Course Title: Great Books: Christendom and Renaissance
Grade: 10
Credits: 1
A. Course Description:
Great Books: Christendom and Renaissance is a survey of great western literature and historical sources from the Apostolic Age through the 16th Century.
B. Course Objectives/Methods:
This course is a detailed overview of the development of Theology, Philosophy, and Political thought as they proceed from of the Classical age and into the Reformation. Great emphasis is placed on understanding each author in his historical context and on critiquing his thought in light of Scripture. Classes are conducted using the Socratic method to encourage independent research and critical thinking skills.
C. Course Goals:
Students will be able to do the Following:
- Create substantive outlines of works read;
- Know and apply the key elements of proper literary interpretation;
- Describe the basic worldview of each author or work read;
- Identify and discuss literary and historical influences upon the authors studied;
- Identify and discuss each author's influences on subsequent authors and thought;
- Identify and describe the internal and external forces (political, theological, and philosophical) that shaped the development of the Church;
- Generate and convey in writing, ideas related to the course in an organized and lucid manner;
- Demonstrate the ability to synthesize, with guidance, various ideas from different authors into a coherent thesis for discussion and writing;
- Critically analyze, in discussion and writing, authors' ideas from Scriptural perspective;
- Specify and explain the influence of the works studied on culture, especially as the students see it in their own contexts and worldviews.
D. Teacher Materials:
Class notes, outlines. See required student texts.
E. Student Texts:
Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy: Hell. trans. Dorothy L. Sayers. Penguin Books.
Aquinas, Thomas. Selected Writings. trans. Ralph McInerny. Penguin Books.
Athanasius, On the Incarnation. *
Augustine, Confessions. trans. R. S. Pine-Coffin. Penguin Books.
Beowulf. trans Seamus Heaney. W. W. Norton & Company.
Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy. trans. Richard Green. England Cliffs.
Chaucer, Canterbury Tales. trans. Nevill Coghill. Penguin Books.
Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince. trans. Daniel Donno. Bantam Dell.
Pamphilius, Eusebius. Church History. trans. Rev. Arthur Cushman McGiffert. ed. Philip Schaff. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.html *
Selected Early Church Documents *
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet (Folger Shakespeare Library). Washington Square Press.
Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare's Sonnets (Folger Shakespeare Library). Washington Square Press.
Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ. Hendrickson Publishers.
* Indicates copyright free text. Bound into a student reader.
c. Copyright Providence Christian Academy