye toward identifying major developments in early Christian theology and practice.

This course uses reading, discussion, and student presentations to examine the ways that historians have conceptualized the Atlantic World and those who people it. It considers the very idea of the Atlantic system as a framework for historical study and the ways in which various historiographical and methodological approaches have affected the way we understand the people and events of the Atlantic basin.

An examination of ethical issues that pertain to social justice, addressing such topics as the distribution of wealth, the difference between equality and equity, the effects of globalization, and the morality of war.”

A study of the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, focusing primarily on Kant's seminal work, Critique of Pure Reason.

This course acquaints students with important philosophical developments in Western Anglo- American philosophy during the twentieth century. These include analytic philosophy, ordinary language philosophy, and recent developments questioning the traditional value and role of philosophy. The writings of major philosophers are studied throughout, and emphasis is placed upon epistemological, metaphysical, and linguistic issues. Some attention is given to examining the relationships between these philosophical movements and others, e.g., those that characterize postmodernism. Attention is occasionally given to points that carry implications for Christian faith.

A study of empiricist philosophy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Selected writings of Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume are analyzed and interpreted. As we discuss each author's ideas, we will evaluate their positions on: the limits of knowledge and experience, the intelligibility of revelatory truth, the existence of God, the divisibility of reality, the role of nature, and the ethics and politics of human life