Humanities Program
GES245, Sophomore Fall SemesterWestern Humanity in Christian Perspective IIISelf, Community, and God in the Modern West |
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The fall course taken by sophomores in the Humanities Program begins with a significant emphasis on American history and culture. We read an early narrative of a Puritan woman who was captured by Indians in King Philip's War (1675-76), followed by some writings of Jonathan Edwards. During the revolutionary period, our focus is on the constitutional issues debated in The Federalist papers and its opponents. |
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Our emphasis on America includes a significant attention to Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, perhaps the most perceptive book ever written on American culture. Then we move to the Civil War era, with writings by Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. During the fall the class also visits the interactive Mill City Museum and attends a local concert that features music from the Romantic era. |
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Later in the semester, we will read Marx and Nietzsche, and devote considerable attention to one of the greatest novels by a Christian, Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. |
Sample Texts: |
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Jonathan Edwards, selected writings. The Federalist and anti-Federalist Papers. Mary Rowlandson, The Narrative of the Captivity and the Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (1682). Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America. Dred Scott v. Sandford, selected documents. Friedrich Nietzsche, Selected Writings. Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto and other writings. Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov. Roger Olson, The Mosaic of Christian Belief. John Wesley, "Plain Account of Christian Perfection." Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Oversoul." Herman Melville, "Bartleby the Scrivener." Abraham Lincoln, Selected Speeches. V. I. Lenin, The State and Revolution. Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum. |
Sample Lectures that support the reading: |
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Religion in Colonial America The Federalist/Anti-Federalist Debate American Art and Architecture at the Founding Era Tocqueville's Analysis of America Romanticism Musical Romanticism The American Civil War Marx and the Communist Manifesto Marxism-Leninism Nietzsche and the Genealogy The Modern Missionary Movement and Colonialism Darwinism Modern Music: Debussy, Schoenberg, and Stravinsky Dostoevsky and Christian Existentialism Fin de siécle art: Monet, Munch, and Beyond |