200

The Honors College will assemble a diverse schedule of events each semester that explore the meaning and significance of our contemporary world. Students will have the opportunity to attend events, both on- and off-campus, from a broad array of areas (e.g., politics, economics, entertainment, world religions, genetics, psychology, technology, and the environment). Students will be challenged to reflect critically on these events, particularly in light of their broader liberal education and their developing understanding of the Christian faith. This course is limited to Honors College students and may be repeated up to six semester hours.

The purpose of this course is to provide a seminar setting in which narrowly defined topics may be subjected to an in-depth and interdisciplinary examination. The course, which will typically be co-taught by faculty from different fields of study, will challenge students to analyze various ideas and issues in a creative and methodological manner, with special attention being given to the broader contexts (historical, social, scientific, etc) within which such subjects must be understood and to the consideration of how a Christian worldview might inform one's perspectives and conclusions.

The purpose of this course is to help students cultivate a deeper understanding of various current events and issues that shape our world. In particular, students will be challenged to consider the meaning and significance of such matters in the light of the Christian faith. Typically, the course will focus on a particular contemporary issue or theme prominent in the news.

This course provides opportunities for Honors College students to grow as Christian liberal learners. Through various readings, discussions, written work, and personal assessments, students are challenged to deepen their understanding of the nature and purpose of a Christian liberal education, equipped to draw their general education and academic majors into formative dialogue with the Christian theological narrative, and taught to pursue an integrative life of learning, spirituality, and service within the context of a holistic Kingdom-of-God vocation. Students integrate the coursework from these tutorials into a Liberal Learning & Life Calling Portfolio (LLLC) that consolidates and documents their growth in the Honors College learning outcomes. This Portfolio culminates in a LLLC capstone course in which Seniors synthesize the fruits of their liberal education and cast a personal vision for the lifelong pursuit of intellectual and spiritual growth. This course is limited to Honors College students and may be repeated up to 6 hours.

"Habits of Faithfulness in One's Life Calling" explores how the Christian practices that students participated in during HNR 130 and HNR 135 might be drawn together into lifelong habits of faithfulness that sustain their life calling.

In this practicum, students will learn how to assess news and current events and to utilize social media as meaningful expressions of their Christian calling. This learning experience will focus in particular on developing media literacy, applying the logic of a Christian narrative to analysis of current events, and integrating media consumption into an intentional plan of spiritual formation. Prerequisite: HNR-170.

Liberal Learning and Life Calling Seminars are interdisciplinary studies of the foundational questions intrinsic to human existence. Each seminar explores the nature and significance of one of these questions: most fundamentally, within the framework of historic Christian theology and practice, but also in the light of various relevant academic disciplines and contemporary ideologies. The ultimate goal of the seminars is to equip students to better understand the meaning and purpose of life by cultivating an historic Christian vision of human flourishing and the capacity to discern how this vision relates to competing conceptions of human existence. HNR 270 explores what it means to be human and traces how people's various answers to this question-whether by design or default-shape the substance of their daily lives. The course focuses on what it means for humans to be created in the image of the Triune God and to live out the essence of that image in a fallen world. Readings will draw from the creation narratives, the Gospels, Epistle to the Hebrews, as well as disciplines such as anthropology, biology, psychology, philosophy, and sociology. Prerequisite: HNR170

Liberal Learning and Life Calling Seminars are interdisciplinary studies of the foundational questions intrincis to human existence. Each seminar explores the nature and significance of one of these questions: most fundamentally, within the framework of historic Christian theology and practice, but also in the light of various relevant academic disciplines and contemporary ideologies. The ultimate goal of the seminars is to equip students to better understand the meaning and purpose of life by cultivating an historic Christian vision of human flourishing and the capacity to discern how this vision relates to competing conceptions of human existence. HNR 275 explores how the Church understands God's invitation to all of humanity to embrace "the good life." This theological vision of the good life will also engage insights offered by disciplines such as literature, political science, sociology, and economics. In the end, students will develop understandings of how God's call to faithfulness, hope, and love should orient their pursuits of lives well-lived in the face of competing cultural notions of goodness. Prerequisite: HNR170

Liberal Learning and Life Calling Seminars are interdisciplinary studies of the foundational questions intrinsic to human existence. Each seminar explores the nature and significance of one of these questions most fundamentally, within the framework of historic Christian theology and practice, but also in the light of various relevant academic disciplines and contemporary ideologies. The ultimate goal of the seminars is to equip students to better understand the meaning and purpose of life by cultivating an historic Christian vision of human flourishing and the capacity to discern how this vision relates to competing conceptions of human existence. HNR-175 explores the nature of beauty in light of God's character, His created order, and humanity's participation in divine creativity. Prerequisite: HNR-170.

This course explores the social, political, cultural and literary developments of human history from the 8th Century BCE to 1600 CE. Through key historical sources and literary texts students will examine how various societies through the centuries cultivated particular visions of wisdom, culture, and justice as well as how these visions nurtured key historical developments. Combining elements and methodologies of both Old and New Historicism along with various literary methodologies-new criticism, structuralism, reader response, deconstruction, Marxism, cultural poetics, etc.-this course investigates the shifting paradigms of Western Civilization in order to help students to situate contemporary society in this historical trajectory.

HNR280/285 explore the social, political, cultural and literary developments of human history from the 8th Century BCE to 1600 CE. Through key historical sources and literary texts, we will explore answers to the following questions: What is truth? What is humanity? What is the Good Life? and Who is our neighbor? Combining elements and methodologies of both Old and New Historicism along with various literary methodologies-New Criticism, Structuralism, Reader-Response, Deconstruction, Marxism, Cultural Poetics, and others,-these courses will investigate the shifting epistemes of Western Civilization and literature. The success of these interdisciplinary courses is dependent on the presence of both a literature and history professor in each class session. Must be taken concurrently with HNR-280. Co-requisite: HNR-280.