Course Syllabus

Instructor: Ted Vial
E-mail: tvial@iliff.edu
Office Hours: by appointment

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE SYLLABUS IS AVAILABLE AS A FILE ON THE FILES PAGE

Course Synopsis

What does it mean to be human?  After a brief survey of traditional Christian answers to this question we will focus on the theological anthropology that has become the de facto theory of human nature since the emergence of the modern western world in the early19th century.  Theological anthropology can be the driver of other doctrines in a systematic theology; it also underpins work not necessarily seen as theological, such as ethics, development, and human rights.  A rich understanding of this anthropology will be necessary for theological reflection in our current contex

Books for the Course

 All students:

Isaiah Berlin, The Roots of Romanticism (Princeton 1999). ISBN 978-0691086620

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther trans. Stanley Applebaum (Dover 2004) ISBN 0-486-43363-3.  The standard translation is available as volume 11 of Goethe’s collected works, published by Princeton.  There is also a free translation online made available by Gutenberg.  Either of those is acceptable (though the translation will be different).  I like the Dover version because it is inexpensive and contains the German original text side-by-side with the English translation.

Dwight Hopkins, Being Human:  Race, Culture, and Religion (Fortress 2005). ISBN 978-0800637576

Friedrich Schlegel, Lucinde and the Fragments trans. Peter Firchow (Wipf and Stock/Minnesota 2005, 1971).  ISBN 978-0816657667

Friedrich Schleiermacher, Soliloquies trans. Horace Leland Friess (Wipf and Stock 2002, 1926).  ISBN 1-57910-855-5

Novalis, Henry von Ofterdingen trans. Palmer Hilton (Waveland 1964, 1990). ISBN 978- 0881335743

 

Ph.D. students should also purchase:

 

Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self:  The Making of the Modern Identity (Harvard 1989). ISBN 0-674-82426-1

See Taylor Library's list of online book sellers for purchasing options.

Overview and Objectives

Evaluation

Policies And Services

Degree Learning Goals

Course Summary:

Date Details Due