The Sacred & The Secular: Seminar
Semester:
Fall
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Year offered:
2010
Course Description
This seminar will develop a Gen Ed course in Culture and Belief. The Gen Ed course is devoted to the following question: What is the meaningfulness and direction of our lives grounded in, now that we live in a secular age? The course proceeds by considering different conceptions of gods and the sacred in the classic literature of the West, asking whether any of these conceptions remains relevant after the death of God. Readings for the course are chosen from among Homer, the Bible, Aeschylus,Virgil, Augustine, Dante, Luther, Shakespeare, Milton, Pascal, Nietzsche, Melville, and others. The seminar will put these readings in context by considering them in the light of Hegel and Heidegger's philosophy of history.