This year-long religious studies course is an exploration into the different living religious traditions of the world. Religions covered during this year include Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism. Christianity and Islam. Students will learn to distinguish and appreciate the various ways people define their relationships with the divine and with the world itself. Students will also have the opportunity to read foundational texts from the major world religions and to visit both Christian and non-Christian places of worship. Goals for students enrolled in this course are to develop the ability to think both empathetically and critically about conflicting religious claims 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.
The sophomore year is devoted to a yearlong study of sacred scripture. Both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament will be studied from the perspective of modern biblical scholarship. Using available secular, historical, and linguistic scholarship, students will study the essential underlying message contained in the scriptures in an attempt to deepen each student’s spirituality and introduce students to a mature awareness of divine revelation. In addition, students will also consider the Christian community’s rituals of worship, the sacraments, focusing on the sacraments of initiation: Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist. The sacraments will be viewed as personal encounters with Christ as well as institutional rituals that have developed over the course of the church’s history.
This year-long course is an introduction to the fundamentals and concerns of Christian ethics. 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 within our 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 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.
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” (Hadot). Following the example of Socrates, we ask questions about life, the universe, and everything, because “the examined life is not worth living.” Through the living practice of philosophy, a person undergoes “a conversion which turns our entire life upside down, changing the life of the person who goes through it” (Hadot). Philosophy, because it engages mind and heart, body and soul, in the relentless action of reflection and questioning is a form of spiritual exercise (Hadot). 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.
Religion is ubiquitous in Philadelphia. From its founding as the head of William Penn’s “Holy Experiment” until today, religion is a physically visible, socially active and economically large part of what makes up Philadelphia today. Moreover, we are privileged to be residents in a city of religious ‘firsts’: first U.S. city to grant religious freedom in 1682 (which made Philadelphia the only place in the British Empire where public Masses were legal at the time of the American Revolution), the first independent Black denomination in the United States founded in 1794, and the first Roman Catholic church and school built specifically for a Chinese congregation in the United States in 1941. Using the lenses of socio-cultural analysis and the city as our classroom, this course will help students examine the way religion has and continues to shape the city of Philadelphia through the lenses of history, the social institutions of education, healthcare & city government, the civil rights movement, religious diversity, social justice advocacy, and sports as religion. Students will be expected to do a comprehensive research project connected to a religiously based organization as a part of their overall grade. Some 3-5 off campus visits will be required, some of which will be done as a class and others on their own.
In this seminar style 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.
