Fall 2018 Gen 460 Descriptions
Faith in the World Seminar (GEN 460) – Fall 2018
This seminar explores what it means to think and live faithfully in our world, by engaging in an in-depth study of an important issue. Each class will engage with the richness and complexity of its subject by considering diverse viewpoints and multiple academic disciplines and exploring their interconnections. Each class will also be challenged with some of the best Christian thinking about the issue. The class will maintain an atmosphere of open inquiry and discovery, and provide occasion for each student to reflect on God’s call on his /her life. Prerequisite: senior standing, or junior standing and completion of all other general education requirements.
Our Christmas Holiday
Instructor: STEVE JENSEN
How did we inherit the sprawling, complex, and conflicted holiday celebration we know as Christmas, and what should we do about it? In this seminar-style course we will undertake an in-depth study of its origins and subsequent history as a Christian holiday, including its theological implications, its traditional role in spiritual formation, and the debates surrounding its later suppression by Puritans and its Victorian revival. We will also study its “secular” roles in national, economic, and family life, considering as we do so the nature of civil religion and issues of civil liberties. All of this will be done with attention to the stories, poems, hymns and carols, movies, and TV specials that exemplify its changing history. Ultimately, we will used our deepening perspective to reflect on the best ways to participate in this holiday in our own time and place.
Film and the American Dream
Instructor: JAY CASE
This course is an examination of film in the US between 1945 and the present, thematically linked to the concept of “the American Dream.” Through those films this class gives students the critical equipment for encountering artistic materials and sustaining critical dialogue. Students will also better understand the ways that historical context shapes conceptions of the American Dream and ways that conceptions of the American Dream have driven thematic content in film. As an organizing framework for the course, the class will explore the concept of the American Dream through the primary theme of the Material Ideal, as well as secondary themes of individualism, civic responsibility, family, friendship, security, race, gender and faith. Through this process, students should become more thoughtful and mature people of faith.
Home and Other Places
Instructors: MATT PHELPS and SCOTT WAALKES
As embodied creatures, we are always located somewhere. In this seminar we explore the (typically unexamined) settings in which we live and the kinds of places people need in order to pursue individual and communal well-being. Topics include home, third places, natural settings, healing places, sacred places, neighborhoods, and public places. Students will be challenged to reconsider their perceptions and desires, especially with respect to private vs. public life and the positive and negative aspects of living in urban, suburban, and rural settings. Students will be invited to explore how Christian perspectives on “place” and “placemaking” can help them to care about and take care of places in order to cultivate grounded and vibrant lives for themselves and others.
Privacy in the Information Age
Instructor: JAMES GLASGOW
The privacy issue is so important in today’s world and affects every one of us on a daily basis. The discussion of privacy emerges out of social media, law, information technology, health care, business, education, and all areas of human interaction. A Christian response to this ever-increasing importance of privacy in our modern world is vital to living differently and more faithfully in practical ways. This course will begin with a general discussion of the Christian, philosophical, and legal foundations of the ethical issue of privacy. The course will then focus, from a Christian perspective, on specific disciplines (health care, business, education, computer science, and others) where privacy issues have become a focal point and significant. For each discipline, both published papers and current events will supplement the primary textbooks.