PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION DEPARTMENT
ETHICAL DILEMMAS
What does it mean to be an ethical person? The study of Plato's Allegory of the Cave will provide the philosophical format for our investigation of this question. Case studies for our symposium styled debates will emphasize dilemmas drawn from the lives of each student. Readings will include selections from the works of Plato, Aristotle, Kierkegaard, and Viktor Frankl. (Both semesters)
Eligibility: Required course for graduation and may be taken in grades 10-12.
FROM SOUL TO SELF
Beginning with the birth of Christendom, we will trace the Medieval understanding of the individual up to the epoch clash between Thomas More and Henry VIII. From here, the evolution our faith in the Self will be outlined,from the Enlightenment, to Existentialism, and Psychoanalysis. We will conclude with a look at the question of identity in the new millennium. We will read selections from the works of Augustine, Hildegard of Bingen, Saint Francis, Thomas More, Descartes, Kant, Tolstoy, and Hesse. (Winter semester)
Eligibility: Semester elective for eleventh and twelfth graders.
THE ROMANTIC MYTH
The mythic, mystic, and religious roots of our romantic heritage will provide material for this class, as we study the remarkably complex dimensions of this seductive myth. Each student will trace the cultural evolution of "the romantic" from Plato (The Symposium) to the modern musings of Kierkegaard (The Diary of a Seducer). With detours into such classic texts of Eros and Psyche and Celano's St. Clare the Virgin, students will complete this class with a deeper appreciation of what it means to be a romantic.
Eligibility: Semester elective for eleventh and twelfth graders.
THE ENIGMA: WILL THE REAL JESUS PLEASE STAND UP?
Images of Jesus have shaped our cultural vision of what it means to be a Christian. But which image is reality? In tackling this controversial question we will study the canonical and extra-canonical gospels (i.e. the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hamadi Library), and examine recent, archeological findings. In the end students will be challenged to develop their own Christology. (Spring semester)
Eligibility: Semester elective open to eleventh and twelfth graders.
SOCRATES AND PLATO
In the late fourth century BCE, an aristocratic youth named Plato met an eccentric stone-cutter named Socrates. This encounter produced a combustible interaction of minds that would forever influence the way we understand the world. This seminar will entail careful readings of The Symposium, The Euthyphro, The Apology, The Crito, The Phaedo, and selections from The Republic.
Eligibility: Semester elective open to eleventh and twelfth graders.
ANIMISM
Conventional wisdom has assumed that religion emerged some 10,000 years ago, with the advent of the celebrated Agricultural Revolution. However, recent discoveries reveal a much older origin, and the existence of universal religion that dates from before 200,000 B.C.E. What were the religious attitudes towards life that sustained humanity for so many millenniums? We will read, write, dream, and mythologize our way to some unexpected answers. (Winter semester)
Eligibility: Semester elective for eleventh and twelfth graders.
PILGRIMS WITHOUT A SHRINE
The counter-cultural upheavals of the sixties and seventies altered our sense of what it means to be religious. As a result, there has emerged a new attitude towards the sacred, that speaks directly to the individual. This course will study how this historic shift has impacted our habits of belief. We will study the events, trends and writings of such futuristic thinkers as Robert Pirsig, Daniel Quinn, and Ursula LeGuin. (Spring semester)
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