This year-long course is an exploration into the different living religious traditions of the world. The first quarter will include a basic introduction to Christianity, Catholicism, and Jesuit charism, history, and worldview. The rest of the year will then explore the world’s major religions. Students will learn to distinguish and appreciate the various ways people define their relationships with the divine and with the world. Students will also have the opportunity to read foundational texts from the major world religions and to visit religious places of worship. Goals for students enrolled in this course are to develop the ability to think both empathetically and critically about religious beliefs and practices and to gain knowledge of the history and culture of several major religious traditions. The ultimate goal of the course, though, is to enhance the student’s understanding of his own beliefs by better understanding the myriad approaches to spirituality and the divine. Prerequisite: None
The sophomore year is devoted to a year-long study of Christian scripture. Both the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament and the New Testament will be studied with the tools of modern biblical scholarship and with the lens of the Christian community. Using available historical, socio-cultural, and linguistic scholarship, students will study the essential underlying message contained in the scriptures in an attempt to deepen each student’s understanding of the biblical Jesus as he was viewed by the early Christian community and surrounding cultures. The major themes of covenant, exodus, exile, life, death, humility vs pride, forgiveness & reconciliation will be explored throughout the year. Prerequisite: None
This year-long course is an introduction to the fundamentals and concerns of Christian ethics in dialogue with philosophical frameworks The course seeks to help students develop an ethical awareness that they can bring to the moral challenges they face, both within their individual lives and society. To practice ethical judgment and decision making, principles of the Catholic social tradition and moral philosophy will be applied to several contemporary social issues using a Jesuit methodology of “context-experience-reflection-action.” Units that will be covered in this course may include poverty and economic justice, violence and peacebuilding, environmental justice, bioethics, sexual ethics, and ethics of social media. The year will conclude with an integrative project in the fourth quarter.
This course will provide students with an exploratory survey of Christian theology from its earliest developments as a messianic movement emerging out of Second Temple Judaism to its continued trajectory within an increasingly interconnected postmodern reality. This course will assist students in a constructive dialogue around fundamental beliefs, traditions, and practices across the global Christian community, with a particular concentration on key figures within the Catholic tradition and their contributions. The organization of the course is thematic/topical although within each topic, the instructor will provide necessary historical context to help frame the conversation, while simultaneously assisting the students in their personal navigation/investigation of the following: ecclesiology, ecumenical dialogue/comparative theology, devotional practices/worship, and theological anthropology.
In this course, students will embark on an exploratory survey of contemporary approaches to environmental ethics from within the Christian tradition. In addition to scholarly proposals and interpretive frameworks, traditional theological sources of inspiration, practical normative applications, and reporting on current issues facing the global ecological community will be considered for review. A majority of the work of note will consist of topics, issues, and written material pertaining to recent developments within the field/discipline of Christian environmental ethics [approx. 1960-present], although some material outside of the time period will be presented to help frame the discussion. Given the complexity, intersectionality, and considerable diversity of influences covered, this course should be treated as an introductory examination of the figures, topics, frameworks, and events listed within the class trajectory/reading list.
Combined with Honors Experience: English I and Honors Experience: World History, this interdisciplinary course explores specific topics in world history by examining each through the lenses of the three disciplines.
Prerequisite: This course is open only to students in the Hawk Honors Program.
Students will gain an intellectual awareness, heart-felt sense, and personal experience of the Ignatian charism, and cultivate skills to lead others in the Jesuit "way of proceeding." It proposes a way of life that is learned primarily through practice. Students will encounter the life of Ignatius of Loyola, the graces and dynamics of the Spiritual Exercises, the gathering of the First Companions and the founding of the Society of Jesus, early and contemporary expressions of the Society’s apostolic mission, the lives of notable Jesuits (Francis Xavier, Mateo Ricci, Roch Gonzalez, Walter Ciszek, Ignacio Ellacuría, Karl Rahner, and Pedro Arrupe), and various themes associated with Ignatian spirituality. Additionally, students will be expected to plan and participate in some events sponsored by Mission and Ministry throughout the semester.
Philosophy is a way of life where we “let ourselves be changed, in our point of view, attitudes, and convictions. This means that we must dialogue with ourselves, hence do battle with ourselves,” in the words of philosopher Pierre Hadot. Following the example of Socrates, we ask questions about life, the universe, and everything, because “the unexamined life is not worth living.” Philosophy engages mind and heart, body and soul, in reflection and questioning. By the end of this course, students will have been introduced to, practiced, and cultivated philosophical habits empowering them to live philosophically, not in the abstract, but as a way of life. Prerequisite: None
This discussion-based senior seminar explores religious activists of the twentieth century (Abraham Joshua Heschel, A.J. Muste, Dorothy Day, Howard Thurman, Thomas Merton, Martin Luther King Jr., and Fannie Lou Hamer) and twenty-first century (present day activists as appropriate) as examples of modern prophets. Beginning with Ezekiel, students will use these models to identify and understand modern prophets in the world around them today (politically, musically, theatrically, athletically) and even within themselves, to examine their own “fire in the bones.” Students will engage with modern activists to determine, experience, and discern their “prophetic” nature. Students will also study and develop their own criteria to be able to critically discern prophetic voices and false ones, and finally, to identify prophetic voices in themselves, engage in activist movements, and make sense of/clearly think through how to give action to that voice.
In this course, students will explore elements of Christian theology through a selection of the great works of J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. Topics considered will include: the tension between divine providence and free will; the nature and origin of evil; inhabiting a fallen world; the soteriological destiny of any non-human incarnate beings that might exist; models for understanding heaven, hell, and purgatory; the cost and value of Christlike sacrifice; and the depth and meaning of incarnational theology. Works studied will include excerpts from well-known works including The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, The Space Trilogy, The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity, The Great Divorce, as well as the shorter works “Mythopoeia,” “Leaf by Niggle,” “The Athrabeth.” Several letters and essays will also be considered. Prerequisite: Must watch (or rewatch) The Lord of the Rings movies (all three) before beginning the class.
