300

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 explore the nature and meaning of Christian scholarship. This will be accomplished in one of two ways: either through the study of thinkers, movements, and/or themes which provide notable and creative models for the integration of faith and reason, or by reflecting critically on contemporary efforts to analyze modern learning and ideas from a biblical perspective. Possible topics may include Augustine's "City of God", the works of Martin Luther, Jonathan Edwards, John Henry Newman or C.S. Lewis; Christian scholarship in the Reformation era; an evaluative survey of Christian Feminism, liberation theology, or Christian approaches to behavioral science. This course may be repeated. Prerequisite: UNV-180.

This course will acquaint students with the nature, roles, and value of humanities/social science research. In small groups, students will explore a specialized topic from the humanities/social sciences by engaging in collaborative research project with an instructor that will culminate in publishable scholarly work(s). This inquiry-based approach to learning should yield a critical appreciation for the humanities and social sciences that helps students to recognize the relevance of such disciplines to their daily lives. The course will also challenge students to cultivate intellectual skills that are essential to the profitable pursuit of a liberal education: e.g., analytical thinking, critical and reflective reading, well-expressed writing, and articulate oral communication.

In this course, students continue to explore the incarnational nature of servant leadership and consider how servant leaders foster redemptive forms of diverse communities. Students collaboratively develop and implement a service project for the Marion Community, ideally one that draws upon their growing expertise in their fields of study. Students also begin to consider post-graduation plans for servant leadership and the transition to life after college. Prerequisite: Junior standing in the John Wesley Scholars Program and the Mary C. Dodd Honors Program.

The purpose of this variable credit course is to equip honors college students to reflect critically on the relationship between the Christian faith and scholarship in their academic discipline(s). Students enroll in this course for 1 or 2 credit hours depending on the research requirements in their disciplinary major. In consultation with their honors college advisor, students will determine whether they need to utilize the course to prepare an honors scholarships concentration in their disciplinary major. If so, students will enroll in the course for the full two credit hours in order to explore potential research/creative topics and develop a preliminary prospectus for their honors scholarship project in collaboration with a faculty member from their academic discipline.

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-375 focuses on the character of human community and diversity in light of Christian conceptions of creation, sin, redemption, and reconciliation. Drawing on canonical and theological writings, as well as disciplines such as history, sociology, political science, and intercultural studies, the course will help students to develop both a theologically grounded response to the question, "Who is our neighbor?", and a well-informed understanding of how to embody their response in a variety of diverse contexts. Meets Intercultural Competency requirements. Prerequisite: HNR170

This course explores the social, political, cultural and literary developments of human history from 1600 CE to the present. 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. Special emphasis in this course will be placed on explicating "who is our neighbor" as we explore the cultural exchanges that occurred across the global community beginning with the seventeenth century age of exploration and ending with the anticolonial movements of the twentieth century. Co-requisite: HNR-385.

This course explores significant works of literature that both reflect and shape the cultures out of which they arose. By reading a sample of "great texts" written around the globe and across generations, students will learn about the nature and character of the theological and philosophical narratives that shaped these works of literature. Students will also investigate how story and beauty respond to the important "big questions": What is truth?; What is humanity?; What is the good life?; and Who is our neighbor?