DESCRIPTION:

In this course we will read excerpts from Calvin, secondary writings on Calvin, and more recent reformed theologians in conjunction with full-length works by three major American writers: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and William Faulkner. Students taking this course will learn basic techniques for reading theology and literature and will be able to make judicious cognitive and affective connections in considering the distinct methods of the individual disciplines of theology and literature as well as in relating one discipline to the other. Designed to help cultivate habits of mind and reading practices that will help in ministry, the course will address questions such as: How do these particular theologians and writers help enlarge and specify our understanding of providence, grace, nature, sin, community? How has Calvin (or perhaps more to the point, a particular kind of "Calvinism") been of particular relevance to the development of both theology and literature in the U.S.? How did Hawthorne, Melville and Faulkner each wrestle with the claims of Scripture, with American religious life, and with the influences of New England "Calvinism"? The skills developed in the process of this discussion will be transferable to other interdisciplinary studies, giving the pastor, the preacher, the artist, the caregiver, or the theologian greater ability for integrative thought.

We will read primary sources in theology and literature in order to understand and utilize these resources for various ministries but primarily in teaching, preaching, and caregiving. As we read and respond to classic texts in theology and literature, we will clarify the gifts offered in doctrine and fiction, deepen our understanding of the significance of the work and person of Jesus Christ, and extend our knowledge of the power, truth, beauty, and function of the Christian story and its intersection in literary fiction.

Faulkner, William. The Sound and the Fury. Vintage Books, 1991.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Penguin, 1993.

Kerr, Hugh T. Calvin's Institutes: A New Compend. Westminster/John Knox, 1989.

Melville, Herman. Billy Budd and Other Stories. Penguin Books, 1986.

Course Reader.

Auerbach, Erich. Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. Trans. Willard Trask. Princeton University Press, 2003.

Hunsinger, George. Disruptive Grace: Studies in the Theology of Karl Barth. Eerdmans, 2001.

Steiner, George. Real Presences. University of Chicago Press, 1991.

Woods, Ralph. The Comedy of Redemption: Christian Faith and Comic Vision in Four American Novelists. University of Notre Dame Press, 1988.

Attendance is required. Participation in discussion is expected (33%). One-page daily reflections (33%) and one 8-10 page paper (33%). Daily reflection papers will be submitted at the end of each week of the class meetings; the long paper will be August 12.

Elective. Meets the MACL in Integrative Studies requirement for an interdisciplinary course (IDPL).