Summer Faith Course 2003 Outline Revised July 23, 2003
Return to Summer Theology 2003 Home page

Junior Theology Faith

Actual Course Outline

St. Louis U. High Summer 2003

Grading plan | Extra Credit
Test & Exam Preview



Reason



We began with a discussion about Holden Caulfield: Was he a person of faith?

 A. Philosophy and theology
  1. What is theology?
  2. What is philosophy?
  3. A key existential question for any reflective person:
    What does it mean to be human?
  4. Five Foundational Existential Truths
Plato�s �Allegory of the Cave"

B. Three kinds of knowledge
  1. Experience
  2. Authority
  3. Reason
C. Five common thinking errors
  1. Non sequitur
  2. False and/or vague premises
  3. Ad hominem
  4. Begging the question
  5. Red herrings
D. Five steps to critical thinking
  1. Know the facts
  2. Remember the principle of contradiction
  3. Define your terms
  4. Be intellectually humble
  5. Look for different perspectives

E. The Process of knowing
  1. Perceiving
  2. Categorizing
  3. Evaluating
  4. Symbolizing
  5. Testing

Short videos: Eric Clapton, excerpt about Socrates from the PBS series The Greeks
Extra credit Film exercise Twelve Angry Men and assignment.


Jacques-Louis David's Death of Socrates
Accused by the Athenian government of denying the gods and corrupting the young through his teachings, Socrates (469�399 B.C.E.) was offered the choice of renouncing his beliefs or being sentenced to death by drinking hemlock. David shows him calmly discoursing on the immortality of the soul with his grief-stricken disciples. Painted in 1787 the picture, with its stoic theme, is perhaps David's most perfect Neoclassical statement. The printmaker and publisher John Boydell wrote to Sir Joshua Reynolds that it was "the greatest effort of art since the Sistine Chapel and the stanze of Raphael. . . . This work would have done honour to Athens at the time of Pericles." The subject is loosely based on Plato's "Phaedo," but in painting it David consulted a variety of sources, including Diderot's treatise on dramatic poetry of 1758 and works by the poet Andr� Chenier. The pose of the figure at the foot of the bed was reportedly inspired by a passage in a novel by the English writer Richardson.
from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Web Site




The Human Condition

B. What is the human condition?
  1. Blasie Pascal, 17th Century A.D.
  2. Marcus Aurelius, 2nd Century A.D.
  3. The Buddha, 5th Century B.C.
  4. Erich Fromm, 20th Century A.D.
  5. Plato�s �Allegory of the Cave" 5th Century B.C.
C. What is the cause of our condition?
  1. The Christian Doctrine of Original Sin
  2. Buddha�s Second Noble Truth
  3. Plato�s Allegory of the Cave
A. The problem of evil
  1. Definition of the Problem
  2. Ways of Approaching the Problem
Video: Rabbi Kushner's When Bad Things Happen to Good People

D. The mystery of Death E. Four theories of the afterlife
  1. annihilation
  2. disembodied immortality
  3. resurrection
  4. reincarnation
F. Chrisian Eschatology
  1. Judgment
  2. Heaven
  3. Hell

What is Faith?

A. The secular definition of faith.

B. The biblical idea of faith
  1. Faith is not totally intellectual; it is more a loving trust.
  2. Faith involves periods of doubt and struggle.
  3. Faith involves risk and periods of darkness.
  4. Faith is an ongoing series of decisions.
The story of David

C. The Catholic definition of faith
  1. Faith is a grace.
  2. Faith is a human response
  3. Faith is a risk.
  4. Faith is reasonable.
  5. Faith is certain.
  6. Faith seeks understanding
  7. Faith is a virtue.
D. Faith: The Golden Way
  1. Nihilism
  2. Radicalism
  3. The golden way of faith.
Video: The Story of David and Absalom
Video: The Mission and assignment.


Challenges to Faith

 A. The attack from atheism
  1. Friedrich Nietzsche
  2. Thomas Hobbes
  3. Ignatius Loyola, a dissent from atheism.
  4. How do their worldviews compare?
B. The challenge of science
  1. The Catholic view of science and faith
  2. History of the relationship between science and faith
  3. Limitations of the scientific method
C. Other contemporary challenges
  1. Scientism
  2. Materialism/consumerism
  3. We spolke of these very indirectly: Moral relativism, hedonism, nationalism/chauvinism
  4. Zanzig's "major societal values"



Jesus: Model of Faith, Model of Humanity


A. Knowledge of God
  1. Are there reasons to believe?
B. Knowledge of via the natural world
  1. Wiliam Paley's "Watch and the Watchmaker"
  2. C.S. Lewis's Moral Argument for the Existence of God
  3. The Golden Ratio
  4. The Anthropic Principle
  5. Kalam's argument
  6. Pascal's Wager
  7. Plato and Aquinas argument from the degrees of perfection
C. Knowledge of God via the human person
  1. argument from religous experience
  2. argument from conscience
  3. argument from naturallaw
Monika Hellwig's Finding God in All Things

D. Knowledge of God through Jesus
(and "what it means to be truly human")
  1. The Gospel of Mark
  2. Images of faith in the New Testament: in Jesus, The Good Samaritan, The Prodigal Son.
  3. Monika Hellwig's "Finding God in All things."


Reflection/discussion upon 20th Century giants of faith:
Karol Wojtyla, Deitrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King, Jr. , Malcom X, and Mother Teresa


Return to Summer Faith Home Page
Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1